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This study aims to examine how highly innovative firms behave differently from their peers to become profitable. The authors investigate this through two distinct groups, one group of firms that have appeared on the Forbes 100 most innovative firms for 5 out of the past 10 years and a carefully curated control group.

Using a matched sample of 190 distinct firms, all with 10 years of historical data, the authors conduct a series of regressions and two mediated models. This method enables the examination of several possible differentiators for highly innovative firms, namely, CEO Pay, CEO Pay Ratio, Median Employee Pay and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

In all, the authors conducted five separate hypothesis tests, all with statistical significance. Of note, the authors find innovative companies do pay employees more, engage in more CSR acts and are more profitable than peer companies. In a mediated regression model, the authors also find that the median employee pay fully mediates the relationship between firm innovation and corporate financial performance.

The study first shows that these highly innovative firms do not reach a position to rely merely on their innovation reputation to be profitable or attract eager employees. The authors find no relationship between years on the Forbes 100 list and profitability, median pay or total CSR in the data.

This research uses commonly available data to explore how innovative firms behave. Rather than being single-mindedly focused on innovation, results indicate that innovative elite firms are more generous (in employee pay) and concerned about non-profit factors (CSR) than their peers. Innovative firms are then able to do all this and remain profitable. An additional implication of this research is that managers should prioritize CSR. CSR is not just a tool for less innovative companies to distinguish themselves or firms with low reputations to rehabilitate themselves.

As a society, we are living through unprecedented times concerning how we treat one another in the world. Often, the argument is made that firms should specialize, optimize and be strategically focused. However, highly innovative firms (often regarded as focused, specialized and optimized) in the sample show that paying people more and carrying out CSR is highly compatible with their success.

To the best of the researchers’ collective knowledge, this study is the only one of its kind to create and use such a robust data set, obtaining data from four different sources, namely, 10 years of Forbes top 100 innovative companies, SEC filing of the DEF 14 A for each company for two years, the Kinder, Lyndenberg and Domini database for 10 years and Compustat data for 10 years.

Higher education plays a critical role in the health of the US national economy. At the same time, there are increasing concerns regarding the cost of higher education and the effectiveness with which universities are using their money. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to examine changes in higher education productivity over the past 15 years across a sample of more than 500 public universities spanning multiple Carnegie classifications. By utilizing measures generated by a commission of the National Education Council, however, attention is more finely focused on the specific costs and outputs related to instructional activity than previous studies.

This research utilizes the recommendations of the National Education Center committee to examine productivity changes in higher education over the past 14 years. To that end, the hypotheses put forth in this research utilize 15 years data of Institutional Primary Education Data, 549 institutions and 3 productivity measures to assess how productivity in higher education has changed between 2002 and 2015.

The results of the present research suggest that instructional activity (measured as multifactor productivity) has increased in all Carnegie classifications between 2002 and 2016.

The present study, organized by Carnegie classification, does not specify the cost of increased instructional productivity. As noted, there are concerns regarding whether at least some of the choices a university might make to increase instructional productivity – such as increased class size and/or an increased use of non-tenure track faculty – could adversely influence the quality of instruction and/or diminish student learning. Further, this research does not examine the relationship between research productivity and increasing instructional productivity.

The present study does not address the bigger question of whether the increasing costs of higher education are justified, because universities produce much more than student credit hours. While, in an ideal world, these various outputs will complement one another and utilize at least some of the same resources, each has its own unique inputs and associated expenses. Given this, an overall assessment of the value or productivity of a university as a whole is a very difficult thing to determine and is well beyond the scope of a single study.

The present study explicitly focuses on the instructional component of universities and relationship between output and inputs. Ultimately, providing a clearer picture of how instructional productivity in higher education has been increasing over the past 14 years.

This research is the only research of its kind to the best knowledge of the researchers.

The purpose of this paper is to explore whether socially responsible firms recognize the potential conflicts that come with higher levels of executive compensation, and thus limit executive pay relative to what is being paid in other firms. In the process, the relationships between executive compensation and financial performance, and corporate social performance and financial performance are examined to determine whether potential compensation and social performance links are coming at the expense of company financial performance.

The empirical data for this research were obtained from a stratified sample of Fortune 1000 companies pulled from across more than 15 industries. Multiple regression analysis is utilized to test three hypotheses.

In line with the hypotheses, results indicate that companies identified as good corporate social performers do in fact have lower levels of executive compensation and there is some support found for a positive relationship between social and financial performance.

The results provide support for the view that firms concerned about social responsibility can put restrictions on executive compensation and still achieve good financial performance, and make a case that executive compensation should in fact be a concern of all socially responsible firms.

There are few studies that examine the direct link between executive compensation and corporate social responsibility. This study addresses this gap in the literature and adds to the discussion as to whether socially responsible firms might seek to better balance compensation across the firm and emphasize that profit, both individual and corporate, must be earned within a system that is fair and balanced for all.

This study aims to examine how firm strategy may affect customer satisfaction in relationship to service the characteristics of quality, servicescape and value. Specifically, this research utilizes Porter's depiction cost leaders and differentiation strategy to suggest customers may be satisfied even if they rate value or quality lower than for another similar firm.

This research utilizes survey data gathered from 179 customers of four services representing two industry segments. Analysis of variance is utilized to test four hypotheses proposing firm strategy may affect customer rating of a service characteristic, while customers may still remain loyal with high levels of customer satisfaction.

The results support the assertion that customer expectations of firm strategy may enable firms in the same industry to receive very different ratings on service characteristics such as value, quality and servicescape, while having equally loyal and satisfied customers.

The results point to the importance of aligning firm strategy and operational decisions when seeking to maximize customer satisfaction. Decision-makers benefit from understanding how strategy matters in service operational choices.

This research connects strategy and operations academic disciplines, highlighting the importance of linking firm competitive strategy with service operation choices to enhance customer satisfaction. The model developed here, supported with empirical results, provides decision-makers with an important tool to help determine the competitive payoff for investment in service dimensions.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

Customers are often satisfied with a service or product when it falls short of the value or quality they can find from another firm which is in the same business. On the face of it that might sound, to fall back on a currently over-used word, counter-intuitive. However, it is not. The highly successful UK supermarkets Aldi, which focusses on a more basic value for money shopping “experience”, and posh Waitrose could hardly be considered rivals in the way that Sainsbury and Tesco are. They operate fundamentally in the same sphere without having to worry too much about one another. The satisfied customers at Aldi and Waitrose have very different expectations from one another.

The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.