Financial Incentives - Publications - Faculty & Research

06 May 2021
HBS Case

How Four Women Made Miami More Equitable for Startups

As CEO of Caribu, Tuchman set about to expand its online library of books and games and became one of the few Latina founders with a technology-based growth company. Miami native Felecia Hatcher held corporate jobs in technology until the global View Details

Keywords: by Carolyn DiPaolo

11 Oct 2016
First Look

October 11, 2016

physicians’ behavior and medical costs. This paper examines whether these reforms also affect incentives to develop new technologies. We find that, on average, laws that limit the liability exposure of healthcare providers are associated... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

November 2005 (Revised December 2016)
Case

Bally Total Fitness (A): The Rise, 1962–2004

By: John R. Wells, Elizabeth A. Raabe and Gabriel Ellsworth

From a single, modest club in 1962, Bally Total Fitness had grown to become—in management’s words—the “largest and only nationwide commercial operator of fitness centers” in the United States in 2004. Bally had faced its share of challenges, but the last couple of... View Details

Keywords: Bally Total Fitness; Fitness; Gyms; Health Clubs; Chain; Securities And Exchange Commission; Paul Toback; Weight Loss; Exercise; Contracts; Personal Training; Retention; Accounting; Accounting Audits; Accrual Accounting; Finance; Advertising; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; For-Profit Firms; Customers; Customer Satisfaction; Public Equity; Financing and Loans; Revenue; Revenue Recognition; Geographic Scope; Multinational Firms and Management; Health; Nutrition; Business History; Lawsuits and Litigation; Management; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing; Operations; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Public Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business Strategy; Competition; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Segmentation; Trends; Cost Management; Profit; Growth and Development; Leadership Style; Five Forces Framework; Private Ownership; Opportunities; Motivation and Incentives; Competitive Strategy; Health Industry; United States; Illinois; Chicago

Citation

Educators

Purchase

03 May 2010
Research & Ideas

What Is the Future of MBA Education?

I am also looking at how incentive systems can be designed to promote long-run performance. Excerpt From rethinking The Mba: Business Education At A Crossroads By Srikant M. Datar, David A. Garvin, and Patrick G. Cullen Voices from the... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Education

08 Sep 2008
HBS Case

The Value of Environmental Activists

There are many methods, most financial, to measure the success of companies in meeting goals. But the question becomes a lot harder at Harvard Business School when MBAs are challenged to measure the efforts of environmental organizations like Greenpeace and the World... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Energy; Utilities

14 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Restarting Under Uncertainty: Managerial Experiences from Around the World

considered essential? How could employees’ safety be guaranteed? And, most recently, how can businesses preserve financial viability in the face of rapidly declining demand for products and services? The experiences we collected show... View Details

Keywords: by Raffaella Sadun, Andrea Bertoni, Alexia Delfino, Giovanni Fassio, and Mariapaola Testa

08 Sep 2003
Research & Ideas

A Bold Proposal for Investment Reform

Stock exchanges as auditors? The stock exchanges should be responsible for hiring and firing auditors, negotiating their fees, and overseeing the outcomes of the audits themselves, say Healy and Palepu. As they see it, the exchanges have a strong View Details

Keywords: by Ann Cullen; Financial Services

03 Apr 2006
Research & Ideas

The Competitive Advantage of Global Finance

incorporate other organizational objectives and managerial interests. For example, tax optimization can be a powerful tool but can also create performance evaluation and incentive problems. Many financial... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Financial Services

19 Dec 2018
Sharpening Your Skills

New Year, New Habits

unpopular preventive health behavior: handwashing with soap. The study finds that frontloading both financial and social incentives facilitates habituation. Incentives, Peer Pressure, and Behavior... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

28 Nov 2012
What Do You Think?

Should Pay-for-Performance Compensation be Replaced?

compensation from financial performance is not an answer. At issue is the short-term/long-term balance of stockholder interests." Srinivasan suggested that a program should contain both. Phillip Gelman added, "If managers were... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

05 Jul 2006
Research & Ideas

Reinventing the Dowdy Savings Bond

months. Marketing for the program was also eliminated. While all banks sell bonds, the $.50 to $.85 they earn for each transaction gives them little financial incentive to make the process easy for... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Financial Services; Financial Services

14 Jun 2004
Research & Ideas

The Big Money for Big Projects

social returns when they succeed. The problem, says Esty, is that many of the largest products have hit financial turbulence. Esty, whose new book Modern Project Finance: A Casebook, was published recently, teaches the "Large-Scale... View Details

Keywords: by Ann Cullen; Financial Services

30 Jan 2012
Research & Ideas

Measuring the Efficacy of the World’s Managers

highest overall management scores in retail, health care, and manufacturing. But US schools scored comparatively lower, coming in fourth behind the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Canada. "US schools in particular tend to be particularly poor at View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

31 Aug 2009
Research & Ideas

Why Competition May Not Improve Credit Rating Agencies

In the run-up to the global financial crisis, credit rating agencies gave high marks to such risky financial vehicles as collateralized debt obligations, which few people understood. It has been argued that... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Financial Services

21 Jan 2013
Research & Ideas

Altruistic Capital: Harnessing Your Employees’ Intrinsic Goodwill

Measuring Social Impact Historically, economists and firms alike have banked on the theory that workers are motivated by earning financial incentives and boosting revenues. And in designing development... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

13 Aug 2024
Op-Ed

Can AI Save Physicians from Burnout?

revenue and physician compensation. Unfortunately, attempting to save time with an AI tool in taking visit notes may actually translate into increased patient loads. If volume-driven financial incentives... View Details

Keywords: by Susanna Gallani, Lidia Moura, and Katie Sonnefeldt; Health

20 Aug 2012
Research & Ideas

The Acquirers

private equity and public companies "changes the ownership structure of assets and alters the incentives and governance mechanisms that surround the economic engine of our economy." During a recent interview in his Rock Center... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Financial Services

19 Sep 2011
Research & Ideas

Doomsday Coming for Catastrophic Risk Insurers?

Kenneth A. Froot spends more time thinking about natural disasters than the average business school professor. In addition to the rise and fall of the Dow and the long-term implications of the financial crisis in Greece, he has natural... View Details

Keywords: by Maggie Starvish; Financial Services

December 2024
Article

Are Bankruptcy Professional Fees Excessively High?

By: Samuel Antill

Chapter 7 is the most popular bankruptcy system for U.S. firms and individuals. Chapter 7 professional fees are substantial. Theoretically, high fees might be an unavoidable cost of incentivizing professionals. I test this empirically. I study trustees, the most... View Details

Keywords: Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Motivation and Incentives; Policy