Publications

March 2019 (Revised March 2019)
Teaching Note

Populism in Bolivia: From Goni's Neoliberal Shock to Evo's Oil Contract Renegotiations

By: Rafael Di Tella, Vincent Pons and Nathaniel Schwalb

Teaching Note for HBS No. 719-001. View Details

22 May 2019
Podcast

From gig to gig: Thumbtack’s CEO on the challenges facing contract workers

The phrase “gig worker” often conjures an image of a driver providing a routine service for low pay. But freelancers provide services on a contracted, or “gig,” basis in a wide range of fields from cosmetology to carpentry. In this episode, Joe hosts Thumbtack CEO... View Details

Research Summary

Contract Rights and Risk Aversion: Foreign Banks and the Mexican Economy, 1997-2004

In 1997 Mexicos banking laws were reformed, allowing foreign banks, for the first time since the nineteenth century, to purchase controlling interests in the countrys largest banks. Foreign banks controlled 16 percent of Mexican bank assets in March 1997. By June... View Details

May 2001
Article

Empirical Strategies in Contract Economics: Information and the Boundary of the Firm.

By: George P. Baker and Thomas Hubbard

Keywords: Strategy; Economics; Information; Business Ventures

1985
Chapter

Implicit Labor Contracts Viewed as Options: A Discussion of 'Insurance Aspects of Pensions'

By: Robert C. Merton

Keywords: Compensation and Benefits; Decision Choices and Conditions; Contracts; Labor and Management Relations; Insurance

27 Mar 2024
News

Corporate Culture Homogeneity and Top Executive Incentive Design: Evidence from CEO Compensation Contracts

2024
Working Paper

Corporate Culture Homogeneity and Top Executive Incentive Design: Evidence from CEO Compensation Contracts

By: Dennis Campbell, Ruidi Shang and Zhifang Zhang

We examine how corporate cultures characterized by high degrees of homogeneity in the underlying values and beliefs of organizational members are related to the design of CEO incentive compensation contracts. We argue that culture homogeneity within firms lowers... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Culture; Compensation Design; Accounting; Management Control; Incentive Systems; Organizational Culture; Job Design and Levels; Governance; Executive Compensation; Motivation and Incentives

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Article

Organization Structure, Contract Design and Government Ownership: A Clinical Analysis of German Privatization

March 2008 (Revised April 2009)
Case

The Xiamen PX Project: The Rule of Contract or Citizens in China Today

This case examines the effect of environmental activism on China's investment climate, focusing on the petrochemical sector. It shows how tensions between a country's national economic development goals and political constraints make for a more unpredictable investment... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Investment; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Business and Government Relations; Environmental Sustainability; Conflict and Resolution; China

August 2013
Teaching Note

Multiasistencia: Redefining the Relationship with Its Service Professionals

By: F. Asis Martinez-Jerez

Multiasistencia, a major Spanish BPO of insurance repairs, is changing the relational contract with its service profesionals from a referral model to a guaranteed workload one. View Details

Keywords: Outsourcing; Incentives; Relational Contracts; Business Model; Motivation and Incentives; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Contracts; Insurance Industry; Spain

May 1977 (Revised October 1989)
Case

International Business Machines (F): Contracting for the Development and Manufacture of a New Machine

June 2013
Case

Multiasistencia: Redefining the Relationship with Its Service Professionals

By: F. Asis Martinez-Jerez, Maria Garcia Perez and Katherine M. Miller

Multiasistencia, a major Spanish BPO of insurance repairs, is changing the relational contract with its service professionals from a referral model to a guaranteed workload one. View Details

Keywords: Outsourcing; Incentives; Relational Contracts; Business Model; Motivation and Incentives; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Contracts; Insurance Industry; Spain

Educators

1982
Other Unpublished Work

Teaching Note for Comet Energy (A) (B) (C) DoD Incentive Contracting - HBS Teaching Note

By: J. Ronald Fox

Keywords: Contracts; Business and Government Relations; National Security; Decision Making

December 2004 (Revised December 2004)
Background Note

Fiscal Policy and the Case of Expansionary Fiscal Contraction in Ireland in the 1980s

By: Huw Pill

Provides a brief introduction to fiscal policy, including the fiscal multiplier. Uses Ireland's experience in the 1980s to explore the possibility that fiscal contractions--tax rises and expenditure costs--can stimulate economic growth (contrary to conventional... View Details

Keywords: Sovereign Finance; Policy; Macroeconomics; Economic Growth; Republic of Ireland

Educators

July 2004
Article

When a Contract Isn't Enough: How to Be Sure Your Agent Gets You the Best Deal

By: James K. Sebenius

Keywords: Contracts

Article

Matching in Networks with Bilateral Contracts: Corrigendum

By: John William Hatfield, Ravi Jagadeesan and Scott Duke Kominers

Hatfield and Kominers (2012) introduced a model of matching in networks with bilateral contracts and showed that stable outcomes exist in supply chains when firms' preferences over contracts are fully substitutable. Hatfield and Kominers (2012) also asserted that in... View Details

Keywords: Matching With Contracts; Substitutability; Mathematical Methods

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Article

If You Are Offered the Right of First Refusal, Should You Accept? An Investigation of Contract Design

By: Brit Grosskopf and Alvin E. Roth

Keywords: Contracts; Design; Rights

November 2012 (Revised April 2013)
Case

Konys, Inc.

By: Deishin Lee and Tunay I. Tunca

This case describes the sourcing policy for a consumer electronics company. The company must decide how to structure contracts with their supplier—using a purchase contract, an option contract, or combination of the two. The company can also buy from the spot market.... View Details

Keywords: Option Contract; Uncertainty; Sourcing; Supplier Relationship; Risk and Uncertainty; Contracts; Supply Chain; Consumer Products Industry; Electronics Industry

Educators