Publications

Personal selling represents one of the most important elements in the marketing mix, and appropriate management of the sales force is vital to achieving the organization’s objectives. Among the various instruments of sales management, compensation plays a pivotal... View Details

September 1995 (Revised October 1996)
Case

Sunbeam Television (A)

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and E. Scott Lathrop

Sunbeam Television, owner of a television station in Miami (a Fox affiliate), buys Channel 7 (a CBS affiliate) in Boston. They bring to the Boston station the concepts and ideas of their Miami news product--that is, a crisp, content-based design rather than one... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Change; Decisions; Design; Television Entertainment; Product; Motivation and Incentives; Value; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Boston

June 1991 (Revised April 1993)
Case

Acer, Inc.

By: Robert H. Hayes

Acer is undergoing two major transitions at the time of this case: from a small, entrepreneurially-run company to a large professionally-run one; and from a largely domestic company to a multinational one. After a decade of phenomenal growth, it is now facing a major... View Details

Keywords: Transition; Motivation and Incentives; Multinational Firms and Management; Business Growth and Maturation; Employees; Resignation and Termination; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Diversity; Computer Industry; Taiwan

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April 2013
Article

Rx: Human Nature: How Behavioral Economics Is Promoting Better Health Around the World

By: Nava Ashraf

Why doesn't a woman who continues to have unwanted pregnancies avail herself of the free contraception at a nearby clinic? What keeps people from using free chlorine tablets to purify their drinking water? Behavioral economics has shown us that we don't always act in... View Details

Keywords: Behavior; Economics; Motivation and Incentives; Zambia

Research Summary

Competitive Arousal

By: Deepak Malhotra

A fourth stream of research examines a phenomenon that my co-authors and I have termed Competitive Arousal. We find that some features of competitive contexts (e.g., time pressure, perceptions of rivalry, and the presence of an audience) can heighten... View Details

August 30, 2022
Article

School Choice Increases Racial Segregation Even When Parents Do Not Care About Race

By: Kalinda Ukanwa, Aziza C. Jones and Broderick L. Turner Jr.

This research examines how school choice impacts school segregation. Specifically, this work demonstrates that even if parents do not take the racial demographics of schools into account, preference differences between Black and White parents for other school... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Race; Policy; Early Childhood Education; Middle School Education; Secondary Education

September 2005 (Revised August 2008)
Case

Philip McCrea: Once an Entrepreneur...(A)

By: William W. George and Andrew N. McLean

In the spring of 2005, an exhausted Philip McCrea, president and CEO of software development company VitesseLearning, reflects on the demands of his successful start-up and his desire to be closer to his growing family. Profiles the youth, career, family life,... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Personal Development and Career; Family and Family Relationships; Opportunities; Motivation and Incentives

Teresa Amabile is the Edsel Bryant Ford Professor, Emerita, at Harvard Business School. Originally educated and employed as a chemist, Teresa received her Ph.D. in psychology from Stanford University. Her current research investigates how people approach and... View Details

Research Summary

The Role of Capital Markets in the Digital Economy

This topic of research is motivated by the rapid rise of digital adoption in firms across the economy and capital market participants’ growing interest in this phenomenon. My work studies how investors are responding to digitization, provides insights on the... View Details

Spring 2020
Article

The Basic Economics of Internet Infrastructure

By: Shane Greenstein

The internet's structure and operations remain invisible to most economists. What determines the economic value of internet infrastructure and the incentives to improve it? What are the open research questions for the most salient policy issues? This article reviews... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Infrastructure; Operations; Economics; Value

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30 Jan 2013
News

4 Proven Weight Loss Tips From Behavioral Economics

14 Apr 2022
News

Developing a Digital Mindset

27 Oct 2011
News

Persistence Is Best Predictor of CEO Success

February 1997 (Revised July 2001)
Background Note

Introduction to Activity-Based Costing

By: Robert S. Kaplan

Introduces the fundamental notions of activity-based costing (ABC). Motivates ABC by means of a simple example, a single and a diversified pen factory. Proceeds to show how ABC assigns costs more accurately to products and customers by: 1) identifying the activities... View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management

Research Summary

Performance Management Systems in Healthcare

By: Susanna Gallani

Performance management in healthcare provider organizations presents particular challehges, motivate by historical industry practices, market structures and dynamics, and cultural peculiarities. Through her research studies and case studies, Prof. Gallani explores... View Details

Keywords: Performance Management; Compensation; Incentive Systems; Burnout; Health Industry

December 2006 (Revised March 2010)
Case

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs

By: Anthony Mayo and Mark Benson

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, founders of Microsoft and Apple respectively, have revolutionized the relationship between the individual and computer technology. Once the exclusive domain of academia and research facilities, computers can now be found in every area of... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Business History; Technological Innovation; Leadership; Risk and Uncertainty; Technology Industry

August 2023 (Revised January 2024)
Supplement

Arla Foods: Data-Driven Decarbonization (B)

By: Michael Parzen, Michael W. Toffel, Susan Pinckney and Amram Migdal

The case describes Arla’s history, in particular its climate change mitigation efforts, and how it implemented a price incentive system to motivate individual farms to implement scope 1 greenhouse gas emissions mitigation measures and receive a higher milk price. The... View Details