Motivation and Incentives →
- 02 Nov 2016
- What Do You Think?
Are Employees Becoming Job 'Renters' Instead of 'Owners'?
SUMMING UP While some employees have a mindset of "renting" their jobs while others "own" them, James Heskett's readers tend to agree that companies plays a large role in determining those attitudes. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 01 Jun 2016
- Working Paper Summaries
Motivating Effort in Contributing to Public Goods Inside Organizations: Field Experimental Evidence
Results of this experiment involving 1,200 employees shows that workers have multiple underlying motivations to contribute to organizational betterment, consisting of a combination of monetary and altruistic incentives associated with the organization’s mission.
- 23 Mar 2016
- Working Paper Summaries
Finding Excuses to Decline the Ask
An online experiment by Christine L. Exley and Ragan Petrie involving 6,000 potential donors to animal-rescue charities finds a 22 percent drop in interest in donating when individuals know “the ask” is coming and have time to develop excuses for not contributing. Results imply that nonprofits have a variety of options for better adapting how they solicit funds.
- 14 Mar 2016
- Working Paper Summaries
The Role of Incentive Salience in Habit Formation
Obesity is a serious problem in the United States. One established way to increase individuals’ exercise is to provide incentives, but merely offering them is not enough to change behavior. A field experiment with users of a pedometer-tracking app showed that marketing the incentives matters: Incentives that included a marketing component produced significantly more behavior change and more lasting exercise habits than incentives without significant marketing.
- 09 Feb 2016
- Working Paper Summaries
Executive Compensation and Misconduct: Environmental Harm
To what extent does executive compensation push firms into environmental law-breaking in particular and misconduct in general? This study finds that changing a CEO’s compensation from 100 percent stock to 100 percent options resulted in a 60 percent increased odds of environmental harm and close to a doubling of the magnitude of harm. We find similar results for financial accounting misconduct. A rule change making the higher powered incentives more costly for firms to provide reduced incidences.
- 15 Jan 2016
- Working Paper Summaries
Incentives for Prosocial Behavior: The Role of Reputations
This study documents how small monetary incentives discourage volunteering when they are public and thus introduce a “greedy” signal. The discouragement from this greedy signal, however, is less pronounced among volunteers with public reputations, or those who are likely known not to be too greedy.
- 21 Dec 2015
- Working Paper Summaries
Wage Elasticities in Working and Volunteering: The Role of Reference Points in a Laboratory Study
Nonprofit organizations often rely on reference points—explicit or implicit targets and goals—to encourage more effort from volunteers. This study finds that effort does tend to cluster around reference levels, so this may be perceived as a very effective strategy. Yet reference levels can potentially backfire: in response to higher volunteer wages or productivity, volunteers may reduce their effort so as to meet the reference level.
- 23 Nov 2015
- Working Paper Summaries
Self Control and Commitment: Can Decreasing the Liquidity of a Savings Account Increase Deposits?
John Beshears and colleagues find evidence to show commitment accounts can help would-be savers with self-control problems.
- 20 Nov 2015
- Working Paper Summaries
Impact Evaluation Methods in Public Economics: A Brief Introduction to Randomized Evaluations and Comparison with Other Methods
Dina Pomeranz examines the use by public agencies of rigorous impact evaluations to test the effectiveness of citizen efforts.
- 21 May 2015
- Working Paper Summaries
Incentives versus Reciprocity: Insights from a Field Experiment
Sales force compensation is a key instrument available to firms for motivating and enhancing sales performance. What are the most effective forms of compensation? In a field experiment involving four regional sales forces of a prominent firm in India, the authors examined the impact of conditional and unconditional bonus schemes. Findings from this study provide guidance to firms on how to use conditional and unconditional compensation to enhance sales rep productivity and better manage the achievement of sales forecasts. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 25 Aug 2014
- HBS Case
Starbucks Reinvented
Nancy Koehn's new case on the rebirth of Starbucks under Howard Schultz "distills 20 years of my thinking about the most important lessons of strategy, leadership, and managing in turbulence." Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 05 Jun 2014
- Research & Ideas
Fixing the ‘I Hate Work’ Blues
Many employees report they are overworked and not engaged—a recent New York Times article on the phenomenon was titled, "Why You Hate Work." The problem, says Bill George, is that the way we design work stifles engagement. Here's the fix. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 16 Dec 2013
- HBS Case
D’O: Making a Michelin-Starred Restaurant Affordable
Under the leadership of Chef Davide Oldani, the Italian restaurant D'O balances Michelin-star-level quality with affordable prices. In the following story and video, Professor Gary Pisano explains how Oldani does it. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 29 Oct 2013
- Research & Ideas
Do Employees Work Harder for Higher Pay?
In a recent field study, Duncan Gilchrist, Michael Luca, and Deepak Malhotra set out to answer a basic question: "Do employees work harder when they are paid more?" Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 15 May 2013
- Research & Ideas
From McRibs to Maseratis: The Power of Scarcity Marketing
In the new book Happy Money: the Science of Smarter Spending, behavioral economists Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton describe how money can buy happiness—but only if we spend it the right way. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 24 Apr 2013
- Research & Ideas
Who Sets Your Benchmarks?
In his new book, What You're Really Meant to Do, Robert Steven Kaplan outlines a step-by-step approach to defining success on your own terms. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 08 Apr 2013
- Research & Ideas
How to Demotivate Your Best Employees
Many companies hand out awards such as "employee of the month," but do they work to motivate performance? Not really, says professor Ian Larkin. In fact, they may turn off your best employees altogether. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 22 Mar 2013
- Research & Ideas
Pulling Campbell’s Out of the Soup
Campbell Soup had lost its way when Douglas Conant took charge in 2001. His first task: get out of his quiet zone and apply bold measures. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 20 Mar 2013
- Research & Ideas
How CEOs Sustain Higher-Ambition Goals
At a recent conference, executives underscored the importance of employee engagement, contributing to the community, and creating sustainable environment strategies. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
Populism and the Return of the 'Paranoid Style': Some Evidence and a Simple Model of Demand for Incompetence as Insurance Against Elite Betrayal
Two themes emerging from studies of populist discourse have been “betrayal” and disdain for scientific or technical competence as traditionally embraced by elites. This paper connects betrayal and competence to examine why voters sometimes choose the less competent candidate.