Publications
Publications
Show Results For
-
All HBS Web
(1,881)
- Faculty Publications (635)
Page 1 of
635
Results
→
- September 2023
- Article
Corporate Purpose in Public and Private Firms
By: Claudine Gartenberg and George Serafeim
Analyzing data from approximately 1.5 million employees across 1,108 established public and private US companies, we find that the strength of employee beliefs related to purpose is weaker in public companies. Among public companies, those beliefs are stronger for...
View Details
- August 2023
- Teaching Note
Kunshan, Incorporated: The Making of China’s Richest Town
By: William C. Kirby and Noah B. Truwit
Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 313-103. The case is designed to give the students an understanding of the local Chinese entrepreneurial state and how foreign and Chinese firms have worked with it to create China’s richest small city. The major themes are—local state...
View Details
- June 2023
- Case
Creating World-Class Board Governance at SECO
By: Krishna G. Palepu and Emer Moloney
In Spring 2023, SECO CEO Massimo Mauri had the ambition to grow the €200 million revenue technology company to a €1 billion company by 2030. Founded in Italy in the 1970s, the family-owned company had gone through a period of growth and internationalization,...
View Details
Keywords:
Family Business;
Business Model;
Acquisition;
Business Growth and Maturation;
Talent and Talent Management;
Customer Focus and Relationships;
Engineering;
Governance;
Corporate Governance;
Governing and Advisory Boards;
Growth and Development Strategy;
Compensation and Benefits;
Retention;
Innovation and Invention;
Technological Innovation;
Going Public;
Strategic Planning;
Business and Shareholder Relations;
Business Strategy;
Information Infrastructure;
Information Technology;
Value Creation;
Organizational Change and Adaptation;
Computer Industry;
Electronics Industry;
Industrial Products Industry;
Information Technology Industry;
Technology Industry;
Italy;
Europe;
Germany;
United States;
China
- May–June 2023
- Article
The High Cost of Neglecting Low-Wage Workers: Six Mistakes That Companies Make—and How They Can Do Better
By: Joseph Fuller and Manjari Raman
Many companies blame outside factors for the trouble they’ve been having in finding and retaining frontline workers: the pandemic, the government’s stimulus checks, the intrinsic nature of low-wage work. The authors argue that in fact the real problem lies in six big...
View Details
- 2023
- Article
Conduit Incentives: Eliciting Cooperation from Workers Outside of Managers' Control
By: Susanna Gallani
Can managers use monetary incentives to elicit cooperation from workers they cannot reward for their efforts? I study “conduit incentives,” an innovative incentive design, whereby managers influence bonus-ineligible workers’ effort by offering bonus-eligible employees...
View Details
Keywords:
Organizational Behavior Modification;
Peer Monitoring;
Persistence Of Performance Improvements;
Crowding Out;
Implicit Incentives;
Compensation;
Healthcare;
Social Pressure;
Image Motivation;
Incentives;
Motivation;
Performance;
Behavior;
Motivation and Incentives;
Compensation and Benefits;
Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms;
Organizational Culture;
Health Industry;
California
- May 2023
- Article
Incentive Effects of Subjective Allocations of Rewards and Penalties
By: Wei Cai, Susanna Gallani and Jee-Eun Shin
We examine the incentive effects of subjectivity in allocating tournament-based rewards and punishments. We use data from a company where reward and punishment decisions are based on a combination of objective metrics and subjective performance assessments. Rankings...
View Details
- April 24, 2023
- Article
In the COVID Era, Why Corporate Benefits Demand CEO/CFO Leadership
The expectation that employers provide their employees’ health benefits has been around since World War II. Unfortunately, although today’s employees expect employers to treat them as individuals, ease their experiences, prioritize their wellbeing, and control cost,...
View Details
Keywords:
COVID;
COVID-19 Pandemic;
CEO;
Leadership;
Health Insurance;
Benefits;
CFO;
Compensation and Benefits
- April 2023 (Revised July 2023)
- Case
Fermenting Accounting Problems at Vermont Kombucha Corp.
By: Tatiana Sandino and Marshal Herrmann
Founded in 2005, Vermont Kombucha Corp. (V-Ko) was an early mover in the fledgling U.S. market for kombucha, a drink brewed for its health benefits. Early on, the company captured more than 90% of market share. Under the leadership of its founder and CEO, Joe Williams,...
View Details
- Spring 2023
- Article
Incentive Contract Design and Employee-Initiated Innovation: Evidence from the Field
By: Wei Cai, Susanna Gallani and Jee-Eun Shin
This study examines how the design of incentive contracts for tasks defined as workers’ official responsibilities (i.e., standard tasks) influences workers’ propensity to engage in employee-initiated innovation (EII). EII corresponds to innovation activities that are...
View Details
- April 2023
- Teaching Note
Netflix’s Culture: Binge or Cringe?
By: Hubert Joly, Leonard A. Schlesinger, James Barnett and Stacy Straaberg
In April 2022, streaming entertainment company Netflix lost customers for the first time in more than 10 years. Once a first mover in the streaming landscape, Netflix was facing competition from Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, HBO Max, and others. A key component of...
