Tatiana Sandino
Arthur Lowes Dickinson Professor of Business Administration
Arthur Lowes Dickinson Professor of Business Administration
Tatiana Sandino is the Arthur Lowes Dickinson Professor of Business Administration in the Accounting and Management Unit, most recently teaching and undertaking the role of course head for the required first-year MBA course Financial Reporting and Control. She has also taught the second-year MBA course Mastering Strategy Execution, the doctoral course Management Control and Performance Measurement, and teaches various executive programs such as Driving Corporate Performance and Driving Profitable Growth.
Professor Sandino's research examines how organizations use management control systems—systems put in place by managers to ensure the actions and decisions of employees are consistent with the organization’s objectives. She is particularly interested in addressing challenges associated with scaling up businesses. Her research has been focused on introducing management control systems in growing, multiunit organizations (such as retailers, banks, hotels, or restaurant chains). As these organizations grow, founders implement management systems to maintain consistency and achieve economies of scale. But these systems can limit the organization’s flexibility to take advantage of new opportunities and enter new markets. Professor Sandino looks at design choices of management control systems to enable agility: how systems can be designed to empower employees, promote an engaging organizational environment, and nurture their intrinsic motivation to create value.
Professor Sandino’s work has been published in The Accounting Review, the Journal of Accounting and Economics, the Journal of Accounting Research, Management Science, and Contemporary Accounting Research. Her research has also been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The Huffington Post, Harvard Business Review, CNBC, NPR news, and Strategic Finance among others. Professor Sandino is an editor of The Accounting Review and has also served as an editor of the Journal of Management Accounting Research.
Professor Sandino earned her doctorate from Harvard Business School, her MBA from INCAE Business School, Managua, Nicaragua, and her Licentiate degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Costa Rica. Prior to joining the HBS faculty, Professor Sandino was an Assistant Professor at the Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California, where she received the Dean’s Award for Research Excellence. She has received various other awards for her research and student mentorship, and the Greenhill Award for outstanding contributions to Harvard Business School.
- Featured Work
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Many service organizations rely on information sharing systems to boost employee creativity to meet customer needs. We conducted a field experiment in a retail chain, based on a registered report accepted by JAR, to test whether an information sharing system recording employees’ creative work affected the quality of creative work, job engagement, and financial performance. We found that, on average, this system did not have a significant effect on any outcomes. However, it significantly improved the quality of creative work in stores that had accessed the system more frequently and in stores with fewer same-company nearby stores. It also improved creative work and job engagement in stores in divergent markets, where customers needed more customization. We found weak evidence of better financial results where salespeople had lower creative talent before the system was introduced. Our findings shed light on those conditions in which information sharing systems affect employees’ creative work.In this study we examine whether, for a sample of retail chains, high levels of employee compensation can deter employee theft, an increasingly common type of fraudulent behavior. Specifically, we examine the extent to which relative wages (i.e., employee wages relative to the wages paid to comparable employees in competing stores) affect employee theft as measured by inventory shrinkage and cash shortage. Using two store-level datasets from the convenience store industry, we find that relative wages are negatively associated with employee theft after we control for each store’s employee characteristics, monitoring environment, and socio-economic environment. Moreover, we find that relatively higher wages also promote social norms such that coworkers are less (more) likely to collude to steal inventory from their company when relative wages are higher (lower). Our research contributes to an emerging literature in management control that explores the effect of efficiency wages on employee behavior and social norms.Executive compensation consultants face potential conflicts of interest that can lead to higher recommended levels of CEO pay, including the desires to “cross-sell” services and to secure “repeat business.” We find evidence in both the US and Canada that CEO pay is higher in companies where the consultant provides other services, and that pay is higher in Canadian firms when the fees paid to consultants for other services are large relative to the fees for executive-compensation services. Contrary to expectations, we find that pay is higher in US firms where the consultant works for the board rather than for management.Many companies operate units that are dispersed across different types of markets, serving significantly diverging customer bases. Such dispersion is likely to compromise headquarters' ability to control local managers' behavior and satisfy the needs of different customer types. In this study we find that market-type dispersion is an important determinant of the delegation of decision rights and the provision of incentives. Using a sample of convenience store chains, we show that market-type dispersion is positively associated with the degree of franchising at the chain level as well as the probability of franchising a given store within a chain. Our results are robust to alternative definitions of market-type dispersion and to other determinants of franchising such as the stores' geographic dispersion. Additional analyses suggest that chains that do not franchise cope with market-type dispersion by decentralizing operations from headquarters to their stores and providing their store managers higher variable pay.
