In her current research, Professor Gallani draws on economic and sociological theories to analyze the design of incentive and performance management systems. She explores the effectiveness of monetary and non-monetary incentives, feedback systems, and types of performance measures. Her research spans across industries, but her more recent work exhibits a particular focus on healthcare provider organizations.
Susanna Gallani
Tai Family Associate Professor of Business Administration
Tai Family Associate Professor of Business Administration
Susanna Gallani is the Tai Family Associate Professor of Business Administration in the Accounting and Management unit. At HBS, she teaches in various executive education programs, including the Program for Leadership Development, Managing Health Care Delivery, Driving Corporate Performance, several custom programs, and courses on the strategic implementation of Value-based Health Care. She has previously taught Executing Strategy in the MBA elective curriculum and Financial Reporting and Control in the required curriculum. She collaborates with Harvard Medical School by teaching and co-directing the Health Care Delivery and Leadership module in the required course Essentials of the Profession II. She teaches in the post-graduate medical education programs Surgical Leadership Program and Leadership in Medicine: Southeast Asia.
Accounting and Management
Susanna Gallani is the Tai Family Associate Professor of Business Administration in the Accounting and Management unit. At HBS, she teaches in various executive education programs, including the Program for Leadership Development, Managing Health Care Delivery, Driving Corporate Performance, several custom programs, and courses on the strategic implementation of Value-based Health Care. She has previously taught Executing Strategy in the MBA elective curriculum and Financial Reporting and Control in the required curriculum. She collaborates with Harvard Medical School by teaching and co-directing the Health Care Delivery and Leadership module in the required course Essentials of the Profession II. She teaches in the post-graduate medical education programs Surgical Leadership Program and Leadership in Medicine: Southeast Asia.
In her research, Professor Gallani studies performance management systems and explores the interplay between monetary and non-monetary incentives. While she has studied these mechanisms in a broad set of industries, her current efforts focus primarily on health care provider organizations. Her current work examinesmechanisms to align behavior, reward performance, and reduce burnout. Studies on the role of health care provider organizations in improving health equity and address social determinants of health complement her research portfolio. Her work has been published in academic journals, including The Accounting Review, Management Science, Contemporary Accounting Research, and Accounting, Organizations and Society, and in practitioner-oriented outlets. Her work has been featured in the Harvard Business Review, Financial Times, The Economic Times, Forbes, and Yahoo! Finance.
Dr. Gallani holds a Ph.D. in Accounting from Michigan State University and a master’s in Business Administration from Central Michigan University. Her undergraduate degree in Business Economics is from the University of Trieste, Italy. Before pursuing her doctorate, Dr. Gallani was a senior manager at Honeywell, where she was involved in business transformation initiatives.
- Journal Articles
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- Gallani, Susanna, Mary Lynch Witkowski, Lidia M. V. R. Moura, and Katie Sonnefeldt. "A New Framework for Reducing Healthcare Disparities." Harvard Business Review Digital Articles (July 3, 2025). View Details
- Erkmen, Cherie P., Anastasiia K. Tompkins, Shanda Blackmon, Larry R. Kaiser, Susanna Gallani, Jennifer C. Romano, Thomas MacGillivray, and Michael J. Mack. "Gender Disparities in Compensation of Practicing Cardiothoracic Surgeons: Analyzing the Society of Thoracic Surgeons Compensation Survey." Annals of Thoracic Surgery (in press). (Pre-published online June 19, 2025.) View Details
- Gallani, Susanna, Bernice Martin Lee, and Lidia M. V. R. Moura. "Achieving Epilepsy Care for All: Ecosystem-Based Transformation." Epilepsia (forthcoming). (Pre-published online April 4, 2025.) View Details
- Hadar, Peter N., Susanna Gallani, and Lidia Moura. "Enhancing Value and Well-Being: The Basket of Motivators Framework for Aligning Neurology Clinical Practices with Performance Outcomes." Neurology: Clinical Practice 14, no. 1 (June 2024). View Details
- Deore, Aishwarrya, Susanna Gallani, and Ranjani Krishnan. "The Effect of Systems of Management Controls on Honesty in Managerial Reporting." Art. 101401. Accounting, Organizations and Society 105 (February 2023). View Details
- Gallani, Susanna. "Conduit Incentives: Eliciting Cooperation from Workers Outside of Managers' Control." Accounting Review 93, no. 3 (2023): 1–28. View Details
