Linda-Eling Lee

• Managing Director at MSCI

Since its green shoots first emerged around 50 years ago, acceptance of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations in institutional investing—especially in pension funds—has evolved with distinct shifts in investor preferences. This Pension Research Council volume traces these shifts and their implications, leading up to the present...

Since its green shoots first emerged around 50 years ago, acceptance of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations in institutional investing—especially in pension funds—has evolved with distinct shifts in investor preferences. This Pension Research Council volume traces these shifts and their implications, leading up to the present...

This article uses the study of two environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data vendors—KLD and Innovest—to exemplify the “social origins of ESG issues” argument made by Eccles and Stroehle in their 2018 working paper “Exploring Social Origins in the Construction of ESG Measures.” Based on in-depth interviews with the organizations’ founders an...

Low volatility is one of the few factors that have historically performed well in turbulent markets. Moreover, over long periods of time, this defensive strategy has produced a premium over the market, contravening one of the most basic theories in finance — that one should not be rewarded with greater returns for taking less than market risk. Sinc...

The current economic recession has provided managers With a tempting environment for acquiring "star" employees on the cheap. But the track record Of Such acquisitions of human capital has been mixed, with many companies failing to integrate their new talent. The authors have found that, to build a top-notch organization of star employees, companie...

In this article, we argue that the existence of greater organizational resources, in the form of higher quality colleagues, acts as a retention mechanism. We test our hypotheses using a panel data set of securities analysts in 24 securities firms over a 9-year period. Results show that analysts working with higher quality colleagues are less likely...

This paper examines exploration and exploitation in professional service firms by focusing on the individuals who carry out the exploration and exploitation activities. Specifically, we examine the performance of star security analysts who join new firms in exploration versus exploitation roles. We find that stars hired to explore (initiate new act...

Using a unique panel dataset of top performing security analysts over a nine-year period, we show that top performers do not “own” their performance, even in the knowledge-intensive work performed in this professional business services context. While an individual's past performance does indicate future performance, the quality of colleagues in one...

This paper examines the portability of star security analysts' performance. Star analysts who switched employers experienced an immediate decline in performance that persisted for at least five years. This decline was most pronounced among star analysts who moved to firms with lesser capabilities and those who moved solo, without other team members...

Motivating employees begins with recognizing that to do their best work, people must be in an environment that meets their basic emotional drives to acquire, bond, comprehend, and defend. So say Nohria and Groysberg, of Harvard Business School, and Lee, of the Center for Research on Corporate Performance. Using the results of surveys they conducted...

This paper proposes a theory for understanding more broadly across domains when producers are more likely to express and privilege their own quality ideals. I argue that when goods or services are less transparent to consumers and more socially symbolic, their producers have greater autonomy to express their own quality ideals and to make productio...