Publications

2020
Working Paper

No Line Left Behind: Assortative Matching Inside the Firm

By: Achyuta Adhvaryu, Vittorio Bassi, Anant Nyshadham and Jorge Tamayo

How do firms pair workers with managers, and which constraints affect the allocation of labor within the firm? We characterize the sorting pattern of managers to workers in a large readymade garment manufacturer in India and then explore potential drivers of the... View Details

Keywords: Assortative Matching; Productivity; Global Buyers; Readymade Garments; Management; Employees; Performance Productivity

Research Summary

When Distance Shrinks: The Effects of Competitor Proximity on Firm Survival

What are the performance implications of locating close to firms in one's industry? The existing empirical evidence is mixed. In this paper I argue that proximity between firms affects their performance differently... View Details

29 Apr 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Comparing the Cash Policies of Public and Private Firms

Keywords: by Joan Farre-Mensa

Research Summary

The Strategic and Performance Consequences of CEO Succession

By: Rakesh Khurana

The argument of this paper (with Nitin Nohria) is that research on executive turnover treats the departures of predecessors and the origin of successors as independent events. This approach has led to mixed empirical findings with respect to measuring the effects of... View Details

October 2021
Article

Board Design and Governance Failures at Peer Firms

By: Shelby Gai, J. Yo-Jud Cheng and Andy Wu

Our study introduces board committees as a crucial determinant of board actions. We examine how directors who structurally link different board committees—referred to as multi-committee directors (MCDs)—explain why some board actions are merely symbolic while others... View Details

Keywords: Board Committees; Board Monitoring; New Director Nomination; Peer Financial Restatements; Governing and Advisory Boards; Corporate Governance; Performance Effectiveness

Article

The Information Technology Ecosystem: Structure, Health, and Performance

By: Marco Iansiti and Gregory L. Richards

A number of modern industries are organized as complex networks of firms whose integrated efforts are necessary to deliver value to end customers. The complexity of these networks, or business ecosystems, and the associated interdependencies among firms, make... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Networks; Value; Customers; Performance Productivity; Product; Applications and Software; Innovation and Invention; Competition; Business Model; Information Infrastructure; Information Technology Industry

August 2018
Case

Performance Improvement Consulting and Hi-R-Me: Making Sales Calls

By: Frank V. Cespedes and David Mattson

This case study focuses on a professional services firm (“Performance Improvement Consulting”) and its sales calls on Hi-R-Me, a potential client. The case is supplemented by videos showing the initial contact call, a follow-up discovery call, and a face-to-face... View Details

Keywords: Sales Calls; Sales; Competency and Skills

Educators

January 2002
Article

Organizational Endowments and the Performance of University Start-ups

By: Scott Shane and Toby E. Stuart

The question of how initial resource endowments—the stocks of resources that entrepreneurs contribute to their new ventures at the time of founding—affect organizational life chances is one of significant interest in organizational ecology, evolutionary... View Details

Keywords: Resource Allocation; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Research; Company History; Initial Public Offering; Venture Capital; Financing and Loans

March 2001
Article

Technological Acquisitions and the Innovation Performance of Acquiring Firms: A Longitudinal Study

By: Gautam Ahuja and Riitta Katila

This paper examines the impact of acquisitions on the subsequent innovation performance of acquiring firms in the chemicals industry. We distinguish between technological acquisitions, acquisitions in which technology is a component of the acquired firm's assets, and... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Acquisitions; Knowledge; Strategy; Knowledge Acquisition; Acquisition; Innovation and Invention; Chemical Industry

2019
Article

When Gender Diversity Makes Firms More Productive

By: Stephen Turban, Dan Wu and Letian Zhang

Does diversity make a company more productive? Many say yes—some researchers argue that gender diversity leads to more innovative thinking and signals to investors that a company is competently run. Others say no—conflicting research indicates that gender diversity can... View Details

Keywords: Gender; Diversity; Performance; Performance Productivity

February 2015 (Revised September 2017)
Supplement

Omar Selim: Building a Values-Based Asset Management Firm (B)

By: George Serafeim, Rebecca Henderson and Shannon Gombos

The case describes the decision of Omar Selim to set up Arabesque as an independent organization and how he organized Arabesque to use both financial and environmental, social and governance (ESG) data in order to deliver performance for its clients. View Details

Keywords: Social Entrepreneurship; Investing; Investment Management; ESG; Sustainability; Investment Banking; Leadership; Leadership & Corporate Accountability; Leadership Style; Business Model; Asset Management; Business Startups; Social Enterprise

08 Jul 2010
Working Paper Summaries

Surviving the Global Financial Crisis: Foreign Direct Investment and Establishment Performance

Keywords: by Laura Alfaro & Maggie Chen

01 Feb 2000
Research & Ideas

Keeping Track: Performance Measurement, Control & Strategy

professor Robert Simons has been adding to that body of knowledge and practice through an extensive research agenda that has resulted in numerous books, articles, and case studies. Working Knowledge editor Jim Aisner sat down recently with Professor Simons to talk... View Details

Keywords: Re: Robert Simons

2020
Article

Assessing the Impact of Big Data on Firm Innovation Performance: Big Data is not Always Better Data

By: Maryam Ghasemaghaei and Goran Calic

In this study, we explore the impacts of big data’s main characteristics (i.e., volume, variety, and velocity) on innovation performance (i.e., innovation efficacy and efficiency), which eventually impacts firm performance (i.e., customer perspective, financial... View Details

Keywords: Big Data; Analytics and Data Science; Performance; Innovation and Invention

1999
Dissertation

International Competition and the Efficiency of Firms

By: Christian H.M. Ketels

Keywords: Competition; Globalized Firms and Management; Performance Efficiency

June 2025
Article

Gender Diversity Performance and Voluntary Disclosure: Mind the (Gender Pay) Gap

By: June Huang and Shirley Lu

We study whether voluntary gender diversity disclosure is predictive of gender diversity performance. Exploiting a mandate in the United Kingdom that requires firms to disclose 2017 gender pay gap ("GPG") data for the first time, we find that providing voluntary gender... View Details

Keywords: Pay Gap; Diversity; Gender; Wages; Reputation; Corporate Disclosure; United Kingdom

SSRN

January 2022 (Revised February 2022)
Case

Introducing EVA at ISS: A Better Way to Evaluate CEO Performance and Compensation?

By: Jonas Heese, Charles C.Y. Wang and James Weber

In early 2019, Anthony Campagna, the global director of fundamental research at ISS EVA, a unit of the proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), was preparing to release ISS's analyses of public company performance and CEO compensation ahead of Say... View Details

Keywords: Jobs and Positions; Compensation and Benefits; Performance; Performance Productivity; Measurement and Metrics; Analytics and Data Science; Value; Business or Company Management; Performance Evaluation; Business and Shareholder Relations

Educators

Forthcoming
Article

No Line Left Behind: Assortative Matching Inside the Firm

By: Achyuta Adhvaryu, Vittorio Bassi, Anant Nyshadham and Jorge Tamayo

Keywords: Assortative Matching; Productivity; Global Buyers; Readymade Garments; Labor; Organizational Design; Performance Productivity; Fashion Industry