Working Papers
There are 357 working paper digests.
A large number of Harvard Business School faculty write working papers that summarize original research in a narrow segment of a field of study, and that are intended for publication within a period of one to three years. Descriptions and papers are posted on the HBS Faculty and Research Web site. Our archive focuses on those working papers that are publicly accessible for download. We add an executive summary to the author’s own abstract. For the most recent work, see our First Look section.
Matching Firms, Managers, and Incentives
| Authors: | Oriana Bandiera, Luigi Guiso, Andrea Prat, and Raffaella Sadun |
|---|---|
| Published: | March 18, 2010 |
| Paper Release Date: | March 2010 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
Do different kinds of firm ownership drive the adoption of different managerial practices? HBS professor Raffaella Sadun and coauthors focus on the difference between the two most common ownership modes, family firms and firms that are widely held, namely that have no dominant owner. They find that the greater weight attached by family firms to benefits from control induces a conflict of interest between family-firm owners and high-ability, risk-tolerant managers.
Conceptual Foundations of the Balanced Scorecard
| Author: | Robert S. Kaplan |
|---|---|
| Published: | March 17, 2010 |
| Paper Release Date: | March 2010 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
This article documents the precursors of the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) strategic performance management tool and describes the evolution of the BSC since its introduction in 1992 in the Harvard Business Review. During the last 15 years, the BSC has been adopted by thousands of private, public, and nonprofit enterprises around the world. HBS professor Robert S. Kaplan, who created the concept and tool with David Norton, explains the roots and motivation for their original article as well as subsequent innovations that connect it to a larger management literature.
The Many Faces of Nonprofit Accountability
| Author: | Alnoor Ebrahim |
|---|---|
| Published: | March 11, 2010 |
| Paper Release Date: | February 2010 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
Nonprofit leaders face multiple, and sometimes competing, accountability demands: from numerous actors (upward, downward, internal), for varying purposes (financial, governance, performance, mission), and requiring differing levels of organizational response (compliance and strategic). Yet is it feasible, or even desirable, for nonprofit organizations to be accountable to everyone for everything? The challenge for leadership and management is to prioritize among competing accountability demands. This involves deciding both to whom and for what they owe accountability. HBS professor Alnoor Ebrahim provides an overview of the current debates on nonprofit accountability, while also examining the tradeoffs inherent in a range of accountability mechanisms.
A Reexamination of Tunneling and Business Groups: New Data and New Methods
| Authors: | Jordan I. Siegel and Prithwiraj Choudhury |
|---|---|
| Published: | March 10, 2010 |
| Paper Release Date: | February 2010 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
"Tunneling" refers to efforts by firms' controlling owner-managers to take money for themselves at the expense of minority shareholders. Looking at emerging economies in general and at India in particular, HBS professor Jordan I. Siegel and doctoral student Prithwiraj Choudhury argue for a simultaneous analysis of corporate governance and strategic activity differences in order to reveal the quality of firm-level corporate governance. The development of rigorous methodology in corporate governance is not merely an academic issue but has enormous real-world consequences. It is critical that scholars gain deeper empirical and theoretical insights into the question of whether these business groups serve primarily as theft devices for the controlling owners, or whether they serve primarily as a positive force that enables the creation of scale and scope efficiencies.
Will I Stay or Will I Go? Cooperative and Competitive Effects of Workgroup Sex and Race Composition on Turnover
| Authors: | Kathleen L. McGinn and Katherine L. Milkman |
|---|---|
| Published: | March 5, 2010 |
| Paper Release Date: | February 2010 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
Inequalities in the senior ranks by sex and race remain rampant in up-or-out knowledge organizations such as consulting firms, law firms, and universities. HBS professor Kathleen L. McGinn and Wharton School professor Katherine L. Milkman focus on patterns of voluntary and involuntary turnover over six years in one such organization to untangle the multiple ways in which social identity influences career mobility. Predicting that higher proportions of demographically similar supervisors will reduce the likelihood of subordinate turnover, while higher proportions of demographically similar peers will increase the likelihood of turnover, the researchers find evidence of the hypothesized effects. They suggest that integrating research about social cohesion and social comparison enhances understanding of racial and gender inequality within organizations and facilitates organizations' ability to reduce that inequality.
