Publications

SSRN

2023
Working Paper

When Does Gamified Training Improve Performance? The Roles of Office and Leader Engagement

By: Ryan W. Buell, Wei Cai and Tatiana Sandino

Gamified training is a novel management control system in which companies use gamification techniques to engage and motivate employees to learn. This study empirically examines the performance consequences of gamified training using data from a natural field... View Details

Keywords: Gamified Training; Management Control Systems; Employee Engagement; Employees; Learning; Training; Motivation and Incentives; Performance

SSRN

June 2023 (Revised August 2023)
Background Note

Subscription Models: Recurring Revenues for Lasting Growth

By: Elie Ofek and Amy Konary

This note offers a comprehensive exposition to subscription revenue models and aims to explain their recent rise. It covers the advantages to firms of employing a subscription-based approach to monetization (as opposed to “one-off” upfront payment), as well as the... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Revenue; Product Design

February 2022
Case

Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi (Abridged)

By: Linda A. Hill and Emily Tedards

In 2006, the Cleveland Clinic and Mubadala Investment Company partnered with a bold ambition to deliver world class healthcare in the United Arab Emirates. In 2015, after nearly a decade of planning and construction, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi opened its doors. By... View Details

Keywords: Organization Behavior; Culture; Alignment; Organizational Effectiveness; Purpose; Impact; Leadership Development; Diversity; Collaboration; Co-creation; Learning Organizations; Empowerment; Teams; Team Dynamics; Teamwork; Team Effectiveness; Trust; Talent; Talent Development And Retention; Psychological Safety; Organizational Evolution; Coaching; Board; Analytics; Innovation; Data; Data Visualization; Digital Technology; Digital; Customer Experience; Experimentation; Change Management; Data-driven Decision-making; Debates; Ecosystem; Partnership; Telemedicine; Sustainability; Global Organizations; Local; Hospital; Healthcare; United Arab Emirates; Health Care and Treatment; Partners and Partnerships; Globalization; Quality; Organizational Culture; Mission and Purpose; Innovation and Management; Information Technology; Joint Ventures; Leadership; Performance Effectiveness; Abu Dhabi; United Arab Emirates

December 1997 (Revised October 2008)
Case

Wolfgang Keller at Konigsbrau-TAK (A)

By: John J. Gabarro

Wolfgang Keller, manager of the Ukrainian subsidiary of a German beer company, faces a managerial dilemma. His subordinate, Dmitri Brodsky, is a talented and experienced commercial director who is not meeting his goals expediently and often requires considerable... View Details

Keywords: Business Subsidiaries; Performance Evaluation; Management Style; Managerial Roles; Behavior; Conflict Management; Situation or Environment; Failure; Employee Relationship Management; Food and Beverage Industry; Ukraine; Germany

2015
Working Paper

Toxic Workers

By: Michael Housman and Dylan Minor

While there has been a strong focus in past research on discovering and developing top performers in the workplace, less attention has been paid to the question of how to manage those workers on the opposite side of the spectrum: those who are harmful to organizational... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Human Resource Management; Misconduct; Worker Productivity; Superstar; Ethics; Performance Productivity; Personal Characteristics; Employees

SSRN

Article

Specialization and Success: Evidence from Venture Capital

By: Paul A. Gompers, Anna Kovner and Josh Lerner

This paper examines how organizational structure affects behavior and outcomes, studying the performance of different types of venture capital organizations. We find a strong positive relationship between the degree of specialization by individual venture capitalists... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Venture Capital; Organizational Structure; Outcome or Result; Performance Effectiveness; Behavior; Financial Services Industry

Find at Harvard

Lauren Rice

Lauren is a doctoral student in the Business Economics program. Her research interests include finance, development economics, health economics, and industrial organization. He graduated from Harvard College in 2020, where he studied Economics and... View Details