- Academic Papers
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- Deller, Carolyn, and Tatiana Sandino. "Who Should Select New Employees, Headquarters or the Unit Manager? Consequences of Centralizing Hiring at a Retail Chain." Accounting Review 95, no. 4 (July 2020): 173–198. View Details
- Murphy, Kevin J., and Tatiana Sandino. "Compensation Consultants and the Level, Composition, and Complexity of CEO Pay." Accounting Review 95, no. 1 (January 2020): 311–341. View Details
- Deller, Carolyn, and Tatiana Sandino. "Effects of a Tournament Incentive Plan Incorporating Managerial Discretion in a Geographically Dispersed Organization." Management Science 66, no. 2 (February 2020): 911–931. View Details
- Li, Shelley Xin, and Tatiana Sandino. "Effects of an Information Sharing System on Employee Creativity, Engagement, and Performance." Journal of Accounting Research 56, no. 2 (May 2018): 713–747. View Details
- Chen, C. X., and Tatiana Sandino. "Can Wages Buy Honesty? The Relationship Between Relative Wages and Employee Theft." Journal of Accounting Research 50, no. 4 (September 2012): 967–1000. View Details
- Huelsbeck, D., K. Merchant, and Tatiana Sandino. "On Testing Business Models." Accounting Review 86, no. 5 (September 2011): 1631–1654. (Awarded a Research Grant from the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.) View Details
- Sandino, Tatiana. "Developing Good Measures to Advance Management Accounting and Control Research: A Discussion of 'Corporate Frugality: Theory, Measurement and Practice'." Contemporary Accounting Research 28, no. 4 (Winter 2011): 1388–1396. View Details
- Murphy, K. J., and Tatiana Sandino. "Executive Pay and 'Independent' Compensation Consultants." Journal of Accounting & Economics 49, no. 3 (April 2010): 247–262. View Details
- Campbell, Dennis, Srikant M. Datar, and Tatiana Sandino. "Organizational Design and Control across Multiple Markets: The Case of Franchising in the Convenience Store Industry." Accounting Review 84, no. 6 (November 2009): 1749–1779. View Details
- Ferri, F., and Tatiana Sandino. "The Impact of Shareholder Activism on Financial Reporting and Compensation: The Case of Employee Stock Options Expensing." Accounting Review 84, no. 2 (March 2009): 433–466. View Details
- Sandino, Tatiana. "Introducing the First Management Control Systems: Evidence from the Retail Sector." Accounting Review 82, no. 1 (January 2007): 265–293. (Awarded the Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award, 2005, Management Accounting Section, American Accounting Association; Awarded the Emerging Scholar Competitive Manuscript Award, 2011, Foundation for Applied Research, Institute of Management Accountants.) View Details
- Working Papers
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- Bol, Jasmijn, Robert Grasser, Serena Loftus, and Tatiana Sandino. "The Impact of Culture Consistency on Subunit Outcomes." Working Paper, January 2024. View Details
- Li, Shelley Xin, and Tatiana Sandino. "Effects of Structured Sharing of Best Practices in an Unstructured Information Sharing System." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 21-085, February 2021. (Revised March 2023.) View Details
- Buell, Ryan W., Wei Cai, and Tatiana Sandino. "When Does Gamified Training Improve Performance? The Roles of Office and Leader Engagement." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 19-101, March 2019. (Revised October 2023.) View Details
- Karaoglu, Emre, Tatiana Sandino, and Randy Beatty. "Benchmarking Against the Performance of High Profile 'Scandal' Firms." American Accounting Association Financial Accounting and Reporting Section Paper, July 2006. View Details
- Sandino, Tatiana, Dennis Campbell, and Shelby Yu. "Performance and Control across Multiple Markets." American Accounting Association Financial Accounting and Reporting Section Paper, January 2008. View Details
- Practitioner Publications and Course Materials
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- Baik, Brian K., Tatiana Sandino, and Tricia Peralta. "PerlAvance: Using Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) at a Fintech Venture (C)." Harvard Business School Supplement 124-084, February 2024. (Revised June 2024.) View Details
- Baik, Brian K., Tatiana Sandino, and Tricia Peralta. "PerlAvance: Using Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) at a Fintech Venture (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 124-083, February 2024. (Revised June 2024.) View Details
- Baik, Brian K., Tatiana Sandino, and Tricia Peralta. "PerlAvance: Using Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) at a Fintech Venture (A)." Harvard Business School Case 124-082, February 2024. (Revised June 2024.) View Details
