Publications

October 1996 (Revised January 1997)
Case

AT&T Resource Link: Revisioning the Managerial Workforce

Resource Link is an in-house temporary firm, supplying managers and technical workers to the 26 business units of AT&T on a contract basis. The challenge facing Resource Link is how to grow, since an increasing number of managers are eager to use variable workers to... View Details

Keywords: Selection and Staffing; Organizational Design; Personal Development and Career; Employment Industry; Telecommunications Industry

30 Jul 2007
Research & Ideas

Repugnant Markets and How They Get That Way

Unfair. Undignified. Inappropriate, unprofessional, distasteful—and most of all, repugnant. To the wonder and surprise of Alvin E. Roth, a Harvard economist, these harsh words are often hoisted to describe an important task of his: View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

30 Jan 2013
Working Paper Summaries

These Are the Good Old Days: Foreign Entry and the Mexican Banking System

Keywords: by Stephen Haber & Aldo Musacchio; Banking

Teaching Interest

Economics of Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital

Designed for Harvard College sophomores.

Course Description: Why do so many individuals choose to pursue entrepreneurship despite substantial risks? How do these entrepreneurs raise money to finance their ventures? And what is the impact of... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Entrepreneurial Finance; Entrepreneurship And Strategy; Venture Capital

March 2000
Case

Lockheed Martin: The Employer of Choice Mission

By: Clayton M. Christensen and Michael D Overdorf

A Lockheed Martin manager is faced with the decision of where to focus the organization's resources in order to develop a world-class employee development system. The manager's recommendation will serve as the basis for the company's goal of becoming an Employer of... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Culture; Resource Allocation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Employees; Human Resources; Leadership Development; Cost Management; Organizational Design; Aerospace Industry

28 Aug 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, August 28, 2018

change in its employee incentive contract design towards low-powered incentives, we examine whether the design of incentive contracts for the... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

January 1989 (Revised April 1991)
Case

General Electric: Valley Forge (A)

By: Robert L. Simons

A series of eight vignette cases designed to be taught in one classroom session. This case describes a potential problem in the way that General Electric has billed the government under a large defense contract. Designed to allow students to discuss what actions top... View Details

Keywords: Government Administration; Contracts; Policy; Accounting; Management Teams; Business and Government Relations; Industrial Products Industry

Find at Harvard

September 2009 (Revised December 2009)
Case

The Future of Iraq Project (A)

By: Noel Maurer and Sogomon Tarontsi

In March 2009, the government of Iraq decided to hold its first oil field auctions. The auctions were for service contracts on the country's southern oil fields; the winner would obtain the right to produce oil above a certain target for a fixed fee. The bidders... View Details

Keywords: Non-Renewable Energy; Foreign Direct Investment; Policy; Auctions; Production; Business and Government Relations; Energy Industry; Iraq

2018
Working Paper

Show or Tell? Improving Agent Decision Making in a Tanzanian Mobile Money Field Experiment

By: Jason Acimovic, Chris Parker, David F. Drake and Karthik Balasubramanian

When workers make operational decisions, the firm's global knowledge and the workers’ domain-specific knowledge complement each other. Oftentimes workers have the final decision-making power. Two key decisions a firm makes when designing systems to support these... View Details

Keywords: Employees; Decision Making; Training; Performance Improvement; Money; Mobile Technology; Developing Countries and Economies; Financial Services Industry

SSRN

01 Sep 2015
First Look

First Look -- September 1, 2015

framework for obtaining reliable proxies of expected returns worldwide. Download working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=49238 Through the Grapevine: Network Effects on the Design of Executive Compensation View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

02 Sep 2014
First Look

First Look: September 2

faced and an inability to respond effectively once they did. We focus particularly on the problems GM encountered in developing the relational contracts essential to modern design and manufacturing. We... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

13 Oct 2010
Working Paper Summaries

Employee Selection as a Control System

Keywords: by Dennis Campbell; Banking

17 May 2016
First Look

May 17, 2016

behavior. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=51072 forthcoming Games and Economic Behavior Contract Design and Stability in Many-to-Many Matching By: Hatfield, John William, and... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

17 Jul 2023
Research & Ideas

Money Isn’t Everything: The Dos and Don’ts of Motivating Employees

meaningful to the culture, like employee of the month plaques or sales awards. Companies should think about who they want to attract and design non-monetary awards around that goal. For instance, companies with a training culture could... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

October 2016
Case

Moshe Kahlon: Telecommunications Reform and Competition in Israel's Cellular Market (A)

By: Joshua Margolis, Amram Migdal and Kerry Herman

The case addresses reforms to regulations in Israel’s telecommunications industry initiated and implemented under the leadership of Minister of Communications Moshe Kahlon in 2009-2010. The case highlights the challenges faced by a politician attempting to institute... View Details