Peer Firm - Publications - Faculty & Research

24 Apr 2017
Op-Ed

Op-Ed: Courage: The Defining Characteristic of Great Leaders

fail, even if their leaders can move on to avoid being held accountable. Why do some leaders lack courage? Many CEOs focus too much on managing to hit their numbers. They avoid making risky decisions that may make them look bad in the eyes of View Details

Keywords: by Bill George; Auto; Food & Beverage

19 Jan 2023
Research & Ideas

What Makes Employees Trust (vs. Second-Guess) AI?

react to AI systems, the researchers worked last year with the luxury fashion retailer Tapestry Inc., whose accessory and lifestyle brands include Coach, Kate Spade, and Stuart Weitzman. The firm employs 18,000 people worldwide and has... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

24 Aug 2009
Research & Ideas

SuperCorp: Values as Guidance System

end. And everyone has to be proud of what they're doing," Zambrano said. "Human" control systems—peer review and a self-control system. In vanguard companies, belief in the purpose and embrace of the values generate self-guidance, self-policing, and... View Details

Keywords: by Rosabeth Moss Kanter

16 Feb 2023
HBS Case

ESG Activists Met the Moment at ExxonMobil, But Did They Succeed?

The impact-investment hedge fund Engine No. 1 made a big splash in May 2021 when it managed to get three nominees elected to the ExxonMobil board of directors. It was an open effort to prod the oil giant toward renewable energy and test whether activist investing could... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert; Financial Services

16 Oct 2017
Research & Ideas

The Most Successful Startups Have Hands-On Founders

Source: iPhoto Startup founders with a hands-on management style are more likely to retain employees and see their firms thrive, new research shows. The results are particularly applicable to knowledge-intensive technology firms, where... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

21 Feb 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research: February 21

characterized by underdeveloped institutions and frequent environmental shifts. Yet they also contain many firms that have survived over generations. How are firms in weak institutional environments able to... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

01 Feb 2022
Book

Innovation Isn’t Just for Startups: How Big Companies Can Succeed

book Corporate Explorer: How Corporations Beat Startups at the Innovation Game. In fact, venture-minded managers in big corporations often have the tools and infrastructure to become more successful than their peers at startups, say... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

15 Jul 2014
First Look

First Look: July 15

"co-search" algorithm to Internet traffic at the SEC's EDGAR website, we develop a novel method for identifying economically-related peer firms and for measuring their relative importance. Our... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

13 Mar 2023
Research & Ideas

The Power of Personal Connections: How Shared Experiences Boost Performance

asynchronous and virtual interactions can be influenced by peer training relationships, drawing “tangible benefits for patients many years later,” suggesting such relationships continue to pay off for a long time, the authors write.... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Health

14 Oct 2021
In Practice

Reunited and It Feels (Not) So Good: Tips for Managing a Rocky Return

should come back to office. My ongoing research with the all-remote firm Zapier suggests that while workers can work-from-anywhere, temporarily colocating with peers a few times a year (in the case of Zapier... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

05 Feb 2018
What Do You Think?

Should Companies Disclose Employee Compensation?

innovation, foster trust, and contribute to an organization’s agility in a fast-moving competitive landscape. It also can build cohesion among employees and provide them a shared sense of mission. Vineet Nayar, former CEO of India-based HCL Technologies, is a View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Financial Services

08 Oct 2018
Research & Ideas

Knowing What Your Boss Earns Can Make You Work Harder

employers, underscoring how changing the salary of one worker can affect the behavior of other employees. “These externalities can have important implications for the provision of incentives within the firm and for pay transparency,” the... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

31 Oct 2011
Research & Ideas

The Most Powerful Workplace Motivator

according to Larkin's 2009 paper "Paying $30,000 for a Gold Star: An Empirical Investigation into the Value of Peer Recognition to Software Salespeople." The paper describes a field study at a large enterprise software firm, where... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

17 Feb 2022
Book

When Employees Feel a Sense of Purpose, Companies Succeed

of subduing individuality and ensuring conformity. Culture offers an inexpensive and informal way of regulating behavior that is all the more effective because it occurs inside the minds of employees and relies on peer pressure as a... View Details

Keywords: by Ranjay Gulati

16 May 2000
Research & Ideas

The Simple Economics of Open Source

"signaling incentive," include the "career concern incentive" which refers to future job offers, shares in commercial open source-based companies or future access to venture capital, and the "ego gratification incentive," focused on a... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Technology

11 Aug 2003
Research & Ideas

Why Budgeting Kills Your Company

The average billion-dollar company spends as many as 25,000 person-days per year putting together the budget. If this all paid off in shareholder return, that would be fine. But few organizations can make that claim. In fact, many firms... View Details

Keywords: by Loren Gary

11 Jun 2018
Research & Ideas

Why South Korea's Samsung Built the Only Outdoor Skating Rink in Texas

once its suits changed venue, Samsung dropped its holiday sponsorships like so much Christmas coal.) “I think what we are seeing is just the tip of the iceberg” “We saw the lengths that Samsung was going through to curry favor in Marshall,” he says. “It got us... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Legal Services

20 Feb 2008
First Look

First Look: February 20, 2008

managers may be trying to categorize their firms as small firms when investors favor small firms. Purchase the paper from SSRN ($5): http://papers.nber.org/papers/w13762 Allocating Marketing Resources... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

22 Feb 2021
Book

Reaching Today's Omnichannel Customer Takes a New Sales Strategy

other business function. But the ROI is disappointing because much of the training misunderstands how salespeople learn, is classroom-centric, and fails to take advantage of new tools that stimulate peer learning and enable the use of... View Details