- Bernstein, Ethan, and Tatiana Sandino. "Buurtzorg." Harvard Business School Multimedia/Video Supplement 424-705, January 2024. View Details
- Sandino, Tatiana, Jeffrey Rayport, Samuel Grad, and Stacy Straaberg. "School of Rock: Tuning into Structured Empowerment (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 124-044, January 2024. (Revised June 2024.) View Details
- Sandino, Tatiana, Jeffrey Rayport, Samuel Grad, and Stacy Straaberg. "School of Rock: Tuning into Structured Empowerment (A)." Harvard Business School Case 124-043, January 2024. (Revised June 2024.) View Details
- Bernstein, Ethan, and Tatiana Sandino. "Buurtzorg." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 124-059, December 2023. View Details
- Sandino, Tatiana, and Samuel Grad. "Research In Motion: Launching and Scaling the World's First Smartphone Empire (C)." Harvard Business School Supplement 124-061, December 2023. View Details
- Sandino, Tatiana, and Samuel Grad. "Research In Motion: Launching and Scaling the World's First Smartphone Empire (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 124-060, December 2023. View Details
- Sandino, Tatiana, and Samuel Grad. "Research In Motion: Launching and Scaling the World's First Smartphone Empire (A)." Harvard Business School Case 124-023, December 2023. (Revised December 2023.) View Details
- Sandino, Tatiana, and Marshal Herrmann. "Fermenting Accounting Problems at Vermont Kombucha Corp." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 124-029, October 2023. View Details
- Sandino, Tatiana, and Marshal Herrmann. "Live Case Exercise for Financial Reporting." Harvard Business School Module Note 124-031, September 2023. View Details
- Sandino, Tatiana, and Marshal Herrmann. "Fermenting Accounting Problems at Vermont Kombucha Corp." Harvard Business School Case 123-064, April 2023. (Revised July 2023.) View Details
- Bernstein, Ethan, Tatiana Sandino, Joost Minnaar, and Annelena Lobb. "Buurtzorg." Harvard Business School Case 122-101, June 2022. (Revised January 2023.) View Details
- Sandino, Tatiana, Gerardo Pérez Cavazos, and Olivia Hull. "OXXO's Turf War Against Extra." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 119-083, February 2019. View Details
- Campbell, Dennis, and Tatiana Sandino. "Sustaining Corporate Culture in a Growing Organization." Harvard Business School Technical Note 119-109, June 2019. (Revised November 2019.) View Details
- Sandino, Tatiana, Jasmijn Bol, Serena Loftus, and Robert Grasser. "Dutch Bros Coffee: Leadership Selection." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 119-079, March 2019. View Details
- Sandino, Tatiana. "Designing Management Systems to Support Multiunit Growth." Harvard Business School Module Note 119-084, March 2019. View Details
- Sandino, Tatiana. "Control or Flexibility? Structured Empowerment Offers Both—Lessons from Retail & Service Chains (Abridged)." Harvard Business School Technical Note 119-088, March 2019. View Details
- Sandino, Tatiana. "Can Multiunit Organizations Remain Agile as They Grow?" Harvard Business School Technical Note 119-067, February 2019. View Details
- Campbell, Dennis, Tatiana Sandino, and Kyle Thomas. "Whole Foods under Amazon." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 119-080, February 2019. View Details
- Sandino, Tatiana, and Olivia Hull. "Knowledge Sharing at REMA 1000." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 119-081, February 2019. View Details
- Chen, Clara X., Kenneth A. Merchant, Tatiana Sandino, and Wim Van der Stede. "Fine Harvest Restaurant Group." University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business Teaching Note, 2014. View Details
- Chen, Clara (Xiaoling), Kenneth A. Merchant, Tatiana Sandino, and Wim A. Van der Stede. "Fine Harvest Restaurant Group (cases A and B)." University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business Case, 2015. View Details
- Campbell, Dennis, Tatiana Sandino, James Barnett, and Christine Snively. "Whole Foods Under Amazon." Harvard Business School Case 118-074, March 2018. (Revised July 2018.) View Details
- Sandino, Tatiana, Jasmijn Bol, Serena Loftus, and Robert Grasser. "Dutch Bros Coffee: Leadership Selection." Harvard Business School Case 119-038, September 2018. (Revised June 2019.) View Details
- Sandino, Tatiana. "Control or Flexibility? Structured Empowerment Offers Both — Lessons from Retail & Service Chains." Harvard Business School Technical Note 118-082, March 2018. (Revised March 2019.) View Details
- Sandino, Tatiana, and Olivia Hull. "Knowledge Sharing at REMA 1000 (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 118-072, June 2018. View Details
- Campbell, Dennis, Tatiana Sandino, and Kyle Thomas. "Affinity Plus: Priorities and Performance Pressures." Harvard Business School Case 118-087, March 2018. View Details