The Determinants of Individual Performance and Collective Value in Private-Collective Software Innovation
| Authors: | Ned Gulley and Karim R. Lakhani |
|---|---|
| Published: | March 4, 2010 |
| Paper Release Date: | February 2010 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
Why do people expend personal time and effort toward creating a public good? Over the past decade, collaborative, community-based approaches to developing knowledge-intensive products like encyclopediae, music, and software have gained prominence in both practice and scholarly analysis. "Open source software development," for example, is distinguished by self-selection of distributed participants into tasks, free revealing of knowledge, collective creation of shared software artifacts, and participants' ability to generate new innovations by reinterpreting and repurposing knowledge and artifacts created by others. The MathWorks' Ned Gulley and HBS professor Karim R. Lakhani study the determinants of individual performance and collective value in software innovation by analyzing 11 programming competitions that mimic the working of the open source software community.
Accelerating Innovation In Energy: Insights from Multiple Sectors
| Authors: | Rebecca M. Henderson and Richard G. Newell |
|---|---|
| Published: | February 24, 2010 |
| Paper Release Date: | February 2010 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
How should the energy sector best respond to the threat of climate change? In this introductory chapter to a forthcoming book, Harvard Business School's Rebecca M. Henderson and Richard G. Newell of Duke University frame the discussion by highlighting the volume's contributions concerning four particularly innovative sectors of the U.S. economy: agriculture, chemicals, life sciences, and information technology. These four sectors have been extraordinarily important in driving recent economic growth. Henderson and Newell describe why accelerating innovation in energy could play an important role in shaping an effective response to climate change.
The Evolution of Science-Based Business: Innovating How We Innovate
| Author: | Gary P. Pisano |
|---|---|
| Published: | February 19, 2010 |
| Paper Release Date: | January 2010 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
Science has long been connected to innovation and thus to the business enterprise. However, the nature of the connection between science and business in recent decades has begun to change in important ways. On the one hand, we have witnessed the decline of corporate industrial laboratories. At the same time, we have seen the emergence of a new class of entrepreneurial firms that are deeply immersed in science in sectors like biotech, nanotech, and more recently energy. HBS professor Gary P. Pisano examines the changing nature of the science-business intersection and describes the emergence of a science-based business as a novel organizational form. He also describes the institutional and organizational challenges created by this convergence.
The Mirroring Hypothesis: Theory, Evidence and Exceptions
| Authors: | Lyra Colfer and Carliss Y. Baldwin |
|---|---|
| Published: | February 18, 2010 |
| Paper Release Date: | January 2010 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
In its simplest form, the mirroring hypothesis suggests that the organizational patterns of a development project, such as communication links, geographic collocation, and team and firm membership, correspond to the technical patterns of dependency in the system under development. According to the hypothesis, independent, dispersed contributors develop largely modular designs, while richly interacting, collocated contributors develop highly integral designs. Yet many development projects do not conform to the mirroring hypothesis. HBS doctoral student Lyra Colfer and professor Carliss Y. Baldwin synthesize observations from a large number of cases that violate the hypothesis to explain when and how development organizations can "break the mirror."
The Architecture of Complex Systems: Do Core-periphery Structures Dominate?
| Authors: | Alan MacCormack, Carliss Y. Baldwin, and John Rusnak |
|---|---|
| Published: | February 11, 2010 |
| Paper Release Date: | January 2010 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
All complex systems can be divided into a nested hierarchy of subsystems. However, not all these subsystems are of equal importance: Some subsystems are core to system performance, whereas others are only peripheral. In this study, HBS professor Carliss Y. Baldwin and coauthors developed methods to detect the core components in a complex software system, establish whether these systems possess a core-periphery structure, and measure important elements of these structures. The general patterns highlight the difficulties a system architect faces in designing and managing such systems. Results represent a first step in establishing stylized facts about the structure of real-world systems.
