Publications

December 2019 (Revised December 2021)
Case

Negotiating for Equal Pay: The U.S. Women's National Soccer Team (A)

By: Christine Exley, John Beshears, Manuela Collis and Davis Heniford

In 2019, members of the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team (WNT) filed a gender discrimination lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation. The case describes the history of the WNT's quest for equal pay leading up to this event. View Details

Keywords: Equal Pay; Negotiation; Compensation and Benefits; Equality and Inequality; Gender; Prejudice and Bias; Negotiation Tactics; Corporate Governance; Lawsuits and Litigation; Sports; Sports Industry; United States

April 2011
Case

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts: Alternative Futures

By: Allen Grossman and Coleman Radell

Ren Levy took over Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts when it was a group of warring constituents and has successfully brought a diverse group of arts organizations together. View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Organizations; Leadership; Growth and Development Strategy; Strategy; Arts

02 Nov 2009
Research & Ideas

Shareholders Need a Say on Pay

generally in organizations with excess CEO pay, suggesting that some companies acted in advance of the annual meeting to avoid a confrontation with shareholders. These findings suggest that say-on-pay legislation can be a useful tool for... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Financial Services

November 2016 (Revised December 2016)
Module Note

Strategy Execution Module 12: Aligning Performance Goals and Incentives

By: Robert Simons

This module reading explains how managers use performance goals and incentives to ensure that employee actions align with the overall business strategy of the organization. The module begins by discussing how managers use goals to communicate business strategy, the... View Details

Keywords: Management Control Systems; Implementing Strategy; Execution; Performance Goals; Performance Measures; Incentives; Benchmarks; Motivation; Compensation; Bonuses; Strategy

Article

Full Disclosure: A Strategy for Performance

By: Regina E. Herzlinger

Article

How Much (More) Should CEOs Make? A Universal Desire for More Equal Pay

By: Sorapop Kiatpongsan and Michael I. Norton

Do people from different countries and different backgrounds have similar preferences for how much more the rich should earn than the poor? Using survey data from 40 countries (N = 55,238), we compare respondents' estimates of the wages of people in different... View Details

Keywords: Inequality; Justice; Wage; Cross-cultural; Wages; Equality and Inequality; Fairness; Income; Employees; Management Teams; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues

Article

Full Disclosure: A Strategy for Performance

By: Regina E. Herzlinger

10 Jun 2019
Working Paper Summaries

Going Digital: Implications for Firm Value and Performance

Keywords: by Wilbur Chen and Suraj Srinivasan

July 2021 (Revised January 2022)
Teaching Note

Amazon Shopper Panel: Paying Customers for Their Data

By: Eva Ascarza and Ayelet Israeli

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 521-058. View Details

July 2016
Case

'Golden Leash' Pay for Directors at The Dow Chemical Company

By: Ian Gow, Suraj Srinivasan and Neeraj Goyal

In November 2014, The Dow Chemical Company was faced with the prospect of a proxy battle with prominent hedge fund and activist investor Third Point Management. The activist had criticized Dow’s recent performance and advocated that the company split itself to maximize... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Governing and Advisory Boards; Executive Compensation; Investment Activism; Chemical Industry

December 2024
Article

Public Attitudes on Performance for Algorithmic and Human Decision-Makers

By: Kirk Bansak and Elisabeth Paulson

This study explores public preferences for algorithmic and human decision-makers (DMs) in high-stakes contexts, how these preferences are shaped by performance metrics, and whether public evaluations of performance differ depending on the type of DM. Leveraging a... View Details

Keywords: Public Opinion; Prejudice and Bias; Decision Making

September 21, 2016
Article

For Better Online Product Reviews, Pay the Reviewers

By: Scott Duke Kominers

July–August 1999
Article

Are You Paying Too Much for That Acquisition?

By: Robert G. Eccles Jr., Kersten Lia Lanes and Thomas C. Wilson

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions

14 Apr 2003
Research & Ideas

Pay-for-Performance Doesn’t Always Pay Off

their ability to reach if not surpass the goals, start banking on the extra money. In practice, however, the process of connecting pay to performance may be far trickier that it at first appears, according... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

2019
Working Paper

Relative Performance Transparency: Effects on Sustainable Choices

By: Ryan W. Buell, Shwetha Mariadassou and Yanchong Zheng

We study how transparency into the levels and changes of relative sustainability performance affects consumer choices. Our work considers two forms of transparency: process transparency, in which customers receive information about the company's sustainability... View Details

Keywords: Relative Performance Tranparency; Process Transparency; Customer Transparency; Levels; Changes; Reflectiveness; Self-serving Attribution Biases; Sustainability; Consumer Choice

SSRN

March 2014
Article

Cheating More for Less: Upward Social Comparisons Motivate the Poorly Compensated to Cheat

By: Leslie K. John, George Loewenstein and Scott Rick

Intuitively, people should cheat more when cheating is more lucrative, but we find that the effect of performance-based pay rates on dishonesty depends on how readily people can compare their pay rate to that of others. In Experiment 1, participants were paid 5 cents... View Details

Keywords: Dishonesty; Social Comparison; Pay Secrecy; Motivation and Incentives; Fairness; Decision Making; Compensation and Benefits

January–February 2019
Article

Who Loses When a Team Wins? Better Performance Increases Racial Bias

By: Letian Zhang

Although it is well known that organizational and team performance influences strategic decision-making, little is known about its impact on ascriptive inequality. This study proposes a performance effect on racial bias: higher team performance reduces managers’... View Details

Keywords: Discrimination; Race And Ethnicity; Performance Feedback; NBA; Prejudice and Bias; Race; Ethnicity; Performance; Sports