Publications

September 2016
Article

When 3+1>4: Gift Structure and Reciprocity in the Field

By: Duncan S. Gilchrist, Michael Luca and Deepak Malhotra

Do higher wages elicit reciprocity and lead to increased productivity? In a field experiment with 266 employees, we find that paying higher wages, per se, does not have a discernible effect on productivity (in a context with no future employment opportunities).... View Details

Keywords: Wages; Performance Productivity

January 2023
Case

Crow Holdings Development: Mass Timber Construction

By: John D. Macomber, Robert Hernandez and Kyle MertensMeyer

Jim McCaffery and Cody Armbrister of Crow Holdings Development evaluate the pros and cons of committing to mass timber construction instead of conventional concrete or steel for a new 260,000 SF multi-story office building in Texas. Benefits include substantially... View Details

Keywords: Real Estate Development; Architecture; Air Quality; Health ＆ Wellness; Office Property; Sustainability; Carbon Abatement; Natural Environment; Environmental Accounting; Green Buildings; Design; Construction; Cost vs Benefits; Environmental Sustainability; Construction Industry; Real Estate Industry; Texas

2008
Other Unpublished Work

Are Private Equity Firms Better Managed?

By: Nicholas Bloom, Raffaella Sadun and John Van Reenen

We use an innovative survey tool to collect management practice data from over 4,000 medium sized manufacturing firms across Asia, Europe and the US. These measures of managerial practice are strongly associated with firm-level performance (e.g. productivity,... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Management Practices and Processes; Production; Performance Improvement; Manufacturing Industry; Asia; Europe; United States

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September 2004 (Revised December 2004)
Case

Metso Paper: Globalization of Finnish Metal Workshops

By: Lynda M. Applegate, Marikka Heikkila and Kalle Lyytinen

Metso Paper, the world's largest producer of paper machines, aims to transform itself into a knowledge- and information-based service and solution provider for the paper industry by aggressively exploiting information technologies. In the fall of 2002, Jorma Hujala, a... View Details

Keywords: Production; Customer Value and Value Chain; Information Technology; Corporate Strategy; Knowledge Management; Machinery and Machining; Expansion; Service Delivery; Manufacturing Industry; Pulp and Paper Industry; Finland

Article

Sales Productivity, Not Just Sales Technology

By: Frank V. Cespedes

This article discusses the reasons behind the rapidly increasing investments in “Sales Enablement” (SE) technology, including the declining costs of that technology, a change in company cost structures, and a consequent shift in the focus of productivity improvements... View Details

Keywords: Sales; Information Technology; Performance Productivity

2011
Working Paper

Management Practices Across Firms and Countries

By: Nicholas Bloom, Christos Genakos, Raffaella Sadun and John Van Reenen

For the last decade we have been using double-blind survey techniques and randomized sampling to construct management data on over 10,000 organizations across 20 countries. On average, we find that in manufacturing, American, Japanese, and German firms are the best... View Details

Keywords: Management Practices and Processes; Business Ventures; Public Sector; Private Sector; Country; Performance; Motivation and Incentives

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July 1989 (Revised February 1993)
Case

National Demographics & Lifestyles (B)

Picks up where National Demographics & Lifestyles (A) left off, describing the company's financing and very successful performance through 1987. At this point, the founders and venture backers face some difficult choices around how and when to harvest the value they... View Details

Keywords: Demographics; Financing and Loans; Initial Public Offering; Marketing; Success; Performance; Value Creation; Industrial Products Industry

October 1991 (Revised April 1992)
Case

Honda Today

By: Marco Iansiti

Describes a situation in which the manager in charge of a major development project at Honda needs to make a decision about the technical specification of the product. The decision has profound implications for the product concept and strategy, as well as for the... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Product Design; Organizational Design; Performance Consistency; Projects; Auto Industry

January 2001
Background Note

Country Analysis in a "Global Village"

By: Bruce R. Scott

Substantially rewritten to establish the relevance of countries in the global context. It does so in terms of their differing economic performance in recent decades, and also by contrasting those that have "converged" toward the rich country norm (as theory would... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Economies and Regions; Macroeconomics; Trade; Business Strategy; Performance Evaluation; Industry Growth; Currency; Policy; Development Economics

27 Sep 2010
Research & Ideas

Customer Experts Lose Influence When Teams are Pressured

onto your team can actually minimize the pressure associated with the team's output being evaluated. I mentioned that one of the reasons performance pressure is so stressful is the team's awareness that their end View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert

October 1991 (Revised October 2004)
Case

Hilton Manufacturing Company

By: William J. Bruns Jr.

