Publications

August 2006 (Revised May 2007)
Case

Management Levels at Staples (A): Company and Organization

By: David A. Garvin and Lynne Levesque

One of six cases that describe the roles and responsibilities of managers at each of the hierarchical levels of management within the U.S. Stores business unit of Staples, the world's largest office supply company. Together, the cases form a complete integrated... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Leadership; Management Practices and Processes; Managerial Roles; Operations; Performance Effectiveness; Strategic Planning; Perspective; Retail Industry

December 2007
Article

Applying Modern Risk Management to Equity and Credit Analysis

By: Robert C. Merton

Traditional conventions of accounting and actuarial science distort the valuation of capital risk in corporations with pension plans because under these conventions, pension assets and liabilities are not included in balance sheet calculations. The modern risk... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Valuation; Financial Reporting; Decision Making; Credit; Financial Statements; Capital; Equity; Compensation and Benefits

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21 Feb 2024
Blog Post

Hiring at HBS: How Summer Interns Make an Impact at Bridges Fund Management

offers equal benefits for the student and company. The Bridges Fund Management Recruiting Process A key way Bridges connects with prospective MBA interns is through the Turner MBA Impact Investing Network & Training (MIINT)... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital / Private Equity

25 Feb 2020
News

The Influence of Geography on Work and Innovation

considerations,” Choudhury says. If workers have difficulty obtaining visas or face significant hurdles to earning a license to work in their fields of expertise in another country, companies can’t benefit from knowledge transfer and... View Details

Keywords: April White

16 Oct 2019
Research & Ideas

Read Our Most Popular Stories of the Quarter

most popular stories during the quarter. At the Top of the Trending List How Companies Benefit When Employees Work RemotelyWork from anywhere policies have advanced from a rare occurrence for companies to a strategic advantage. (31,082... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

01 Dec 2017
News

In Service of Others

discussions,” observes Chad Losee (MBA 2013), managing director of MBA Admissions and Financial Aid. “Veterans are very aware of the fact that we all benefit from this nation—its resources, its history, the things that it hands down to... View Details

18 Jun 2014
News

Robert (MBA 1964) and Lynn Burt

higher after-tax income, and we benefited from an income tax write-off this year.” Giving back to HBS is a priority for Burt. “If we want HBS to remain at the top, we have to invest in the school that has helped us get where we are.”... View Details

01 Mar 2003
News

Service with a Smile

unsatisfied, they need to have a means of communicating their emotions.” Interestingly, when employees are asked to amplify certain positive emotions — to deliver a product with a smile, for instance — their job satisfaction increases. “Display rules that call for... View Details

Keywords: Laura Morgan Roberts; Stephane Cote; Publishing Industries (except Internet); Information

March 1980 (Revised February 1987)
Case

Sweco, Inc. (A)

By: Michael E. Porter and George S. Yip

Describes Sweco's decision about whether to enter the mud-processing equipment industry (used in oil well drilling). This is an internal entry decision, and the case describes Sweco's existing businesses as well as the mud-processing industry and competitors. The case... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Decisions; Forecasting and Prediction; Cost; Analytics and Data Science; Market Entry and Exit; Competition

September 2012 (Revised January 2013)
Case

SMARTBITES (A)

By: Michael Roberts, Jeronimo Silva and Amar Bhide

The case describes a Turkish brother-sister team who are evaluating the option of acquiring and operating a franchise of a US bakery/cafe in Turkey. They are comparing this option to that of simply starting a similar business. View Details

Keywords: Franchising; Start-up; Franchise Ownership; Family Ownership; Business Startups; Cost vs Benefits; Multinational Firms and Management; Food and Beverage Industry; Retail Industry; Turkey; United States

July 2010 (Revised February 2011)
Supplement

Eden McCallum: A Network-Based Consulting Firm (B)

By: Heidi K. Gardner and Erin McFee

To weather the 2009 financial crisis, Eden McCallum's cofounders must renegotiate partners' compensation, attract independent consultants to meet different client demands, and reassure their Advisory Board that their network-based consulting model remains sound. The... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Decision Choices and Conditions; Financial Crisis; Entrepreneurship; Governing and Advisory Boards; Compensation and Benefits; Partners and Partnerships; Consulting Industry

December 2021
Article

Employee Responses to Compensation Changes: Evidence from a Sales Firm

By: Jason Sandvik, Richard Saouma, Nathan Seegert and Christopher Stanton

What are the long-term consequences of compensation changes? Using data from an inbound sales call center, we study employee responses to a compensation change that ultimately reduced take-home pay by 7% for the average affected worker. The change caused a significant... View Details

Keywords: Employees; Wages; Compensation and Benefits; Change; Performance; Resignation and Termination; Retention; Analysis

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October 2017 (Revised March 2020)
Case

Medicetra Medtech Company, Inc.

By: Doug J. Chung

Medicetra MedTech Company is a dental equipment distributor, and senior management is deciding whether to implement a new incentive compensation program for the sales force. For many years, Medicetra had paid salespeople only a fixed salary. Although the current plan... View Details

Keywords: Sales Compensation; Sales Force Retention; Employee Fairness; Salesforce Management; Compensation and Benefits; Motivation and Incentives; Retention; Fairness; Performance Improvement

June 2016
Article

Corporate Governance and Executive Compensation for Corporate Social Responsibility

By: Bryan Hong, Zhichuan (Frank) Li and Dylan B. Minor

We link the corporate governance literature in financial economics to the agency cost perspective of corporate social responsibility (CSR) to derive theoretical predictions about the relationship between corporate governance and the existence of executive compensation... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility; Incentives For CSR; Non-financial Performance Measures; Agency Costs; Board Independence; Institutional Holdings; Managerial Power; Motivation and Incentives; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Executive Compensation; Corporate Governance

1998
Working Paper

CEO Incentives and Firm Size

By: Brian Hall and George P. Baker

What determines CEO incentives? A confusion exists among both academics and practitioners about how to measure the strength of CEO incentives, and how to reconcile the enormous differences in pay sensitivities between executives in large and small firms. We show that... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Motivation and Incentives; Executive Compensation; Size; Management Systems

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1989
Chapter

Stakeholder Welfare, Managerial Ethics, and Management Buyouts

By: L. S. Paine and Robert F. Bruner

Keywords: Executive Compensation; Ethics; Conflict of Interests; Business and Stakeholder Relations