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- All HBS Web
(962)
- News (51)
- Research (834)
- Events (1)
- Multimedia (1)
- Faculty Publications (382)
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- September 2015 (Revised September 2020)
- Case
Gap Inc.: Refashioning Performance Management
By: Joshua Margolis, Paul McKinnon and Michael Norris
In 2014, clothing retailer Gap Inc. rolled out a new performance management process for headquarters staff that did away with a traditional rating and ranking system. The new process involved informal monthly meetings between managers and their reports, and it more... View Details
Keywords: Performance Management; Retail; HR; Motivation and Incentives; Performance; Management; Human Resources; Performance Evaluation; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Retail Industry
Margolis, Joshua, Paul McKinnon, and Michael Norris. "Gap Inc.: Refashioning Performance Management." Harvard Business School Case 416-019, September 2015. (Revised September 2020.)
- March 2002
- Background Note
Incentive Strategy Within Organizations
By: Brian J. Hall
This case serves as a supplement to any course on incentive design and implementation. The analysis first locates incentive strategy within the larger structure of organizations and markets and then helps to define the central components and difficulties of incentive... View Details
Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Compensation and Benefits; Performance Evaluation; Strategy; Situation or Environment; Problems and Challenges
Hall, Brian J. "Incentive Strategy Within Organizations." Harvard Business School Background Note 902-131, March 2002.
- March 2012
- Article
The Incentive Bubble
By: Mihir Desai
The past three decades have seen American capitalism quietly transformed by a single, powerful idea—that financial markets are a suitable tool for measuring performance and structuring compensation. Stock instruments for managers, high-powered incentive contracts for... View Details
Keywords: Economic Systems; Financial Markets; Executive Compensation; Motivation and Incentives; Corporate Governance; Equality and Inequality; Human Capital; United States
Desai, Mihir. "The Incentive Bubble." Harvard Business Review 90, no. 3 (March 2012).
- December 2013 (Revised September 2017)
- Case
Atlanta Schools: Measures to Improve Performance
By: Robert Simons and Natalie Kindred
The widespread cheating scandal that rocked the Atlanta public school system in 2010 and 2011 illustrates how high-stakes performance pressure, without sufficient risk controls, can drive dangerous behavior. After becoming superintendent of the low-income and... View Details
Keywords: Atlanta; Test; Testing; Standardized Test; Standardized Testing; No Child Left Behind; NCLB; Cheating; Performance Pressure; Measurement; Incentives; Atlanta Public Schools; Management; Leadership; Ethics; Performance; Performance Evaluation; Performance Expectations; Risk Management; Education; Education Industry; United States; Georgia (state, US); Atlanta
Simons, Robert, and Natalie Kindred. "Atlanta Schools: Measures to Improve Performance." Harvard Business School Case 114-001, December 2013. (Revised September 2017.)
- 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
Ashraf, Nava, Oriana Bandiera, and Kelsey Jack. "No Margin, No Mission? A Field Experiment on Incentives for Public Services Delivery." (March 2014. Conditionally accepted, Journal of Public Economics.)
- February 2002 (Revised December 2003)
- Exercise
Incentives Game, The
By: Jason R. Barro, Brian J. Hall and Jonathan Lim
This exercise provides an opportunity to gain insight about designing, negotiating, and responding to incentives. The setting is investment management. A class is divided into a certain number of investment firms. Each company has one CEO and begins with four portfolio... View Details
Barro, Jason R., Brian J. Hall, and Jonathan Lim. "Incentives Game, The." Harvard Business School Exercise 902-197, February 2002. (Revised December 2003.)
- 2024
- Working Paper
Corporate Culture Homogeneity and Top Executive Incentive Design: Evidence from CEO Compensation Contracts
By: Dennis Campbell, Ruidi Shang and Zhifang Zhang
We examine how corporate cultures characterized by high degrees of homogeneity in the underlying values and beliefs of organizational members are related to the design of CEO incentive compensation contracts. We argue that culture homogeneity within firms lowers... View Details
Keywords: Corporate Culture; Compensation Design; Accounting; Management Control; Incentive Systems; Organizational Culture; Job Design and Levels; Governance; Executive Compensation; Motivation and Incentives
Campbell, Dennis, Ruidi Shang, and Zhifang Zhang. "Corporate Culture Homogeneity and Top Executive Incentive Design: Evidence from CEO Compensation Contracts." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 24-054, February 2024.
- April 2019
- Article
Incentives for Public Goods Inside Organizations: Field Experimental Evidence
By: Andrea Blasco, Olivia S. Jung, Karim R. Lakhani and Michael Menietti
Understanding why employees go the extra mile at work is a key problem for many organizations. We conduct a field experiment at a medical organization to study motivations for employees to submit project proposals for organizational improvement. In total, we analyze... View Details
Keywords: Field Experiment; Innovation; Contest; Incentives; Free-rider Problem; Healthcare Organizations; Employees; Motivation and Incentives; Innovation and Invention; Organizations; Performance Improvement; Perspective
Blasco, Andrea, Olivia S. Jung, Karim R. Lakhani, and Michael Menietti. "Incentives for Public Goods Inside Organizations: Field Experimental Evidence." Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 160 (April 2019): 214–229.
- January 1990 (Revised November 1990)
- Background Note
Note on Compensation and Incentive Systems
Provides a brief analysis of issues in the design of an effective compensation system, with particular emphasis on incentives. Provides an analytic framework for thinking about compensation. Topics covered include the composition of the pay package, fringe benefits,... View Details
Gibbs, Michael J. "Note on Compensation and Incentive Systems." Harvard Business School Background Note 490-048, January 1990. (Revised November 1990.)