A professional manager is hired by a small manufacturing company after the president discovers he made poor decisions. One product appears to be unprofitable, whereas the product sold in highest volume is under competitive price pressure. A crude cost accounting system... View Details

Keywords: Cost Accounting; Asset Pricing; Problems and Challenges; Risk and Uncertainty; Decisions; Governance Controls; Performance Effectiveness; Business Strategy; Two-Sided Platforms; Fair Value Accounting; Manufacturing Industry

March 2017 (Revised July 2019)
Case

Interline Brands: Don't Stop Believing

By: Nori Gerardo Lietz and Ricardo Andrade

Interline Brands, a leading distributor of residential housing maintenance and repair parts and equipment in the U.S., had just held its November 2014 board meeting. The meeting had been productive but not without some soul searching for both the company’s management... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity Exit; Consumer Goods; IPO; Private Equity; Initial Public Offering; Decision Choices and Conditions

22 Nov 2023
Research & Ideas

Humans vs. Machines: Untangling the Tasks AI Can (and Can't) Handle

highly-skilled tasks with and without AI. After establishing a performance baseline, consultants were randomly divided into two groups. The first group would “conceptualize and develop new product ideas,... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Information Technology; Technology

November 1992 (Revised May 1993)
Case

American Mobile Satellite Corporation

By: Frank V. Cespedes and Laura Goode

American Mobile Satellite Corp. (AMSC) has a license to provide wireless mobile communications via satellite throughout the United States and 200 miles of coastal waters. The first satellite launch is scheduled for 1994 and, in the interim, AMSC is providing limited... View Details

Keywords: Wireless Technology; Decisions; Distribution Channels; Marketing Strategy; Product Development; Sales; Emerging Markets; Resource Allocation; Performance Capacity; Communications Industry; Information Technology Industry; United States

20 Oct 2015
Working Paper Summaries

Internalizing Global Value Chains: A Firm-Level Analysis

Keywords: by Laura Alfaro, Pol Antras, Davin Chor & Paola Conconi

April 1978 (Revised January 1985)
Case

Searle Medical Instruments Group (Abridged)

By: Steven C. Wheelwright

SMIG, a division of G.D. Searle, was a fast growing high market-share company in the field of nuclear medical instruments. It manufactured two basically different product lines, one very successful and the other less so. Although marketing was separate for these... View Details

Keywords: Change; Brands and Branding; Market Participation; Production; Success; Performance Capacity; Expansion; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

April 2004 (Revised November 2004)
Background Note

Why Complex Systems Fail

Operationally excellent organizations create competitive opportunities for themselves that are not available to their peers. One view of the manager's competitive dilemma is to pick the right position for his organization, differentiating it, for example, as a... View Details

Keywords: Organizations; Complexity

October 2015
Article

The Value of Bosses

By: Edward P. Lazear, Kathryn L. Shaw and Christopher Stanton

How and by how much do supervisors enhance worker productivity? Using a company-based data set on the productivity of technology-based services workers, supervisor effects are estimated and found to be large. Replacing a boss who is in the lower 10% of boss quality... View Details

Keywords: Supervisors; Management Skills; Employees; Performance Productivity

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October 2004
Case

DNA Traceability at Maple Leaf Foods

By: Ray A. Goldberg, Joan McRobbie and Matthew L. Reisman

Maple Leaf Foods is concerned about the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (Mad Cow Disease) issue in Canada and the reputation of Canadian meat products in the domestic and global markets. DNA can now trace products from sow and piglets to consumer pork products.... View Details

Keywords: Food; Globalization; Nutrition; Performance Efficiency; Performance Improvement; Safety; Technology Adoption; Food and Beverage Industry; Canada