• Complementarities
• HRM
• Incentives
• Shared Capitalism

Productivity differences hold across businesses and countries and are a major source for the variations in per capita GDP. Through the analysis of several field and laboratory experiments I show that management plays a key role in the productivity level of companies. In particular I focused on the role played by HRM practices and other types of incentives.

Shared capitalism compensation plans and high-involvement HRM arrangements act like a technology in the field of personnel governance and are positively related to higher labour productivity, higher earnings, lower absenteeism, higher quality of the production and innovation. However, the incentive and selection effects are successful only when the company adopts a coherent set of complementary practices. Indeed, the implementation of stand alone procedures performs lower results and can also lead to negative counter effects.

According to Evolutionary Theory, complementarities and path-dependency determine the actual adoption of the innovative HRM technology. They lead to multiple equilibria and explain for productivity differentials at the business and the country level.