- March 1997
- Article
Incentives and Cooperation: The Joint Effects of Task and Reward Interdependence on Group Performance
By: George P. Baker and Ruth Wageman
Baker, George P., and Ruth Wageman. "Incentives and Cooperation: The Joint Effects of Task and Reward Interdependence on Group Performance." Journal of Organizational Behavior 18, no. 2 (March 1997).
- 13 Aug 2012
- Research & Ideas
When Good Incentives Lead to Bad Decisions
readily be reclaimed by investors in the firm who lost money." In a new research paper, coauthored with World Bank economists Martin Kanz and Leora Klapper, Cole explores how various performance View Details
- Article
Trust and Incentives in Agency
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Daniel F Spulber
Contracts between a principal and an agent are not formed in a vacuum. Although formal contracts between a principal and an agent contain explicit incentives for performance, the relationship between a principal and an agent also involves implicit incentives. Three... View Details
Keywords: Trust; Motivation and Incentives; Agency Theory; Contracts; Market Transactions; Performance; Relationships; Societal Protocols; Legal Liability; Cost
Casadesus-Masanell, Ramon, and Daniel F Spulber. "Trust and Incentives in Agency." Southern California Interdisciplinary Law Journal 15, no. 1 (Fall 2005): 45–104.
- 2018
- Working Paper
Managing Through Organizational Change: Employee Alignment in the Presence of Unexpected Career Concerns
By: Ohchan Kwon and Jee-Eun Shin
This study examines performance consequences due to unexpected career concerns – layoff risks due to institutional reasons. Exploiting a company-wide announcement of a merger decision by management as a trigger event for unexpected career concerns, we examine employee... View Details
- 2015
- Working Paper
Do People Who Care About Others Cooperate More? Experimental Evidence from Relative Incentive Pay
By: Pablo Hernandez, Dylan B. Minor and Dana Sisak
We experimentally study ways in which the social preferences of individuals and groups affect performance when faced with relative incentives. We also identify the mediating role that communication and leadership play in generating these effects. We find... View Details
Keywords: Social Preferences; Relative Performance; Collusion; Motivation and Incentives; Leadership; Attitudes; Performance
Hernandez, Pablo, Dylan B. Minor, and Dana Sisak. "Do People Who Care About Others Cooperate More? Experimental Evidence from Relative Incentive Pay." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 16-040, October 2015.
- February 1999 (Revised October 1999)
- Background Note
Note on Physician Compensation and Financial Incentives
By: Richard M.J. Bohmer and Melanie M Harshbarger
A review of the use and effectiveness of financial incentives in changing physician behavior. View Details
Keywords: Change; Finance; Compensation and Benefits; Performance Effectiveness; Behavior; Motivation and Incentives
Bohmer, Richard M.J., and Melanie M Harshbarger. "Note on Physician Compensation and Financial Incentives." Harvard Business School Background Note 699-151, February 1999. (Revised October 1999.)
- May 2013
- Article
The Stock Selection and Performance of Buy-Side Analysts
Prior research on equity analysts focuses almost exclusively on those employed by sell-side investment banks and brokerage houses. Yet investment firms undertake their own buy-side research and their analysts face different stock selection and recommendation incentives... View Details
Keywords: Buy-side Analysts; Sell-side Analysts; Stock Recommendations; Recommendation Optimism; Recommendation Performance; Investment Recommendations; Conflicts Of Interest; Financial Markets; Financial Institutions; Financial Services Industry; United States
Groysberg, Boris, Paul Healy, George Serafeim, and Devin Shanthikumar. "The Stock Selection and Performance of Buy-Side Analysts." Management Science 59, no. 5 (May 2013): 1062–1075.
- April 2002
- Article
Internal Capital Markets and Firm-Level Compensation Incentives for Division Managers
By: Julie Wulf
Do multidivisional firms structure compensation contracts for division managers to mitigate incentive problems in their internal capital markets? I find evidence that compensation and investment incentives are substitutes: firms providing a stronger link to firm... View Details
Keywords: Capital Markets; Executive Compensation; Capital Budgeting; Motivation and Incentives; Profit; Decisions; Resource Allocation; Performance; Investment; Contracts
Wulf, Julie. "Internal Capital Markets and Firm-Level Compensation Incentives for Division Managers." Journal of Labor Economics 20, no. 2 (April 2002): S219–S262.
- 09 Jun 2003
- Research & Ideas
Incentives and Operational Excellence
was rented out and at what price. Rentrak monitored the scanner data and performed audits and spot checks to monitor compliance with the revenue-sharing contracts. Fifty years ago, Narayanan added, the movie industry did almost the same... View Details
Keywords: by Martha Lagace
- October 2004 (Revised October 2005)
- Case
ORIX KK: Incentives in Japan
In the context of Japan's struggling economy of the 1990s, ORIX, a leading Japanese financial services company, implemented a new performance evaluation and compensation system. At the time, many higher-paying western firms were entering the Japanese market and... View Details
Keywords: Performance Evaluation; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Compensation and Benefits; Financial Services Industry; Japan
Beaulieu, Nancy D., and Aaron Zimmerman. "ORIX KK: Incentives in Japan." Harvard Business School Case 905-013, October 2004. (Revised October 2005.)
- April 2009
- Case
Performance Management at Intermountain Healthcare
By: Richard M.J. Bohmer and Alexander Romney
Intermountain Healthcare is a 21-hospital integrated delivery system serving Utah and southern Idaho that is nationally recognized for its highly structured approach to managing the quality of clinical care. This case describes Intermountain's system for improving... View Details
Keywords: Financial Strategy; Health Care and Treatment; Standards; Service Delivery; Outcome or Result; Motivation and Incentives; Health Industry; Idaho; Utah
Bohmer, Richard M.J., and Alexander Romney. "Performance Management at Intermountain Healthcare." Harvard Business School Case 609-103, April 2009.