Publications

1992
Chapter

Making Performance Appraisal Work

By: M. Beer

Keywords: Performance Evaluation

2005
Report

Measuring Innovation: Evaluation in the Field of Social Entrepreneurship

By: Mark R. Kramer

Social Entrepreneurship has brought a new vision to the ﬁeld of philanthropy and, with it, a different perspective on evaluation. In fact, many familiar approaches to evaluation in philanthropy miss the key criteria that funders consider essential to success within the... View Details

Keywords: Social Entrepreneurship; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Performance Evaluation

21 May 2019
Working Paper Summaries

rTSR: When Do Relative Performance Metrics Capture Relative Performance?

Keywords: by Paul Ma, Jee-Eun Shin, and Charles C. Y. Wang; Financial Services

2025
Working Paper

Evaluations Amid Measurement Error: Determining the Optimal Timing for Workplace Interventions

By: Matthew DosSantos DiSorbo, Iavor I. Bojinov and Fiammetta Menchetti

Researchers have embraced factorial experiments to simultaneously evaluate multiple treatments, each with different levels. Typically, in large-scale factorial experiments, the primary objective is identifying the treatment with the largest causal effect, especially... View Details

Keywords: Factorial Designs; Fisher Randomizations; Rank Estimators; Employer Interventions; Causal Inference; Mathematical Methods; Performance Improvement

SSRN

2024
Working Paper

The Uneven Impact of Generative AI on Entrepreneurial Performance

By: Nicholas G. Otis, Rowan Clarke, Solène Delecourt, David Holtz and Rembrand Koning

Scalable and low-cost AI assistance has the potential to improve firm decision-making and economic performance. However, running a business involves a myriad of open-ended problems, making it difficult to know whether recent AI advances can help business owners make... View Details

Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Performance Improvement; Small Business; Decision Choices and Conditions; Kenya

SSRN

December 2022
Article

Social Skills Improve Business Performance: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial with Entrepreneurs in Togo

By: Stefan Dimitriadis and Rembrand Koning

Recent field experiments demonstrate that advice, mentorship, and feedback from randomly assigned peers improve entrepreneurial performance. These results raise a natural question: what is preventing entrepreneurs and managers from forming these peer connections... View Details

Keywords: Social Skills; Business Performance; Entrepreneurs; Peer Relationships; Field Experiment; Entrepreneurship; Performance; Relationships; Interpersonal Communication; Togo

24 Nov 2020
Cold Call Podcast

Evaluating Innovative Health Care Solutions for Obesity

Keywords: Re: Regina E. Herzlinger; Health

Program

Driving Nonprofit Performance and Innovation—Virtual

Summary Performance measurement is essential for organizational innovation, learning, and success. Nonprofits, however, must evaluate social or environmental outcomes as well as financial performance, and... View Details

May 2014
Case

Building a High Performance Culture at IDFC

By: V.G. Narayanan and Vidhya Muthuram

IDFC was set up in 1997 to direct private finance to infrastructure projects in India. Over the years, it expanded its capabilities to become a 'complete solutions provider' offering financing solutions including debt and equity, investment banking, brokerage and asset... View Details

Educators

August 2012 (Revised August 2024)
Module Note

Evaluating the Viability of Innovative Technology-Commercializing Ventures

By: Regina E. Herzlinger

A guide for how a person who is not an expert in either technology nor business can, nevertheless, exaluate whether two promising innovative medical technologies are technically and/or financially feasible. Hint: I would not invest in either. View Details

Keywords: Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

2009
Working Paper

Specific Knowledge and Divisional Performance Measurement

By: Michael C. Jensen and William H. Meckling

This paper discusses five common divisional performance measurement methods—cost centers, revenue centers, profit centers, investment centers, and expense centers—providing a theory that explains when each of these methods is likely to be the most efficient. The... View Details

Keywords: Business Units; Business Headquarters; Decisions; Cost; Investment; Investment Return; Profit; Revenue; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Managerial Roles; Performance Efficiency; Strategy

SSRN

Research Summary

Economics of Organization and Firm Performance

A great deal of theoretical and empirical research indicates that economic actors should organize activities so as to minimize the 'transaction costs' associated with managing these activities. But little is known about the consequences of violating this prescription.... View Details

2020
Article

Mutual Funds: Skill and Performance

By: Jonathan B. Berk, Jules van Binsbergen and Max Miller

The authors summarize the recent literature on mutual fund manager skill and performance. They discuss the latest contributions in the field and reinterpret them through the lens of the rational expectations framework (efficient market hypothesis). They further discuss... View Details

Keywords: Investment Return; Investment Portfolio; Financial Management; Performance Evaluation; Measurement and Metrics

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14 Apr 2014
News

A Better Path to High 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

December 2024
Article

Public Attitudes on Performance for Algorithmic and Human Decision-Makers

By: Kirk Bansak and Elisabeth Paulson

This study explores public preferences for algorithmic and human decision-makers (DMs) in high-stakes contexts, how these preferences are shaped by performance metrics, and whether public evaluations of performance differ depending on the type of DM. Leveraging a... View Details

Keywords: Public Opinion; Prejudice and Bias; Decision Making

October 2007 (Revised February 2008)
Background Note

Evaluating M&A Deals: Accretion vs. Dilution of Earnings-per-share

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin

When discussing the pros and cons of an acquisition, practitioners often talk about the impact of the deal on the buyer's earnings-per-share (eps). An acquisition is said to be "accretive" if the buyer's eps goes up post-deal; it is "dilutive" if the buyer's eps goes... View Details

Keywords: Business Earnings; Mergers and Acquisitions; Private Equity; Negotiation Deal

Educators

February 2023
Supplement

Performance Management at Afreximbank (B)

By: Robert S. Kaplan, Siko Sikochi, Anna Ngarachu and Namrata Arora

Supplements the (A) case. Founded in October 1993, the Cairo-based African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) was a specialized continental financial institution designed to address the low level of intra-African trade, the decline in financial flows to Africa, the... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Performance Evaluation; Organizational Culture; Crisis Management; Banking Industry; Africa

March 2009
Background Note

Evaluating M&A Deals: Floors, Caps, and Collars

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin

As equity consideration has become more popular in acquisitions, so has the use of the "pricing-protection" mechanisms, such as floors, caps, and collars. These contractual devices provide insurance to the shareholders of the target and may protect the buyer as well.... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Equity; Price; Contracts; Business and Shareholder Relations

Educators