scholarly journals Middle Managers, Personnel Turnover and Performance: A Long-Term Field Experiment in a Retail Chain

Author(s):  
Guido Friebel ◽  
Matthias Heinz ◽  
Nick Zubanov
2017 ◽  
Vol 107 (8) ◽  
pp. 2168-2203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guido Friebel ◽  
Matthias Heinz ◽  
Miriam Krueger ◽  
Nikolay Zubanov

In a field experiment with a retail chain (1,300 employees, 193 shops), randomly selected sales teams received a bonus. The bonus increases both sales and number of customers dealt with by 3 percent. Each dollar spent on the bonus generates $3.80 in sales, and $2.10 in profit. Wages increase by 2.2 percent while inequality rises only moderately. The analysis suggests effort complementarities to be important, and the effectiveness of peer pressure in overcoming free-riding to be limited. After rolling out the bonus scheme, the performance of the treatment and control shops converges, suggesting long-term stability of the treatment effect. (JEL D22, J31, J33, L25, L81, M53, M54)


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guido Friebel ◽  
Matthias Heinz ◽  
Nikolay Zubanov

In a randomized controlled trial, a large retail chain’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) sets new goals for the managers of the treated stores by asking them to “do what they can” to reduce the employee quit rate. The treatment decreases the quit rate by a fifth to a quarter, lasting nine months before petering out, but reappearing after a reminder. There is no treatment effect on sales. Further analysis reveals that treated store managers spend more time on human resources (HR) and less on customer service. Our findings show that middle managers are instrumental in reducing personnel turnover, but they face a trade-off between investing in different activities in a multitasking environment with limited resources. The treatment does produce efficiency gains. However, these occur only at the firm level. This paper was accepted by Joshua Gans, business strategy.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Javier Reyes ◽  
Mareike Ließ

<p>Soil organic carbon (SOC) is of particular interest in the study of agricultural systems as an indicator of soil quality and soil fertility. In the use of Vis-NIR spectroscopy for SOC detection, the interpretation of the spectral response with regards to the importance of individual wavelengths is challenging due to the soil’s composition of multiple organic and minerals compounds. Under field conditions, additional aspects affect the spectral data compared to lab conditions. This study compared the spectral wavelength importance in partial least square regression (PLSR) models for SOC between field and lab conditions. Surface soil samples were obtained from a long-term field experiment (LTE) with high SOC variability located in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Data sets of Vis-NIR spectra were acquired in the lab and field using two spectrometers, respectively. Four different preprocessing methods were applied before building the models. Wavelength importance was observed using variable importance in projection. Differences in wavelength importance were observed depending on the measurement device, measurement condition, and preprocessing technique, although pattern matches were identifiable, especially in the NIR range. It is these pattern matches that aid model interpretation to effectively determine SOC under field conditions.</p>


1960 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 136-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. B. MacLeod ◽  
R. F. Bishop ◽  
L. P. Jackson ◽  
C. R. MacEachern ◽  
E. T. Goring

In a field experiment, conducted from 1936 to 1957, a rotation of swedes, oats and hay was followed and treatments included commercial fertilizers and manure.Changes in the chemical composition of the soil during the experiment included significant decreases in soil organic matter, total nitrogen and cation exchange capacity. In no case was the initial content of exchangeable potassium maintained and although changes in adsorbed and easily acid-soluble phosphorus were negligible with a number of treatments only one resulted in a significant increase.The treatments were applied in the swede year and yield differences with this crop were greater than for either the oats or hay. Data for the latter two crops indicated that with most of the treatments there was a tendency for yields to decline as the experiment progressed. This was not the case with swedes where variation in yields with rotation cycles was greater than it was in the case of oats or hay. There was a considerable residual effect from manure, and phosphorus had a greater effect on yields than either nitrogen or potassium.


2019 ◽  
Vol 143 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gijs van Dijk ◽  
Leon P. M. Lamers ◽  
Roos Loeb ◽  
Piet-Jan Westendorp ◽  
Rick Kuiperij ◽  
...  

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