- Cai, Wei, Susanna Gallani, and Jee-Eun Shin. "Incentive Contract Design and Employee-Initiated Innovation: Evidence from the Field." Contemporary Accounting Research 40, no. 1 (Spring 2023): 292–323. View Details
- Cai, Wei, Susanna Gallani, and Jee-Eun Shin. "Incentive Effects of Subjective Allocations of Rewards and Penalties." Management Science 69, no. 5 (May 2023): 3121–3139. View Details
- Kaplan, Robert S., and Susanna Gallani. "Variance Analysis: New Insights from Health Care Applications." Issues in Accounting Education 37, no. 2 (May 2022): 27–36. View Details
- Gallani, Susanna, and Gregory Sabin. "Successfully Implementing TDABC in Health-Care Provider Organizations." Cost Management 35, no. 6 (November–December 2021): 29–33. (Commissioned Article.) View Details
- Ikram, Umar, Susanna Gallani, Jose F. Figueroa, and Thomas W. Feeley. "4 Strategies to Make Telehealth Work for Elderly Patients." Harvard Business Review Digital Articles (November 24, 2020). View Details
- Ikram, Umar, Susanna Gallani, Jose F. Figueroa, and Thomas W. Feeley. "Protecting Vulnerable Older Patients during the Pandemic." NEJM Catalyst (September 17, 2020). View Details
- Gallani, Susanna, Takehisa Kajiwara, and Ranjani Krishnan. "Value of New Performance Information in Healthcare: Evidence from Japan." International Journal of Health Economics and Management 20, no. 4 (December 2020): 319–357. View Details
- Gallani, Susanna, Ranjani Krishnan, Eric J. Marinich, and Michael D. Shields. "Budgeting, Psychological Contracts, and Budgetary Misreporting." Management Science 65, no. 6 (June 2019): 2924–2945. View Details
- Gallani, Susanna. "Incentives Don't Help People Change, but Peer Pressure Does." Harvard Business Review Digital Articles (March 23, 2017). View Details
- Working Papers
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- Gallani, Susanna, and Jacob Riegler. "Job Design and Workers’ Wellbeing: Evidence from a Hospital Setting." Working Paper, January 2023. View Details
- Gallani, Susanna, Luminita Enache, Xue Guo, and Eddie Riedl. "The Effects of Electronic Medical Records on Hospital Utilization Costs." Working Paper, 2022. (Best Paper Award, 2022 Conference of the Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand - Technology Section.) View Details
- Albuquerque, Ana, Mary Ellen Carter, and Susanna Gallani. "Are ISS Recommendations Informative? Evidence from Assessments of Compensation Practices." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 19-085, February 2019. (Revised March 2020.) View Details
- Gallani, Susanna. "Through the Grapevine: Network Effects on the Design of Executive Compensation Contracts." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 16-019, August 2015. (Revised December, 2016.) View Details
- Cases and Teaching Materials
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- Serafeim, George, Susanna Gallani, and Benjamin Maletta. "Roche: Innovation and Access to Healthcare." Harvard Business School Case 123-075, March 2023. (Revised March 2023.) View Details
- Gallani, Susanna, Jenyfeer Martínez Buitrago, and Katherine Sonnefeldt. "Lanco Medical Group: Fostering Happiness for Growth." Harvard Business School Case 125-062, October 2024. (Revised February 2025.) View Details
- Gallani, Susanna, Mary Witkowski, and Katie Sonnefeldt. "The Health Equity Accelerator at Boston Medical Center." Harvard Business School Case 125-039, September 2024. View Details
- Gallani, Susanna, Karen L. Sedatole, and Sarah Mehta. "Pioneering Pain Management: CWC Alliance Combats the Opioid Epidemic." Harvard Business School Case 125-012, August 2024. View Details
- Gallani, Susanna, Mary Witkowski, Elena Corsi, and Nikolina Jonsson. "Transforming Healthcare Delivery at Karolinska University Hospital." Harvard Business School Case 124-070, December 2023. (Revised February 2024.) View Details
- Gallani, Susanna, Karen L. Sedatole, and Sarah Mehta. "Emory Healthcare on the Front Lines of the Nursing Workforce Crisis." Harvard Business School Case 123-046, March 2023. (Revised September 2023.) View Details
- Gallani, Susanna. "Hospital 57357: Aligning Performance Towards a Vision of a Cancer-Free Childhood." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 122-095, March 2022. (Revised December 2022.) View Details
- Gallani, Susanna, Francesca Gino, and Raffaella Sadun. "Cooking Down a Storm: Changing Culture at Pasta Serafina (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 120-014, September 2019. (Revised December 2022.) View Details
- Gallani, Susanna, and Jacob Riegler. "Addressing Social Determinants of Health in the American Landscape." Harvard Business School Technical Note 123-023, September 2022. View Details
- Gallani, Susanna, and David Lane. "DaVita Responds to COVID." Harvard Business School Case 122-007, March 2022. (Revised March 2024.) View Details
- Gallani, Susanna. "Cooking Down a Storm at Pasta Serafina (A) & (B)." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 122-093, March 2022. View Details