March 2006 (Revised January 2011)
Case

CEMEX: Rewarding the Egyptian Retailers

CEMEX has pursued an aggressive decommoditization strategy focused on its relationship with small Egyptian retailers. In particular, the strategic role and effectiveness of the Rewards Program, a tournament that rewarded the sales performance of the retailers, was... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Performance Improvement; Sales; Motivation and Incentives; Construction Industry; Egypt

May 2011
Article

The Growing Power of Non-financial Reports

By: Ioannis Ioannou and George Serafeim

We are exploring the value of forcing corporations to issue sustainability reports, which provide information about corporate performance in terms of social, environmental and governance issues. In a breakthrough study they asked, what is the effect of mandatory... View Details

Keywords: Value; Reports; Performance; Management Practices and Processes; Globalization; Power and Influence; Natural Environment; Governance; Social Issues

14 Sep 2021
News

The Surprising Power of Daily Rituals

07 Jan 2020
News

Can Capitalism Be Fixed by Making Companies More Just?

September 2014 (Revised February 2017)
Case

Belk: Towards Exceptional Scheduling

By: Ethan Bernstein, Saravanan Kesavan, Bradley Staats and Luke Hassall

With 24,000 staff and over 300 stores, Belk Inc. sought to replace its entirely manual labor scheduling system with an automated software solution from Reflexis. Belk hoped the upgrade would simplify scheduling, reduce time employees spent in non-customer-facing roles,... View Details

April 1999 (Revised December 2003)
Case

Al Dunlap at Sunbeam

By: Brian J. Hall, Rakesh Khurana and Carleen Madigan

Al Dunlap was one of the best-known corporate turnaround artists of the 1990s. In 1996, he was hired at Sunbeam to effect a restructuring, but was fired almost two years later when the company's financial performance and stock price began to decline. Many of the... View Details

Keywords: Business and Shareholder Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Restructuring; Stock Shares; Performance Evaluation; Leadership Style; Resignation and Termination; Motivation and Incentives; Executive Compensation; Outcome or Result; Consumer Products Industry; United States

2014
Other Unpublished Work

No Margin, No Mission? A Field Experiment on Incentives for Public Services Delivery

By: Nava Ashraf, Oriana Bandiera and Kelsey Jack

A substantial body of research investigates the effect of pay for performance in firms, yet less is known about the effect of non-financial rewards, especially in organizations that hire individuals to perform tasks with positive social spillovers. We conduct a field... View Details

Keywords: Incentives; Non-monetary Rewards; Intrinsic Motivation; Mission and Purpose; Social Enterprise; Motivation and Incentives

03 Feb 2015
News

Jury out on how win might affect Patriots brand

May 2010 (Revised January 2012)
Case

The Robin Hood Foundation

By: Alnoor Ebrahim and Cathy Ross

Created by hedge fund and financial managers, the Robin Hood Foundation fights poverty through grants to nonprofit organizations. As the global financial crisis continues to impact the poor disproportionately, the Foundation needs to ensure that its funds are being... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Organizations; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Poverty; Organizational Design; Performance Effectiveness; Financial Crisis; Programs; Measurement and Metrics

08 May 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Corporate and Integrated Reporting: A Functional Perspective

Keywords: by Robert Eccles & George Serafeim

26 Mar 2024
Research & Ideas

How Humans Outshine AI in Adapting to Change

You’ve probably never thought about all the split-second adjustments you make in a single day to perform different tasks. Wake up in a hotel room, walk into a library, sit behind the wheel of a car, or swipe up to access your phone apps.... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Technology; Information Technology

2021
Working Paper

Multiple Team Membership, Turnover, and On-Time Delivery: Evidence from Construction Services

By: Hise O. Gibson, Bradely R. Staats and Ananth Raman

Firms who want to compete in dynamic markets are finding that they must build more agile operations to ensure success. One way for a firm to increase organizational agility is to allocate employees to multiple project teams, simultaneously—a practice known as multiple... View Details

Keywords: Multiple Team Membership; Turnover; Fluid Teams; Project Management; Groups and Teams; Projects; Management; Performance