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The World Management Survey at 18: Lessons and the Way Forward

by Daniela Scur, Raffaella Sadun, John Van Reenen, Renata Lemos, and Nicholas Bloom

With a dataset of 13,000 firms and 4,000 schools and hospitals spanning more than 35 countries, the World Management Survey provides a systematic measure of management practices used in organizations. This paper gives an overview of lessons learned and a management policy toolkit for policymakers.

How Do CEOs Make Strategy?

by Mu-Jeung Yang, Michael Christensen, Nicholas Bloom, Raffaella Sadun, and Jan Rivkin

A study of 262 Harvard Business School-educated CEOs traces differences in strategic decision-making across managers. CEOs leading larger, faster-growing firms tend to make highly structured strategic decisions and use more analytical deliberation. Management education has long-lasting effects on decision-making.

18 Tips Managers Can Use to Lead Through COVID's Rising Waters

by Sean Silverthorne

Here are recent ideas for managing through the pandemic on the topics of people management, strategy, marketing, and organizational design. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

You're Right! You Are Working Longer and Attending More Meetings

by Danielle Kost

A study of 3 million people confirms what many work-from-home employees already know: We're swamped. Research by Raffaella Sadun, Jeffrey Polzer, and colleagues. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Collaborating During Coronavirus: The Impact of COVID-19 on the Nature of Work

by Evan DeFilippis, Stephen Michael Impink, Madison Singell, Jeffrey T. Polzer, and Raffaella Sadun

This study of 16 cities is the first large-scale analysis of how digital communication patterns have changed in the early stages of the pandemic. The overall pattern of more meetings and more emails points to a spillover of virtual communication beyond normal working hours.

Restarting Under Uncertainty: Managerial Experiences from Around the World

by Raffaella Sadun, Andrea Bertoni, Alexia Delfino, Giovanni Fassio, and Mariapaola Testa

A survey of 50 companies across countries and industries reveals business leaders are hard at work adapting to the COVID threat. Research by Raffaella Sadun and colleagues. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

6 Ways That Emerging Technology Is Disrupting Business Strategy

by Danielle Kost

How are AI, data analytics, and the Internet of Things changing the way business leaders think about strategy? Harvard Business School faculty members discuss how emerging technology has changed the rules of competition. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

What Hospitals Must Learn to Compete

by Alumni Bulletin Staff

3QUESTIONS Why is it so difficult for American health care providers to compete for customers? Raffaella Sadun and Leemore Dafny discuss why health care needs a business strategy. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

The Impact of CEOs in the Public Sector: Evidence from the English NHS

by Katharina Janke, Carol Propper, and Raffaella Sadun

To what extent do CEOs impact their organizations? This study finds little consistent evidence of any CEO effect on the large set of production metrics examined in hospitals averaging 4,500 employees in the English National Health Service. This result stands in stark contrast with earlier findings of a CEO effect in the private sector and smaller public sector organizations.

Come Together: Firm Boundaries and Delegation

by Laura Alfaro, Nick Bloom, Paola Conconi, Harald Fadinger, Patrick Legros, Andrew F. Newman, Raffaella Sadun, and John Van Reenen

The study develops a simple model and provides new data to examine the relationship between vertical integration and delegation of decision-making, two critical aspects of a firm organizational design that are typically studied in isolation. The results show that delegation and vertical integration are positively correlated.

Healthy Business? Managerial Education and Management in Healthcare

by Nicholas Bloom, Raffaella Sadun, Renata Lemos, and John Van Reenen

A hospital's proximity to a university supplying both business and clinical education is associated with higher management practice scores and better clinical outcomes.

First Look at New Research and Ideas, October 10, 2017

Sean Silverthorne

Measuring sales the right way ... Does crime desensitize victims? ... Innovation in a 100-year-old medical devices giant .

Turbulence, Firm Decentralization and Growth in Bad Times

by Philippe Aghion, Nicholas Bloom, Brian Lucking, Raffaella Sadun, and John Van Reenen

What makes some firms more resilient than others to large negative macro shocks? This paper finds that the internal organization of firms—specifically, the extent to which decision-making is decentralized from headquarters to plant managers—is an important mediating factor through which macroeconomic shocks affect firm performance and, ultimately, growth.

New Research and Ideas, May 9

Sean Silverthorne

How Do You Reorg Big Bird? ... Organized for a downturn ... Finding a new market for Fitbit.

CEO Behavior and Firm Performance

by Oriana Bandiera, Stephen Hansen, Andrea Pratt, and Raffaella Sadun

This paper combines a new survey methodology with a machine learning algorithm to measure the behavior of CEOs in large samples. Results show that larger and more complex firms require CEOs with a more coordinative—and less micromanaging—behavior. Inefficiencies in the way CEOs match with firms have important consequences for firm productivity.

First Look at New Research, March 21

Sean Silverthorne

The rise and fall of the circus ... Do CEOs impact firm performance? ... The hidden power of a job referrer.

These Management Practices, Like Certain Technologies, Boost Company Performance

by Michael Blanding

Management practice acts exactly as a new technology might in giving companies competitive advantage—and there is a right way and a wrong way to do things, says a new study by Raffella Sadun and colleagues. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Management as a Technology?

by Nicholas Bloom, Raffaella Sadun, and John Van Reenen

Economists, business people and many policymakers have long believed that management practices are an important element in productivity. This study provides firm-level measures of management in an internationally comparable way, drawing on original data on over 11,000 firms across 34 countries. Differences in management practices account for about 30 percent of cross-country productivity differences.

Does Management Matter in Schools?

by Nicholas Bloom, Renata Lemos, Raffaella Sadun & John Van Reenen

There are major disparities in the quality of education within and across countries. School managerial practices may be one important reason for such differences, but research in this area has traditionally been held back by a lack of robust and comparable instruments to systematically measure management practices. In this paper the authors develop a novel and internationally comparable index of management quality for schools, and apply this methodology to measure management practices across 1,800 private and public schools across eight developed and developing economies. Three key findings emerged. First, the adoption of basic managerial practices varies significantly across and within countries. The United Kingdom, Sweden, Canada and the US obtain the highest average scores, followed by Germany, Italy and Brazil, while India has the lowest scores. Second, higher management scores are positively correlated with better pupil outcomes. Third, they show that that—similar to the private sector—different types of school governance are associated with systematically different levels of management adoption. Key concepts include: Management practices vary significantly across and within countries and are strongly linked to pupil outcomes. Among autonomous government schools, two key features account for a large fraction of the superior management performance of such schools: 1) having strong accountability of principals to an external governing body and 2) exercising strong leadership through a coherent long-term strategy for the school. Improving management could raise school standards and could give broad support for the fostering of greater autonomy of government schools. Autonomy by itself is unlikely to deliver better results. However, finding ways to improve governance and motivate principals could make sure that decentralized power leads to better standards. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

Banning Big-box Stores Can Hurt Local Retailers

by Carmen Nobel

Research by Raffaella Sadun shows how regulations meant to protect independent retailers from big-box stores may actually backfire. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.