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"IF YOU CANNOT OFFER CEOS GOLDEN PARACHUTES, IT MAY BE HARD TO MOTIVATE THEM TO EXPLORE AND INNOVATE. THEY WILL BE TOO CONCERNED WITH THE NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES OF FAILURE." —Gustavo Manso, Sloan School of Management, MIT "People complain about golden parachutes given to CEOs, because they reward CEOs for bad perfor- mance. Some even propose regula- tions to limit the use of these instru- ments," he says. "These proposals, however, do not take into account the effects that such instruments UPCOMING & ONGOING n MANAGEMENT, SUPERSIZED The University of Oxford's Saïd Business School and British Tele- communications (BT) plan to establish a research center for major program management. The BT Centre for Major Programme Man- agement will focus on the challenges of high-value, long-term projects that impact millions of people, such as the Olympics. Major program management is a field "not cur- rently being served by any global business school," says Colin Mayer, dean of the Saïd Business School. The Centre will carry out multidisciplinary research and develop a master's degree program on the topic. Both the Centre and the degree program will launch in 2008. n THE VALUE OF ONLINE CONTENT Anindya Ghose, assistant profes- sor of information, operations, and management sciences at the Stern School of Business at New York University, was awarded a $500,000 research grant by the U.S. National Science Foundation. The grant will support Ghose's work to identify and measure the economic value of Internet-based information. Ghose will examine the effects of information exchang- es among buyers and sellers in may have on innovation. If you can- not offer CEOs golden parachutes, it may be hard to motivate them to explore and innovate. They will be too concerned with the negative consequences of failure." In his research, Manso concludes that the best incentives to innovate do electronic markets such as eBay and Amazon and assign a dollar value to each exchange. Ghose's research aims to provide recommendations to practitioners to improve the design and profitability of electronic mar- kets and online social networks. n NEW CENTER FOR REAL ESTATE Baylor University's Hankamer School of Business in Waco, Texas, has received a $5 million donation from Gary Keller of Keller Williams Realty to fund the creation of a new real estate research center. The cen- ter will explore "buyer-seller issues," including the factors driving the consumer's decision to pur- chase real estate, the consumer's perception of real estate agents, and the influence of the Internet on real estate purchases. n $2 MIL FOR DECISION RESEARCH The University of Chicago Gradu- ate School of Business in Illinois has received a $2.2 million grant from the John Templeton Foun- dation for the school's Center for Decision Research (CDR). The grant will be used to fund an interdisciplinary research project, "Understanding Human Nature to Harness Human Potential." Richard Thaler, a professor of not rely on typical pay-for-performance approaches. In addition to having a higher tolerance for failure, managers that successfully motivate employees to innovate are commited to long- term incentive plans, provide timely feedback on performance, and reward long-term success. behavioral science and economics, is director of the project. Thaler says the goal of the program is to attain better understanding of fun- damental human capabilities and tendencies and to use these basic tendencies that are often recog- nized as shortcomings to improve human functioning. The project will explore areas such as goal set- ting, spiritual values, the quality of life of the elderly, and the relation- ship between happiness and wealth. n FROM BIRMINGHAM TO INDIA A new research institution, the India Foundation for Applied Business Research, will open in Birmingham, England. The insti- tution is the result of a new part- nership between the Aston Busi- ness School and the Institute of Asian Businesses. Faculty at Aston will coordinate research and stud- ies in India, as well as the U.K. and the U.S., two of India's most important trading partners. n IBM TAPS ISB FOR SERVICE STUDY IBM Corp. and the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad recently signed an agreement to conduct joint research on service science, management, and engineering in India. As part of the agreement, ISB and IBM will generate research and develop case studies to improve services innovation. BizEd MAY/JUNE 2007 57