View Details
Keywords:
Compensation and Benefits;
Employees;
Recruitment;
Resignation and Termination;
Retention;
Selection and Staffing;
Innovation and Management;
Innovation Strategy;
Leadership Style;
Business or Company Management;
Management Style;
Media;
Business Processes;
Organizational Culture;
Organizational Structure;
Performance Expectations;
Performance Productivity;
Creativity;
Business Strategy;
Entertainment and Recreation Industry;
Media and Broadcasting Industry;
Motion Pictures and Video Industry;
Video Game Industry;
North America;
California;
Canada;
Europe;
Middle East;
Africa;
Asia;
Latin America
- March 2023
- Case
Walmart’s Live Better U
By: Boris Groysberg, Annelena Lobb and Kerry Herman
Walmart’s Live Better U (LBU) program, which allowed its frontline employees and managers to attend college at Walmart’s expense, had expanded and changed over the course of five years. How could Walmart better develop the program for its associates and use it to meet...
View Details
- March 2023 (Revised May 2023)
- Background Note
Workforce Change: The Hidden Costs of Layoffs and Managing Staff Reductions
By: Sandra J. Sucher, Marilyn Morgan Westner and Christopher Diak
Globally, over the past fifty years, more companies have used layoffs to cut costs during periods of decreased demand or economic downturns. But layoffs have far-reaching consequences, generate hidden costs, and harm the company in myriad ways. This note reviews ways...
View Details
- March 2023 (Revised June 2023)
- Case
Layoffs in the Tech Industry: 2022–2023
By: Sandra J. Sucher and Marilyn Morgan Westner
This case examines the mass layoffs that swept through the tech industry (2022-2023) through the lens of four companies: Twitter, Stripe, Meta, and Google. How these companies implemented workforce change through mass layoffs raises critical questions applicable beyond...
View Details
- March 2023
- Teaching Note
Hikma Pharmaceuticals Governance Journey
By: Suraj Srinivasan and Jonah Goldberg
Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 318108. The case opens with Said Darwazah, chairman and CEO of Hikma Pharmaceuticals, the multinational generics company, anticipating the company’s 2017 AGM and reflecting on changes made over the previous year to address concerns...
View Details
Keywords:
Jordan;
Emerging Market;
Private Sector;
For-profit Firms;
Boards Of Directors;
Pharmaceuticals;
Remuneration;
Shareholder Engagement;
Corporate Governance;
Governing and Advisory Boards;
Business and Shareholder Relations;
Executive Compensation;
Business Growth and Maturation;
Pharmaceutical Industry;
Jordan
- January 2023
- Case
Gerald Weiss (2023)
By: Brian J. Hall, Carleen Madigan, Andrew Wasynczuk and Caroline Witten
Gerald Weiss left Wall Street for the promise of a CFO position at a well-established corporation. He was given a 10-year options package with a guaranteed floor of $12 million and unlimited upside. To ensure the entire package would be worth at least $12 million after...
View Details
- January 2023
- Teaching Note
The Opioid Settlement and Executive Pay at AmerisourceBergen
By: Suraj Srinivasan and Li-Kuan Ni
Teaching Note for HBS Case No 122-014. In 2020, AmerisourceBergen Corporation, a Fortune 50 company in the drug distribution industry, agreed to settle thousands of lawsuits filed nationwide against the company for its opioid distribution practices that critics alleged...
View Details
Keywords:
Opioids;
Shareholder Activism;
Investment Activism;
Corporate Accountability;
Corporate Governance;
Governance Compliance;
Governance Controls;
Executive Compensation;
Risk Management;
Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact;
Business and Shareholder Relations;
Business and Stakeholder Relations;
Distribution Industry;
Health Industry;
Pharmaceutical Industry;
United States;
West Virginia;
Tennessee;
Ohio;
Pennsylvania
- January–February 2023
- Article
Rethink Your Employee Value Proposition: Offer Your People More Than Just Flexibility
By: Mark Mortensen and Amy C. Edmondson
A lot of leaders believe that the formula for attracting and keeping talent is simple: Just ask people what they want and give it to them. The problem is, that approach tends to address only the material aspects of jobs that are top of employees’ minds at the moment,...
View Details
- 2023
- Working Paper
The Market for CEOs: Evidence from Private Equity
By: Paul A. Gompers, Steven N. Kaplan and Vladimir Mukharlyamov
Most research on the CEO labor market studies public company CEOs while largely ignoring CEOs in private equity (PE) funded companies. We fill this gap by studying the market for CEOs among U.S. companies purchased by PE firms in large leveraged buyout transactions....
View Details
- 2023
- Working Paper
Too Many Managers: The Strategic Use of Titles to Avoid Overtime Payments
By: Lauren Cohen, Umit Gurun and N. Bugra Ozel
We find widespread evidence of firms appearing to avoid paying overtime wages by exploiting a
federal law that allows them to do so for employees termed as “managers” and paid a salary above a
pre-defined dollar threshold. We show that listings for salaried positions...
View Details