Investing in Improvement: Strategy and Resource Allocation in Public School Districts
| Author: | Stacey Childress |
|---|---|
| Published: | February 10, 2010 |
| Paper Release Date: | January 2010 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
The operating environments of public school districts are largely void of the market forces that reward a company's success with more capital and exert pressure on it to eventually abandon unproductive activities. HBS senior lecturer Stacey Childress describes the strategic resource decisions in 3 of the 20 public school districts that she and colleagues have studied through the Public Education Leadership Project at Harvard. The stories in San Francisco, New York City, and Maryland's Montgomery County occurred largely before the districts faced dramatic decreases in revenues, though they show the superintendents facing budget concerns near the end of the narratives. Even so, the situations share common principles that superintendents and their leadership teams can use to make differentiated resource decisions—reducing spending in some areas and increasing it in others with a clear rationale for why these decisions will produce results for students.
Accountability and Control as Catalysts for Strategic Exploration and Exploitation: Field Study Results
| Author: | Robert L. Simons |
|---|---|
| Published: | February 3, 2010 |
| Paper Release Date: | January 2010 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
The need for organizations to both exploit current resources and explore new opportunities is a central and long-standing theme in the literature of organizations. The challenge, of course, is that these two imperatives require very different structures and skills. Exploitation demands a focus on efficiency and effectiveness in executing preset plans and procedures. Exploration requires the ability to step outside these routines by emphasizing experimentation, creativity, and novelty. In this study, HBS professor Robert L. Simons focuses on the relationship between two organization design variables—span of control and span of accountability. Using data from 102 field studies, he illustrates how these variables can be manipulated by managers to tilt the balance toward either exploration or exploitation in response to different tasks, different organizational contexts, and changing competitive environments.
Does Product Market Competition Lead Firms To Decentralize?
| Authors: | Nicholas Bloom, Raffaella Sadun, and John Van Reenen |
|---|---|
| Published: | January 28, 2010 |
| Paper Release Date: | January 2010 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
There is a widespread sense that over the last two decades firms have been decentralizing decisions to employees further down the managerial hierarchy. Economists have developed a range of theories to account for delegation, but there is less empirical evidence, especially across countries. This has limited the ability to understand the phenomenon of decentralization. Nicholas Bloom, HBS professor Raffaella Sadun, and John Van Reenen assembled a new data set on about 4,000 firms across 12 countries in Europe, North America, and Asia, and then measured the delegation of authority from central headquarters to local plant managers.
Labor Regulations and European Private Equity
| Authors: | Ant Bozkaya and William R. Kerr |
|---|---|
| Published: | January 27, 2010 |
| Paper Release Date: | December 2009 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
Recent theoretical models predict that countries with stricter labor policies will specialize in less innovative activities due to the higher worker turnover frequently associated with rapidly changing sectors. HBS visiting scholar Ant Bozkaya and HBS professor William R. Kerr examine how differences in labor regulations across European countries influence the development of private equity markets, comprised of venture capital and buy-out investors. In so doing, the researchers provide the first empirical evidence for this theoretical prediction at the industry level in the entrepreneurial finance literature. They also make a methodological contribution by demonstrating how jointly modeling the different policies for providing worker insurance delivers more consistent results than their individual relationships would indicate by themselves.
Competing Ad Auctions: Multi-homing and Participation Costs
| Authors: | Itai Ashlagi, Benjamin G. Edelman, and Hoan Soo Lee |
|---|---|
| Published: | January 22, 2010 |
| Paper Release Date: | January 2010 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
Joining ad platforms can attract substantial regulatory attention: In November 2008, the Department of Justice planned to file antitrust charges to stop the proposed Google-Yahoo transaction. More recently, in September 2009, the Department of Justice sought additional information from Microsoft and Yahoo about their proposed partnership. At first glance it might seem paradoxical to claim that the Google-Yahoo transaction is undesirable, for advertisers and for the economy as a whole, while the Microsoft-Yahoo transaction offers net benefits. But that conclusion is entirely possible. HBS professor Benjamin G. Edelman and doctoral candidates Itai Ashlagi and Hoan Soo Lee explore competition among ad platforms that offer search engine advertising services. In addition, the authors evaluate possible transactions among ad platforms—building tools to predict which transactions improve welfare and which impede it.
