Publications

Find at Harvard

08 Dec 2015
First Look

December 8, 2015

managers contemplating the use of performance goals or targets within nonprofit organizations, our results suggest careful consideration about the extent to which they may render other incentives less effective. Download working paper:... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

January 2024 (Revised May 2024)
Case

Pioneer Natural Resources: Enhancing the Capital Return Strategy with Variable Dividends

By: Benjamin C. Esty, Elisabeth Kempf and E. Scott Mayfield

In February 2021, Scott Sheffield, the CEO of Pioneer Natural Resources (an independent oil and gas company based in Texas), was considering the possibility of enhancing the firm’s capital return strategy by introducing a variable dividend tied to cash flows in... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Finance; Cash Flow; Financial Management; Financial Strategy; Value Creation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Investment Return; Profit; Policy; Business and Shareholder Relations; Energy Industry; United States; North America; Texas

March 2005 (Revised July 2007)
Case

Capital Controls in Chile in the 1990s (A)

By: Laura Alfaro, Rafael M. Di Tella and Ingrid Vogel

In 1991, Chile adopted a framework of capital controls focused on reducing the massive flows of foreign investment coming into the country as international interest rates remained low. Capital inflows threatened the Central Bank's ability to manage the exchange rate... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Economic Growth; Financial Crisis; Capital; Governance Controls; Business and Government Relations; Chile

31 Aug 2021
Book

Feeling Powerless at Work? Time to Agitate, Innovate, and Orchestrate

Although CEOs hold positions of power, many can feel powerless in certain ways—particularly when it comes to influencing the behaviors and performance of their employees. Yet perhaps they aren’t taking the time to understand what drives... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald

26 Apr 2022
News

Leading on Climate Change

stakeholders, including employees, communities, value-chain partners, the planet, and future generations; and drives broader system changes by working in collaboration with governments and civil society. Both speakers talked about... View Details

Keywords: Margie Kelley

October 1992 (Revised December 1992)
Case

American Connector Company (A)

By: Gary P. Pisano

American Connector Co. is forced to reexamine operations at its Sunnyvale plant when a Japanese competitor announces plans to build an "ultimate" plant in the United States. Case examines issues related to benchmarking a competitor's manufacturing capabilities and... View Details

Keywords: Production; Infrastructure; Competitive Strategy; Global Strategy; Policy; Strategic Planning; Performance Productivity; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Performance Effectiveness; Sunnyvale; Japan

17 Feb 2022
Book

When Employees Feel a Sense of Purpose, Companies Succeed

many took as the key to their business success. More recently, the limitations of “strong” cultures have come into focus. As important as conformity is, leaders and companies have recognized that organizational performance hinges on the... View Details

Keywords: by Ranjay Gulati

12 Jul 2011
First Look

First Look: July 12

proximity to headquarters and corporate siblings are associated with superior performance trends following information disclosure. We also find that regional density moderates effect of establishment size on View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

26 May 2003
Research & Ideas

When Silence Spells Trouble at Work

employees in organizations ranging from small businesses to Fortune 500 corporations to government bureaucracies reveal that silence can exact a high psychological price on individuals, generating feelings of humiliation, pernicious... View Details

Keywords: by Leslie A. Perlow

22 Jun 2010
First Look

First Look: June 22

innovation outcomes as well as the ongoing performance of existing products. We find that ambidextrous organization designs are relatively more effective in executing innovation streams than functional, cross-functional, and spinout... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

22 Apr 2022
Research & Ideas

Companies Can Expand Their Talent Pool by Giving Ex-Convicts a Second Chance

hire workers with a criminal history, especially if crime and safety insurance is available, or if the worker can provide past work performance reviews. The findings were included in a working paper, Increasing the Demand for Workers with... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald

10 Sep 2013
First Look

First Look: September 10

those created by well-designed policy (the PPF). Specifically, this note analyzes how differences in governance structure, termination capabilities, funding mechanisms, and asset management policies created distinctly different financial... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

24 Jun 2010
Working Paper Summaries

“An Unfair Advantage”? Combining Banking with Private Equity Investing

Keywords: by Lily Fang, Victoria Ivashina & Josh Lerner; Banking

05 Feb 2018
What Do You Think?

Should Companies Disclose Employee Compensation?

compensation data could lead to a different method in solving certain situations such as pay discrepancy " As Ali put it, "Why companies find it so difficult to talk salary when our government is so open on what each employee is... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Financial Services

Web

Doing Business in a Divided World - Alumni

“negative externalities”—things like traffic congestion or pollution that are unavoidable by-products of their business practice. Typically, governments have dealt with these externalities through either regulation or taxation. But today,... View Details

February 2017 (Revised September 2017)
Case

Akshaya Patra: Impact at Scale

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Sarah Appleby

Akshaya Patra, an Indian NGO, had set an ambitious goal of serving 5 million free meals daily to India's schoolchildren. Founded in 2000, Akshaya Patra had thus far opened 25 high-capacity kitchens in 10 different States to provide a midday meal to nearly 1.65 million... View Details

Keywords: Scaling; Public-private Partnership; Operational Excellence; Nonprofit Scaling; Social Impact; Social Enterprise; Growth and Development Strategy; Business and Government Relations; Performance Effectiveness; Nonprofit Organizations; India