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What Drives Differences in Management?

Author

Listed:
  • Nicholas Bloom
  • Erik Brynjolfsson
  • Lucia Foster
  • Ron S. Jarmin
  • Megha Patnaik
  • Itay Saporta-Eksten
  • John Van Reenen

Abstract

Partnering with the Census we implement a new survey of “structured” management practices in 32,000 US manufacturing plants. We find an enormous dispersion of management practices across plants, with 40% of this variation across plants within the same firm. This management variation accounts for about a fifth of the spread of productivity, a similar fraction as that accounted for by R&D, and twice as much as explained by IT. We find evidence for four “drivers” of management: competition, business environment, learning spillovers and human capital. Collectively, these drivers account for about a third of the dispersion of structured management practices.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicholas Bloom & Erik Brynjolfsson & Lucia Foster & Ron S. Jarmin & Megha Patnaik & Itay Saporta-Eksten & John Van Reenen, 2017. "What Drives Differences in Management?," NBER Working Papers 23300, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23300
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • L2 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior
    • M2 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Economics

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