Going Through the Motions: An Empirical Test of Management Involvement in Process Improvement
| Author: | Anita L. Tucker |
|---|---|
| Published: | January 21, 2010 |
| Paper Release Date: | December 2009 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
How can managers better lead their organizations to improve work processes? Describing their study of hospitals over an 18-month period, HBS professor Anita L. Tucker and Harvard School of Public Health professor Sara J. Singer detail how and why managers' taking action was more effective than their communicating about actions taken. Findings suggest, first, that taking action on known problems in specific work areas on at least a quarterly basis may improve the organizational climate for improvement. Second, the study indicates that managers would be well advised to take action-preferably substantive and intense action-in response to frontline workers' communications about problems. Overall, the research provides insight for senior managers who want to improve their organization's climate for process improvement.
Optimal Auction Design and Equilibrium Selection in Sponsored Search Auctions
| Authors: | Benjamin G. Edelman and Michael Schwarz |
|---|---|
| Published: | January 14, 2010 |
| Paper Release Date: | January 2010 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
Reserve prices may have an important impact on search advertising marketplaces. But the effect of reserve prices can be opaque, particularly because it is not always straightforward to compare "before" and "after" conditions. HBS professor Benjamin G. Edelman and Yahoo's Michael Schwarz use a pair of mathematical models to predict responses to reserve prices and understand which advertisers end up paying more.
Private Equity and Industry Performance
| Authors: | Shai Bernstein, Josh Lerner, Morten Sørensen, and Per Strömberg |
|---|---|
| Published: | January 13, 2010 |
| Paper Release Date: | December 2009 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
In response to the global financial crisis that began in 2007, governments worldwide are rethinking their approach to regulating financial institutions. Among the financial institutions that have fallen under the gaze of regulators have been private equity (PE) funds. There are many open questions regarding the economic impact of PE funds, many of which cannot be definitively answered until the aftermath of the buyout boom of the mid-2000s can be fully assessed. HBS professor Josh Lerner and coauthors address one of these open questions, by examining the impact of PE investments across 20 industries in 26 major nations between 1991 and 2007. In particular, they look at the relationship between the presence of PE investments and the growth rates of productivity, employment, and capital formation.
International Differences in the Size and Roles of Corporate Headquarters: An Empirical Examination
| Authors: | David Collis, David Young, and Michael Goold |
|---|---|
| Published: | January 7, 2010 |
| Paper Release Date: | December 2009 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
Are small headquarters more nimble and efficient than large ones? Not necessarily, according to HBS adjunct professor David Collis and coauthors David Young and Michael Goold. Even within a single industry in one country, the variance can be enormous: In Germany in the late 1990s, for instance, Hoechst, the chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturer, had only 180 people in the headquarters function at the same time that Bayer had several thousand. This paper seeks to fill gaps in the research by using a unique database of over 600 companies in seven countries to determine whether systematic differences in the size and roles of corporate headquarters between countries actually exist, and if so, how they differ. In particular, the authors examine whether there is a systematic difference between market- and bank-centered economies, and between developed and developing countries.
Published in 2009
The Global Networks of Multinational Firms
| Authors: | Laura Alfaro and Maggie Chen |
|---|---|
| Published: | December 23, 2009 |
| Paper Release Date: | December 2009 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
When and why do multinationals group together overseas? Do they agglomerate in the same fashion abroad as they do at home? An answer to these questions is central to the long-standing debate over the consequences of foreign direct investment (FDI). It is critical to understand interdependencies of multinational networks and how multinationals influence one another in their activities at home and overseas. HBS professor Laura Alfaro and George Washington University professor Maggie Chen examine the global network of multinationals and study the significance and causes of multinational agglomeration. Their results provide further evidence of the increasing separation of headquarters services and production activities within multinational firms. The differential specialization of headquarters and subsidiaries leads to distinct patterns of agglomeration.
