Publications

2022
Working Paper

Is Hybrid Work the Best of Both Worlds? Evidence from a Field Experiment

By: Prithwiraj Choudhury, Tarun Khanna, Christos A. Makridis and Kyle Schirmann

Hybrid work is emerging as a novel form of organizing work globally. This paper reports causal evidence on how the extent of hybrid work—the number of days worked from home relative to days worked from the office—affects work outcomes. Collaborating with an... View Details

Keywords: Hybrid Work; Remote Work; Work-from-home; Field Experiment; Employees; Geographic Location; Performance; Work-Life Balance

SSRN

March 25, 2022
Article

Leading an Exhausted Workforce

By: Robin Abrahams and Boris Groysberg

Everyone is exhausted. People are coping with collective grief and trauma on a global scale, which means leaders have to learn and exercise new skills. The authors share steps you can take to foster healthy coping mechanisms and discourage unhealthy ones; help ward off... View Details

Keywords: Burnout; Workplace; Exhaustion; Emotions; Employees; Well-being

2022
Article

The Great Resignation Didn't Start with the Pandemic

By: Joseph B. Fuller and William R. Kerr

COVID-19 spurred on the Great Resignation of 2021, during which record numbers of employees voluntarily quit their jobs. But what we are living through is not just short-term turbulence provoked by the pandemic. Instead, it’s the continuation of a trend of rising quit... View Details

Keywords: Quit Rate; Labor Market; Great Resignation; Jobs and Positions; Employees; Resignation and Termination; Health Pandemics

March 2022
Case

The Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program: 2009-2021

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger and Julia Kelley

In December 2021, more than a decade after its founding, Goldman Sachs’s 10,000 Small Businesses program was still going strong — and the firm now needed to evaluate potential program modifications to reach a wider group of small business owners. Launched in the... View Details

March 2022 (Revised September 2022)
Case

Can Papaya Global Keep Scaling Fast?

By: Daniel Isenberg and William R. Kerr

Companies that employ people all around the world also need to pay those people. That can be an exceedingly complex task, though - defining terms of employment, complying with global regulations, and working with huge quantities of data, among other obstacles,... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Scaling And Growth; Job Design and Levels; Compensation and Benefits; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Global Range

2022
Working Paper

Do Startups Benefit from Their Investors' Reputation? Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment

By: Shai Benjamin Bernstein, Kunal Mehta, Richard Townsend and Ting Xu

We analyze a field experiment conducted on AngelList Talent, a large online search platform for startup jobs. In the experiment, AngelList randomly informed job seekers of whether a startup was funded by a top-tier investor and/or was funded recently. We find that the... View Details

Keywords: Startup Labor Market; Investors; Randomized Field Experiment; Certification Effect; Venture Capital; Business Startups; Human Capital; Job Search; Reputation

SSRN

March 2022 (Revised October 2022)
Case

Transforming Kimball International, Inc. (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Will Hurwitz

Kimball International, Inc. (KII), led by CEO Kristie Juster, and its board of directors, chaired by Kim Ryan, faced critical questions about KII’s future in the spring of 2021. Two years earlier, the board had appointed Juster as the new CEO of KII, a publicly traded,... View Details

March 2022
Supplement

Transforming Kimball International, Inc. (B)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Will Hurwitz

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

March 2022 (Revised April 2022)
Teaching Note

France Télécom (A), (B), and (C)

By: Ashley Whillans

This case series discusses the evolution of France Télécom (now Orange) from a national telephone monopoly to a private company. During this process, the company faced numerous challenges including the entry of new competition from other countries and a workforce that... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Compensation and Benefits; Employee Relationship Management; Business Organization; Well-being; Communications Industry; Telecommunications Industry; France

March 2022
Module Note

A Behavioral Science Perspective on Motivation and Incentives

By: John Beshears and Ashley Whillans

This module note for instructors describes a module that integrates insights from the behavioral science of motivation into the economic analysis of incentive systems. View Details

Keywords: Motivation; Incentives; Behavioral Science; Behavioral Economics; Motivation and Incentives; Economics; Analysis; Human Resources

March 8, 2022
Article

Women Can’t Go Back to the Pre-Pandemic Status Quo

By: Colleen Ammerman and Boris Groysberg

Survey data collected in 2018 and 2019 from Harvard Business School graduates revealed that for women—and especially women of color—well-being at work was suffering long before the pandemic. While 17% of all respondents said that they often or very often experienced... View Details

Keywords: Women; Burnout; Gender; Race; Resignation and Termination; Well-being; Employees

March 2022
Case

Talent@Tencent

By: Tarun Khanna, Shu Lin and Nancy Hua Dai

On November 11, 2016, Xi Dan, Senior Vice President of Tencent, and Ma Yongwu, Dean of Tencent Academy, were discussing how Tencent could develop new capabilities to sustain its growth miracle and entry into new technologies, expansion into B2B businesses, and... View Details

Keywords: B2B; Talent and Talent Management; Training; Emerging Markets; Entrepreneurship; Globalization; Human Resources; Innovation and Management; Leadership Development; Business Strategy; Information Technology; Internet and the Web; China

March 2022 (Revised April 2023)
Case

Pittsburgh: A Successful City?