- Sandino, Tatiana, and Olivia Hull. "Knowledge Sharing at REMA 1000 (A)." Harvard Business School Case 118-007, March 2018. (Revised June 2018.) View Details
- Sandino, Tatiana, Gerardo Pérez Cavazos, and Kyle Thomas. "OXXO's Turf War Against Extra: Reflections on the Case: Eduardo Padilla." Harvard Business School Multimedia/Video Supplement 118-706, February 2018. (Special thanks to Eduardo Padilla; Edited by Kyle Thomas.) View Details
- Sandino, Tatiana, Gerardo Pérez Cavazos, and Annelena Lobb. "OXXO's Turf War Against Extra (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 117-022, March 2017. View Details
- Sandino, Tatiana, Gerardo Pérez Cavazos, and Annelena Lobb. "OXXO's Turf War Against Extra (A)." Harvard Business School Case 117-021, March 2017. (Revised April 2017.) View Details
- Sandino, Tatiana, and Kyle Thomas. "The Container Store." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 117-009, May 2017. View Details
- Sandino, Tatiana, Zeynep Ton, and Aldo Sesia. "The Container Store." Harvard Business School Case 116-020, April 2016. (Revised December 2016.) View Details
- Sandino, Tatiana, and Nancy Hua Dai. "China Lodging Group (A) and (B)." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 117-008, October 2016. View Details
- Sandino, Tatiana. "Go Mobile: Aligning District Managers and Store Teams Video Supplement (2)." Harvard Business School Multimedia/Video Supplement 116-703, February 2016. View Details
- Sandino, Tatiana. "Go Mobile: Aligning District Managers and Store Teams Video Supplement (1)." Harvard Business School Multimedia/Video Supplement 116-702, February 2016. View Details
- Sandino, Tatiana, Shelley Xin Li, and Nancy Hua Dai. "China Lodging Group (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 116-005, July 2015. (Revised October 2016.) View Details
- Sandino, Tatiana, Shelley Xin Li, and Nancy Hua Dai. "China Lodging Group (A)." Harvard Business School Case 116-004, July 2015. (Revised October 2016.) View Details
- Sandino, Tatiana. "Go Mobile: Aligning District Managers and Store Teams." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 115-037, April 2015. View Details
- Sandino, Tatiana. "Go Mobile: Aligning District Managers and Store Teams." Harvard Business School Case 114-034, February 2014. (Revised January 2024.) View Details
- Merchant, Kenneth A., and Tatiana Sandino. A Test of a Company's Business Model. Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, 2009. View Details
- Dario, S., E.L. Montiel, and Tatiana Sandino. "BanCrecen." Journal of Business Research 50, no. 1 (October 2000): 29–39. View Details
- Merchant, K., Tatiana Sandino, and W. Van der Stede. "Global Investors Teaching Note." In Management Control Systems: Performance Measurement, Evaluation and Incentives. 2nd Edition edited by Kenneth Merchant and Wim Van der Stede. New York: Financial Times Prentice Hall, 2007. View Details
- Merchant, K., and Tatiana Sandino. "Global Investors." Contribution to Management Control Systems: Performance Measurement, Evaluation and Incentives. 2nd Edition by Kenneth A. Merchant and Wim A. Van der Stede. New York: Financial Times Prentice Hall, 2007. View Details
- Du, F., J. Gong, Tatiana Sandino, W. Van der Stede, and M. Young. "The Business of Selling Movies." Strategic Finance 89, no. 9 (March 2008): 35–41. View Details
- Merchant, K., and Tatiana Sandino. "Four Options for Measuring Value Creation." Journal of Accountancy 208, no. 2 (August 2009): 34–37. View Details
- Merchant, K., Tatiana Sandino, and D. Huelsbeck. "Putting Business Models Under the Microscope." Financial Management (CIMA) (July–August 2011), 54–55. View Details
- Kaplan, Robert S., and Tatiana Sandino. "Accounting for Computer Software Development Costs." Harvard Business School Background Note 102-034, September 2001. View Details
- Research Summary
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In studying management control systems, Professor Sandino aims to understand how different control mechanisms can help lead employees within an organization to achieve common goals. Her work builds on contingency theory by exploring environmental, strategic, and operating conditions that may determine the effectiveness of an organization’s control mechanisms. She also builds upon agency theory by examining the efficacy of various control mechanisms in aligning the interests of those performing the work and those delegating it. Her primary research streams involve management control systems in multiunit companies, their design as early-stage companies scale and as companies adapt to serving diverse markets. She also studies executive compensation and the role of consultants and other players in establishing CEO pay.
