Publications

Educators

04 Jun 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Prosocial Bonuses Increase Employee Satisfaction and Team Performance

Keywords: by Lalin Anik, Lara B. Aknin, Michael I. Norton, Elizabeth W. Dunn & Jordi Quoidbach

February 2022 (Revised October 2022)
Supplement

Henkel: Building a Winning Culture (D)

By: Robert L. Simons and Carolyn Deller

This three-page case is the third update to Henkel: Building a Winning Culture (A). In this supplement, dated 2021, a new CEO has taken over Henkel and implemented a new strategy. His changes to the original performance management system are presented as a new... View Details

Keywords: Execution; Management Control Systems; Performance Goals; Incentives; Levers Of Control; Strategy; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Performance Evaluation

23 Aug 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Field Evidence on Individual Behavior & Performance in Rank-Order Tournaments

Keywords: by Kevin J. Boudreau, Constance E. Helfat, Karim R. Lakhani & Michael Menietti

05 Sep 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Performance Responses to Competition Across Skill-Levels in Rank Order Tournaments: Field Evidence and Implications for Tournament Design

Keywords: by Kevin J. Boudreau, Constance E. Helfat, Karim R. Lakhani & Michael E. Menietti.

2021
Working Paper

Cognitive Biases: Mistakes or Missing Stakes?

By: Benjamin Enke, Uri Gneezy, Brian Hall, David Martin, Vadim Nelidov, Theo Offerman and Jeroen van de Ven

Despite decades of research on heuristics and biases, empirical evidence on the effect of large incentives—as present in relevant economic decisions—on cognitive biases is scant. This paper tests the effect of incentives on four widely documented biases: base rate... View Details

Keywords: Cognitive Biases; Incentives; Motivation and Incentives; Decision Making; Performance

24 Aug 2020
Working Paper Summaries

Performance Hacking: The Contagious Business Practice that Corrodes Corporate Culture, Undermines Core Values, and Damages Great Companies

Keywords: by Robert D. Austin and Richard L. Nolan; Air Transportation

22 May 2008
Working Paper Summaries

Testing Strategy with Multiple Performance Measures Evidence from a Balanced Scorecard at Store24

Keywords: by Dennis Campbell, Srikant M. Datar, Susan L. Kulp & V.G. Narayanan; Food & Beverage

May 2007
Article

Inner Work Life: Understanding the Subtext of Business Performance

By: Teresa M. Amabile and Steven J. Kramer

Anyone in management knows that employees have their good days and their bad days and that, for the most part, the reasons for their ups and downs are unknown. Most managers simply shrug their shoulders at this fact of work life. But does it matter, in terms of... View Details

Keywords: Employees; Performance; Motivation and Incentives; Perception; Practice

Article

Are All Certified EHRs Created Equal? Assessing the Relationship between EHR Vendor and Hospital Meaningful Use Performance

By: A Jay Holmgren, Julia Adler-Milstein and Jeffrey McCullough

Objective
The federal electronic health record (EHR) certification process was intended to ensure a baseline level of system quality and the ability to support meaningful use criteria. We sought to assess whether there was variation across EHR vendors in the... View Details

Keywords: Hospitals; Electronic Health Records; Digital Health; Health Care and Treatment; Information Technology; Service Delivery; Performance Evaluation

Article

Signaling Firm Performance Through Financial Statement Presentation: An Analysis Using Special Items

By: Edward J. Riedl and Suraj Srinivasan

This paper investigates whether managers' presentation of special items within the financial statements reflects economic performance or opportunism. Specifically, we assess special items presented as a separate line item on the income statement (income statement... View Details

Keywords: Managerial Roles; Financial Statements; Economics; Performance; Research; Opportunities; Business Earnings; Motivation and Incentives

SSRN

13 Mar 2023
Research & Ideas

The Power of Personal Connections: How Shared Experiences Boost Performance

Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. So, what does the connection between patient outcomes and physician relationships mean for business? It shows how personal connections and trust can improve performance, more so than View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Health

April 2021
Article

Today's Surgeon Compensation Models Fall Short: Aligning Incentives to Create More Equitable and Value-based Compensation Models

By: Susanna Gallani, Mary Witkowski, Lauren Haskins, Haley Jeffcoat, Vinita Mujumdar and Frank Opelka

Modern medicine is undergoing a transformation that involves innovative surgical approaches, increased medical treatment options, clinical care pathways that require collaboration beyond hospital walls, and health data captured by electronic health records and other... View Details

Keywords: Physician Compensation; Surgeons; Health Care and Treatment; Business Model; Compensation and Benefits

November 2018 (Revised July 2023)
Case

The Weir Group: Reforming Executive Pay (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Federica Gabrieli

In February 2018, the Remuneration Committee together with the full Board of Directors of the Scotland-based engineering company The Weir Group had to decide whether to seek a shareholder vote at the upcoming Annual General Meeting in April on a proposal to reform the... View Details

Educators

Spring 2016
Article

Performance Responses to Competition Across Skill-Levels in Rank Order Tournaments: Field Evidence and Implications for Tournament Design

By: Kevin J. Boudreau, Karim R. Lakhani and Michael E. Menietti

Tournaments are widely used in the economy to organize production and innovation. We study individual contestant-level data from 2,796 contestants in 774 software algorithm design contests with random assignment. Precisely conforming to theory predictions, the... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Innovation Strategy

Teaching Interest

Overview

By: Susanna Gallani

At HBS, Professor Gallani teaches in the Executive Education Program for Leadership Development and in focused Executive Education programs, including Managing Health Care Delivery, Driving Corporate Performance, and several programs focused on the implementation of... View Details

Keywords: Management Controls; Performance Management; Strategy Execution; Incentive Programs; Health Care

2010
Book

The New Science of Retailing: How Analytics Are Transforming the Supply Chain and Improving Performance

By: Marshall Fisher and Ananth Raman

Retailers today are drowning in data but lacking in insight: They have huge volumes of information at their disposal. But they're unsure of how to sort through it and use it to make smart decisions. The result? They're struggling with profit-sapping supply chain... View Details

Keywords: Profit; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Logistics; Supply Chain Management; Mathematical Methods; Retail Industry

17 Jan 2018
Research & Ideas

If the CEO’s High Salary Isn't Justified to Employees, Firm Performance May Suffer

kutaytanir It’s no surprise that business executives make more money than lower-level employees. But when that pay disparity between a CEO and the average worker is perceived as unfair, the result may be more than unhappy workers: A firm’s View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

June 2012
Case

Aman Resorts (Abridged)

By: Eugene Soltes and Aldo Sesia

This case describes the operating model and philosophy of this high-end set of global properties. Aman relies on employees taking considerable initiative to deliver the highest quality personalized service in the hospitality industry. The case also highlights Aman's... View Details

Keywords: Global Business; Management Skills; Performance Appraisals; Customer Service; Incentives; Hospitality; Globalized Firms and Management; Business Model; Employees; Service Delivery; Customer Focus and Relationships; Business Strategy; Accommodations Industry

Educators

2017
Working Paper

Seeking to Belong: How the Words of Internal and External Beneficiaries Influence Performance

By: Paul Green, Francesca Gino and Bradley R. Staats

In this paper, we examine how connecting to beneficiaries of one’s work increases performance and argue that beneficiaries internal to an organization (i.e., one’s own colleagues) can serve as an important source of motivation, even in jobs that—on the surface—may seem... View Details

Keywords: Prosocial Motivation; Belongingness; Motivation; Job Design; Field Experiment; Motivation and Incentives; Strategy; Job Design and Levels

SSRN