Publications

01 May 2018
News

Elon Musk’s Unusual Compensation Plan Isn’t Really About Compensation at All

November 2003 (Revised March 2008)
Case

Caja España: Managing the Branches to Sell (A)

By: Francisco de Asis Martinez-Jerez and Rosario de Albornoz

Juan Luis Rojas, commercial planning manager of a Caja de Ahorros (savings bank), faces the challenge of motivating the branches to sell more long-term mortgages and ponders whether to use transfer prices to achieve his objective. View Details

Keywords: Business Divisions; Banks and Banking; Resource Allocation; Organizational Design; Performance Improvement; Sales; Motivation and Incentives; Banking Industry

Profile

Ben Faw

deep personal interest of mine to wean ourselves from oil. When you have friends and colleagues who have given their lives in conflicts related to oil interests, you’re motivated to find ways to reduce oil... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit / Government; Technology; Manufacturing

July 2010 (Revised December 2010)
Case

Formosa Plastics Group: Business Continuity Forever

Wang Yung-ching, legendary Taiwanese businessman and philanthropist, passed away in 2008. He left behind an estate worth US $5.5 billion, but did not leave a will. The case discusses the potential motivation for Wang, and uses it to study succession planning for family... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Governance Controls; Management Succession; Family Ownership; Planning; Motivation and Incentives; Chemical Industry; Taiwan

22 Apr 2021
Blog Post

Launching the Women in Tech Initiative at HBS

This past year the HBS Tech Club launched a new group called the HBS Women in Tech Initiative. The mission of this group is to connect women who are interested in the tech industry and to empower women with the skills, confidence, View Details

05 Dec 2011
News

It's Alive!: Business Scholars Turn to Experimental Research

24 May 2023
Blog Post

Innovating, Funding, and Scaling Climate Solutions at Harvard Business School: Day Three of Harvard Climate Action Week

problems, and to instead be motivated to take collective action. “Thinking about the problems we face; it is a huge risk to the planet and a huge risk to all of us. The action... View Details

04 Dec 2008
News

Since Enron, Little Has Changed

June 1997 (Revised February 2012)
Background Note

A Note on Franchising

By: Paul A. Gompers and Catherine M. Conneely

Examines the motivations for franchising. Examines the academic literature in the area and draws implications for franchising patterns. Also provides data on franchising patterns. View Details

Keywords: Franchise Ownership

February 2000 (Revised August 2000)
Case

Microsoft Latin America

By: Robert S. Kaplan, Alberto Ballve and Antonio Davila

Mauricio Santillan, regional vice president for the Latin American division of Microsoft, has introduced a new performance measurement system to help his country managers formulate and control strategy. Microsoft Latin America's priorities are rolling out of an... View Details

Keywords: Balanced Scorecard; Applications and Software; Emerging Markets; Crime and Corruption; Motivation and Incentives; Management Skills; Global Strategy; Strategy; Information Technology Industry; Latin America

November 2011
Article

Corporate Governance When Founders Are Directors

By: Feng Li and Suraj Srinivasan

We examine CEO compensation, CEO retention policies, and M&A decisions in firms where founders serve as a director with a non-founder CEO (founder-director firms). We find that founder-director firms offer a different mix of incentives to their CEOs than other firms.... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Executive Compensation; Retention; Policy; Motivation and Incentives; Performance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Mergers and Acquisitions; Wages; United States

SSRN

Find at Harvard

Jul 2012
Article

A Better Way to Tax U.S. Businesses

The U.S. corporate tax code is broken. High rates and perverse incentives drive capital away from the corporate sector and toward other uses and... View Details

07 May 2021
News

IAE Compliance In Short Part One

July 1991 (Revised December 2018)
Compilation

Slavery

By: Thomas K. McCraw

Explores the general history of slavery in the United States. Through detailed exhibits and a text consisting of excerpts from six first-hand observations of slavery, this note is designed to present the ethics, economics (especially the perverse incentive systems),... View Details

Keywords: Slavery; Human Capital; History; Ethics; Social Issues; Motivation and Incentives; United States

21 Mar 2024
Blog Post

SVMP Gave Me the Courage to Fail

vulnerability involved in the process prompted me to reflect and truly determine my motivation and what I hoped to gain from the experience. Throughout the program, we were... View Details

28 Jul 2015
Blog Post

Nairobi Love: Heading Home

Ah, Nairobi! I love my home city...every time I return home, I am inspired by how much has changed, and motivated by how much opportunity there still remains for change. My family has been involved in public... View Details

24 Jul 2012
First Look

First Look: July 24

an Experiment with Commercial Bank Loan Officers Authors:Shawn Cole, Martin Kanz, and Leora Klapper Abstract This paper uses a series of experiments with commercial bank loan officers to test the effect of performance View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

31 Jan 2012
First Look

First Look: Jan. 31

duties in firms incorporated in that state. This change limited managers' incentives to take actions favoring equity over debt for firms in the vicinity of financial distress. We show that this ruling increased the likelihood of equity... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne & Carmen Nobel

February 2017
Background Note

A Note on Franchising (Abridged)

By: Paul A. Gompers

Examines the motivations for franchising. Examines the academic literature in the area and draws implications for franchising patterns. Also provides data on franchising patterns. View Details

Keywords: Franchise Ownership