Professor Sandino conducts research on early-stage multiunit companies that introduce management control systems to help maintain operations, as well as company culture, as they grow, but also to enable adaptation to the different markets that they serve. Building off of prior research in which she examined what systems are often first implemented (and why), Professor Sandino has sought to understand the long-term implications of those choices. In a case study on the fast-growing Chinese hotel chain China Lodging Group, Professor Sandino and her coauthors study the long-term tradeoffs for early-stage management control systems. Multiunit organizations initially experience accelerated growth upon introducing management control systems because such systems often allow consistent replication and oversight of an existing strategy across locations. But rigid, traditional systems can later impede growth as companies enter new markets. This runs counter to conventional wisdom in this area. Upholding existing standards may prevent the organization from learning from customers and adapting as needed, but promoting local experimentation introduces risks as well and could lead to redundancy and inefficiency.
Professor Sandino’s research has identified how some firms overcome the tradeoffs of attaining control and flexibility when serving diverse markets by implementing management control systems that promote experimentation (i.e., systems that incorporate a degree of flexibility, accountability for results, and feedback), as well as those that keep managers focused on organizational values and goals. For example, her case study “OXXO’s Turf War Against Extra” and technical note “Control or Flexibility? Structured Empowerment Offers Both—Lessons from Retail and Service Chains” illustrate how some organizations execute strategy profitably, using a type of flexible system she refers to as “structured empowerment,” empowering employees to make choices from narrow sets of options across a select set of inputs and processes and the responsibility to deliver results in line with the company’s value proposition. This enables a company to balance control—by standardizing input and process options employees can choose from to drive results—and flexibility—by enabling employees to combine diverse inputs and processes to produce service offerings and routine sequences fitting their particular markets.
Companies that give employees a degree of flexibility to make decisions and the responsibility to produce results, rather than enforcing process-based rules and routines, are more likely to learn about and satisfy diverse customer needs, increase their ability to expand into new markets, and perform better.
Managers are more likely to oversee productive experimentation when organizational values and goals are made clear, as employees will know what behaviors and goals are desired when exercising discretion granted by flexible systems. They will also be more likely to provide feedback to and share knowledge with teams in other units.
Professor Sandino’s other stream of research examines players that influence the design of an executive’s compensation. She has examined the role shareholder activists can play in influencing CEO pay and found that a compensation-related shareholder proposal could affect CEO pay and could pressure management to adopt the shareholders’ preferred method of disclosing executive pay. She has also examined the role of compensation consultants and found that, in situations where such consultants have a potential conflict of interest (for example, if they provide other services to the firm), CEO pay is typically higher. But while the relationship between the use of consultants and CEO pay is partly due to these conflicts of interest, it is largely explained by the composition and complexity of CEO pay plans. Firms with higher-paid CEOs and more complex pay plans are also more likely to hire a compensation consultant, while the use of consultants is also associated with increases in the incentive component and complexity of CEO pay.
- Teaching
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Professor Sandino teaches the second-year MBA course Mastering Strategy Execution. She also teaches the main doctoral course in management accounting, Management Control and Performance Measurement. Professor Sandino has taught several other MBA courses including the first-year required course Financial Reporting and Control, Field 3 Integrative Intelligence, and Designing Competitive Organizations. She has also taught in several executive education programs including Achieving Breakthrough Service, Driving Corporate Performance, the Owner and President Management Program, as well as the outreach program Summer Venture in Management Program.
- Awards & Honors
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Received the 2010 Deans Award for Research Excellence from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California.Won the 2005 Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award from the Management Accounting Section of the American Accounting Association for "Introducing the First Management Control Systems: Evidence from the Retail Sector."Awarded the 2004 Outstanding Paper in Corporate Finance from the Eastern Finance Association for "Stock Options Expensing: Evidence from Shareholders’ Votes" with F. Ferri and G. Markarian.Received High Distinction and Best Student, Masters in Business Administration, INCAE Business School, in 1997.Won the 2011 Emerging Scholar Competitive Manuscript Award from the Institute of Management Accountants for “Introducing the First Management Control Systems: Evidence from the Retail Sector” (Accounting Review, January 2007).Received High Distinction and Best Student, Graduate Degree in Functional Administration, INCAE Business School, 1996.
- Areas of Interest
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- compensation
- incentives
- big data
- corporate governance
- creativity
- innovation
- machine learning
- retailing
- service industry
Additional TopicsIndustries - In The News
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