By: Karen Mills, Caroline Elkins, Vikram Gandhi, Gabriella Elanbeck and Zeke Gillman

Pittsburgh, PA, was once the crown jewel of American heavy industry. During the 19th and 20th centuries, the city was an undisputed leader in steel production, boasting some of the largest companies and wealthiest individuals in the world. Its abundance of... View Details

Keywords: Economic And Social Disparities; Economic Development; Local Economic Development; Contextual Intelligence; Contextual Knowledge; Context; City Growth; City Innovation; City Leadership; Pittsburgh; Local Government; Local Stakeholders; Business And Community; Business And Community Relations; Community Engagement; Community Relations; Cross-sector Collaboration; Innovation; Innovation Economy; Innovation Clusters; Innovation Ecosystems; Shared Prosperity; Equality Of Opportunity; Equity; Inclusion; Business And Government; Business ＆ Government Relations; Business And Government Relations; Business And Society; Neighborhoods; Race And Ethnicity; Innovation ＆ Entrepreneurship; Diversity; Ethnicity; Race; Household; Income; Economic Growth; Economic Sectors; Economics; Local Range; Urban Development; Urban Scope; City; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Government and Politics; Government Administration; Growth and Development; History; Leadership; Goals and Objectives; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Society; Civil Society or Community; Culture; Human Needs; Public Opinion; Public Sector; Social Issues; Poverty; Equality and Inequality; Manufacturing Industry; Steel Industry; Education Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Technology Industry; United States; Pittsburgh; Pennsylvania

March 2022
Teaching Note

Supreme: Remaining Cool While Pursuing Growth

By: Jill Avery and Sandrine Crener

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 522-006. Following VF Corporation’s acquisition of cult streetwear brand Supreme, consumers and industry pundits were nervous that becoming part of a large, public corporation would put an end to Supreme’s slow and careful growth... View Details

Keywords: Cultural Branding; Marketing; Brands and Branding; Luxury; Growth Management; Consumer Products Industry; Fashion Industry; Retail Industry; United States

March 2022 (Revised May 2022)
Case

Winning Business at Russell Reynolds (A)

By: Ethan Bernstein and Cara Mazzucco

In an effort to make compensation drive collaboration, Russell Reynolds Associates’ (RRA) CEO Clarke Murphy sought to re-engineer the bonus system for his executive search consultants in 2016. As his HR analytics guru, Kelly Smith, points out, that risks upsetting–and... View Details

March 2022
Supplement

Winning Business at Russell Reynolds (B)

By: Ethan Bernstein and Cara Mazzucco

In an effort to make compensation drive collaboration, Russell Reynolds Associates’ (RRA) CEO Clarke Murphy sought to re-engineer the bonus system for his executive search consultants in 2016. As his HR analytics guru, Kelly Smith, points out, that risks upsetting–and... View Details

March 2022
Article

Developing Strategic Human Resource Theory and Making a Difference: An Action Science Perspective

By: Michael Beer

Find at Harvard

March 2022
Teaching Note

Farfetch: Digital Transformation for Luxury Brands

By: Jill Avery and Sunil Gupta

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 522-051. Farfetch, a global luxury technology platform and digital marketplace had been surfing the wave of digital transformation in the luxury fashion industry since 2008. While the company’s stock price and market valuation had... View Details

Keywords: Brand Management; Retailing; Two Sided Markets; SaaS; Online Marketing; Marketing; Marketing Channels; Brands and Branding; Luxury; Digital Transformation; E-commerce; Digital Marketing; Retail Industry; Fashion Industry; London; United Kingdom; Portugal

2023
Working Paper

Fintech to the (Worker) Rescue: Access to Earned Wages, Financial Health and Employee Turnover

By: Jose Murillo, Boris Vallée and Dolly Yu

Using novel data from a Mexican FinTech firm, we study the usage by workers of earned wages access, an innovative financial service offered by firms to their employees as a benefit. We find usage to be significant and concentrated towards the end of the pay cycle. We... View Details

Keywords: Fintech; Present Bias; Earned Wage Access; Wages; Employees; Retention; Well-being; Mexico