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14 Dec 2010
Op-Ed

Tax US Companies to Spur Spending

been a saving grace in ensuring that the financial crisis did not cause further damage to the economy. With traditional monetary and fiscal policy instruments seemingly exhausted, the mobilization of that cash hoard can prove critical to... View Details

Keywords: by Mihir A. Desai

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

14 Sep 2010
First Look

First Look: September 14, 2010

the economics, management control, and organizational behavior literatures predict that when it is difficult to align incentives by contracting on output, aligning preferences via employee selection may provide a useful alternative. This... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

21 Aug 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, August 21, 2018

the incentives of brokers, and brokers price discriminate based on a consumer's level of sophistication. The model estimates indicate that costly search is a key friction in retail financial markets, but the... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

02 Feb 2010
First Look

First Look: Feb. 2

and Finance (forthcoming). (Also Harvard Business School Working Paper No. 05-053 and NBER Working Paper No. 13131.) Abstract The main arguments in favor of and against nominal and indexed debt are the incentive to default through... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

Paid for Success: Options for Compensating CEOs

When large public companies perform poorly, do the CEOs running them share the financial pain? That question, according to HBS associate professor Brian Hall, is not answered by looking at their salary and bonus but rather by a careful... View Details

Keywords: by Judith A. Ross

November 2003 (Revised March 2008)
Case

Caja España: Managing the Branches to Sell (A)

By: Francisco de Asis Martinez-Jerez and Rosario de Albornoz

Juan Luis Rojas, commercial planning manager of a Caja de Ahorros (savings bank), faces the challenge of motivating the branches to sell more long-term mortgages and ponders whether to use transfer prices to achieve his objective. View Details

Keywords: Business Divisions; Banks and Banking; Resource Allocation; Organizational Design; Performance Improvement; Sales; Motivation and Incentives; Banking Industry

02 Nov 2009
Research & Ideas

Shareholders Need a Say on Pay

“Historically, when the government tries to set limits it doesn't work very well.” Say on pay has been a research focus of HBS assistant professor Fabrizio Ferri, who started his career at Stern Stewart & Co specializing in performance measurement and View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Financial Services

27 Oct 2009
First Look

First Look: October 27

crossed with small financial incentives (ranging from U.S. $3 to $14) to open bank savings accounts. We find that the financial literacy program has no effect on the likelihood... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

January 2004
Background Note

Cross-Border Listings and Depositary Receipts

By: Mihir A. Desai, Maria Raga-Frances, Ami Dave, Mark Veblen and Kathleen Luchs

This case describes the varied instruments that have evolved to facilitate investments in foreign corporations, emphasizing American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) and cross-border listings. It describes the different types of ADRs and the regulatory requirements foreign... View Details

Keywords: Financial Markets; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Business History; Research; Motivation and Incentives; United States

18 Jun 2007
Op-Ed

Leveling the Executive Options Playing Field

managers at the expense of investors and tax authorities.” My comments below provide an overview of the financial and tax accounting systems and their treatment of incentive compensation. Independently, the... View Details

Keywords: by Mihir Desai

01 May 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, May 1, 2018

Christopher Stanton Abstract—Wage rigidity creates real and financial frictions, though the real-world drivers of rigidities remain largely unstudied. We use staggered commission reductions at a sales firm to estimate effects on worker... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

05 Nov 2013
First Look

First Look: November 5

Incentive Plan By: Chung, Doug J., Thomas Steenburgh, and K. Sudhir Abstract—No abstract available. Publisher's link:http://www.europeanfinancialreview.com/ August 2013 Journal of Financial Economics... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

29 Jul 2002
Research & Ideas

Get Off the Dime!

accept new software as long as they suffered little inconvenience and little change except reduced costs. They wanted their financial reporting to have their traditional look and feel. They wanted to do maintenance scheduling their way... View Details

Keywords: by John P. Kotter & Dan S. Cohen

19 Feb 2014
Research & Ideas

Racist Umpires and Monetary Ministers

about baseball and race, he's explored questions such as how much money motivates ministers, and how much financial journalists affect the stock market. "I am interested in what motivates people," he says, "and what causes... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Sports; Information; Publishing

27 Sep 2004
Research & Ideas

How Leaders Build Winning Streaks

change, which included the 300 top executives plus another 100 natural leaders from the ranks without fancy titles. The 1,350 South Koreans I met at the Shinhan Financial Group Summit outside of Seoul in the fall of 2003 were all... View Details

Keywords: by Rosabeth Moss Kanter

February 2002 (Revised May 2002)
Background Note

That's a Wrap: The Dynamics of the Video Rental Industry

By: V.G. Narayanan and Lisa Brem

The history, current dynamics, and future trends of the $10 billion home video rental industry provides a platform to discuss revenue-sharing contracts between suppliers of home videocassettes and retailers. View Details

Keywords: Contracts; Motivation and Incentives; Supply Chain Management; Revenue; Financial Strategy; Motion Pictures and Video Industry

April 2022 (Revised August 2022)
Case

Conflicts of Interest at Uptown Bank

By: Jonas Heese

In 2013, two employees debated whether to blow the whistle on their employer, Bell Bank, after completing an internal review that revealed undisclosed conflicts of interest. Bell Bank’s Asset Management business disproportionately invested clients’ money in Bell Bank’s... View Details