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New research on individual and organizational performance from Harvard Business School faculty on issues including career advancement, assessment, and improving job effectiveness.
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Strategies for Underdogs: How Alibaba’s Taobao Beat eBay in China

In 2007, Alibaba’s Taobao became China’s leading consumer e-commerce marketplace, displacing the once dominant eBay. How did underdog Taobao do it? And will it be able to find a way to monetize its marketplace and ensure future success? Professor Felix Oberholzer-Gee discusses his case, “Alibaba’s Taobao,” and related strategy lessons from his new book, Better, Simpler Strategy: A Value-Based Guide to Exceptional Performance. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Steps to Help You Get Out of Your Own Way

by Sean Silverthorne

These research-based tips will help you slow down, fight the fog, and improve both your home life and work life. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Keep Your Weary Workers Engaged and Motivated

by Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams

Humans are motivated by four drives: acquire, bond, comprehend, and defend. Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams discuss how managers can use all four to keep employees engaged. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Employee Performance vs. Company Values: A Manager’s Dilemma

The Cold Call podcast celebrate its five-year anniversary with a classic case study. Harvard Business School Dean Nitin Nohria discusses the dilemma of how to treat a brilliant individual performer who can't work with colleagues. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Entrepreneurs (Co-) Working in Close Proximity: Impacts on Technology Adoption and Startup Performance Outcomes

by Maria P. Roche, Alexander Oettl, and Christian Catalini

In one of the largest entrepreneurial co-working spaces in the United States, startups are influenced by peer startups within a distance of 20 meters. The associated advantages for learning and innovation could be lost using at-a-distance work arrangements.

How Much Will Remote Work Continue After the Pandemic?

by Kristen Senz

A new survey suggests that at least 16 percent of employees will remain at-home workers long after COVID-19 recedes, report researchers Christopher Stanton, Zoe Cullen, and Michael Luca. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Scaling Up Behavioral Science Interventions in Online Education

by Rene F. Kizilcec, Justin Reich, Michael Yeomans, Christoph Dann, Emma Brunskill, Glenn Lopez, Selen Turkay, Joseph J. Williams, and Dustin Tingley

Online courses can lack support structures that are often bundled with traditional higher education. Short pre-course interventions can have short-term benefits, but more innovation throughout the course is needed to have sustained impact on student success.

No Line Left Behind: Assortative Matching Inside the Firm

by Achyuta Adhvaryu, Vittorio Bassi, Anant Nyshadham, and Jorge Tamayo

This paper studies how buyer relationships influence suppliers' internal organization of labor. The results emphasize that suppliers to the global market, when they are beholden to a small set of powerful buyers, may be driven to allocate managerial skill to service these relationships, even at the expense of productivity.

Nominal and Opportunity Effects of Managerial Discretion

by Wei Cai, Susanna Gallani, and Jee Eun Shin

This study of field data from a Chinese manufacturing company explores the consequences of subjective performance evaluations leading to bonuses and penalties. Results may help practitioners improve the effectiveness of incentive systems.

For Migrant Workers, Homesickness Can Reduce Productivity

by Kristen Senz

Workers in the global economy increasingly perform their jobs far away from home. It turns out, says Prithwiraj Choudhury, that homesickness is a significant barrier to their productivity. Here's what employers can do. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

NFL Head Coaches Are Getting Younger. What Can Organizations Learn?

by Boris Groysberg, Evan M.S. Hecht, and Abhijit Naik

Football team owners are hiring younger head coaches, hoping to unleash innovation and fresh thinking. How's that working out? Research by Boris Groysberg and colleagues. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

When to Apply?

by Katherine Coffman, Manuela Collis, and Leena Kulkarni

Using a series of experiments, the authors studied gender differences in how job-seekers perceive their own qualifications for different opportunities and how this affects their decision to apply. Results suggest that soft touch employer interventions can improve the diversity of applicant pools even if candidate beliefs about their own ability are unchanged.

When Your Passion Works Against You

by Dina Gerdeman

Passion is supposed to be the secret sauce that transforms average managers into dynamic leaders. The reality is more complicated, says Jon M. Jachimowicz. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

The Economic Cost of Physician Burnout

by Michael Blanding

Doctor burnout takes a toll on physicians and patient care, but there is another cost to be accounted for, says Joel Goh. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

How a New Leader Broke Through a Culture of Accuse, Blame, and Criticize

Children’s Hospital & Clinics COO Julie Morath sets out to change the culture by instituting a policy of blameless reporting, which encourages employees to report anything that goes wrong or seems substandard, without fear of reprisal. Professor Amy Edmondson discusses getting an organization into the “High Performance Zone.” Open for comment; 0 Comments.

What Machine Learning Teaches Us about CEO Leadership Style

by Michael Blanding

Tarun Khanna and Prithwiraj Choudhury use machine-learning technology to look for links between a CEO's communications style and company performance. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Distressed Employees? Try Resilience Training

by Dina Gerdeman

Depressed employees are up to five times more likely to experience work-related problems than employees with chronic physical illnesses. So why aren't employers helping them? asks Ashley Whillans. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Walmart's Workforce of the Future

by Julia Hanna

A case study by William Kerr explores Walmart's plans for future workforce makeup and training, and its search for opportunities from digital infrastructure and automation. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Are Super Stretch Goals Only for the Very Young?

by James Heskett

SUMMING UP: Super stretch goals can produce audacious results, but they are best left to companies agile enough to execute then, readers say. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

rTSR: When Do Relative Performance Metrics Capture Relative Performance?

by Paul Ma, Jee-Eun Shin, and Charles C. Y. Wang

Managers are increasingly evaluated based on relative performance metrics, particularly relative total shareholder returns (rTSR). This paper finds that the majority of firms that tie CEO performance-based contracts to rTSR do a remarkable job of filtering out the systematic risk in TSR. However, a significant portion of firms make relatively poor choices in the design and selection of rTSR, a result of weak governance and an overreliance on compensation consultants.