- Gallani, Susanna, and Brian Trelstad. "The Robin Hood Army (A) and (B)." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 122-094, March 2022. View Details
- Gallani, Susanna. "Social Determinants of Health at Boston Medical Center." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 122-092, March 2022. View Details
- Gallani, Susanna. "Springfield Hospital Assignment Solution." Harvard Business School Spreadsheet Supplement 122-712, March 2022. View Details
- Gallani, Susanna. "Springfield Hospital - Assignment." Harvard Business School Spreadsheet Supplement 122-711, March 2022. View Details
- Gallani, Susanna, and Robert Kaplan. "Springfield Hospital." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 122-033, March 2022. View Details
- Gallani, Susanna, and Youssef Abdel Aal. "Hospital 57357: Aligning Performance Towards a Vision of a Cancer-Free Childhood." Harvard Business School Case 122-041, October 2021. (Revised February 2022.) View Details
- Gallani, Susanna, Kaya Bos, and Kathryn Reddy. "Social Determinants of Health at Boston Medical Center." Harvard Business School Case 120-088, March 2020. View Details
- Gallani, Susanna. "Social Determinants of Health at Boston Medical Center." Harvard Business School Teaching Plan 121-014, July 2020. View Details
- Gallani, Susanna. "Social Determinants of Health at Boston Medical Center: Board Plan." Harvard Business School PowerPoint Supplement 121-016, July 2020. View Details
- Gallani, Susanna. "Social Determinants of Health at Boston Medical Center: Slides." Harvard Business School PowerPoint Supplement 121-015, July 2020. View Details
- Gallani, Susanna, Martin Artz, Johannes Habel, and Sascha Alavi. "Incentivizing Sales Advisors at Mustang." Harvard Business School Case 120-016, January 2020. (Revised June 2021.) View Details
- Gallani, Susanna, Francesca Gino, and Raffaella Sadun. "Cooking Down a Storm: Changing Culture at Pasta Serafina (A)." Harvard Business School Case 120-013, September 2019. (Revised December 2022.) View Details
- Gallani, Susanna, Anja Anliker, Luke Hodges, and Amram Migdal. "Glenn Defense Marine Asia (A)." Harvard Business School Case 120-036, September 2019. (Revised February 2022.) View Details
- Gallani, Susanna, Anja Anliker, Luke Hodges, and Amram Migdal. "Glenn Defense Marine Asia (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 120-037, September 2019. (Revised February 2022.) View Details
- Gallani, Susanna, Jan Bouwens, and Peter Kroos. "Bark Gift Shop Ltd." Harvard Business School Case 120-008, August 2019. View Details
- Gallani, Susanna, Jan Bouwens, and Peter Kroos. "Bark Gift Shop Ltd." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 120-025, September 2019. View Details
- Gallani, Susanna. "Bark Gift Shop Ltd. Assignment Worksheet." Harvard Business School Spreadsheet Supplement 121-701, July 2020. View Details
- Gallani, Susanna. "Bark Gift Shop Ltd. Assignment Worksheet Solution." Harvard Business School Spreadsheet Supplement 121-702, July 2020. View Details
- Gallani, Susanna, Gregory Sabin, Lexor Adams, and Nicholas Haberling. "Christmas Inc. (A)." Harvard Business School Case 120-009, July 2019. View Details
- Gallani, Susanna, Gregory Sabin, Lexor Adams, and Nicholas Haberling. "Christmas Inc. (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 120-010, July 2019. View Details
- Gallani, Susanna, Mary Witkowski, and Harry B. Wolberg. "U.S. Commercial Health Insurance Industry." Harvard Business School Technical Note 119-064, January 2019. (Revised June 2019.) View Details
- Gallani, Susanna. "The Robin Hood Army." Harvard Business School Case 119-007, July 2018. (Revised November 2018.) View Details
- Gallani, Susanna. "The Robin Hood Army (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 120-017, August 2019. View Details
- Gallani, Susanna, and Robert Kaplan. "Springfield Hospital." Harvard Business School Case 117-025, September 2016. (Revised October 2018.) View Details
- Rouen, Ethan, and Susanna Gallani. "Tapping Growth at Lord Hobo Brewing Company." Harvard Business School Case 119-028, August 2018. View Details
- Rouen, Ethan, and Susanna Gallani. "Tapping Growth at Lord Hobo Brewing Company." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 120-023, September 2019. View Details
- Rouen, Ethan, and Susanna Gallani. "Tapping Growth at Lord Hobo Brewing Company Spreadsheet Supplement (Instructor)." Harvard Business School Spreadsheet Supplement 120-707, October 2019. View Details
- Rouen, Ethan, and Susanna Gallani. "Tapping Growth at Lord Hobo Brewing Company Spreadsheet Supplement (Student)." Harvard Business School Spreadsheet Supplement 120-706, October 2019. View Details
- Rouen, Ethan, and Susanna Gallani. "Tapping Growth at Lord Hobo PowerPoint Supplement." Harvard Business School PowerPoint Supplement 120-708, October 2019. View Details
- Srinivasan, Suraj, Dennis W. Campbell, Susanna Gallani, and Amram Migdal. "Sales Misconduct at Wells Fargo Community Bank." Harvard Business School Case 118-009, June 2017. (Revised September 2021.) View Details
- Srinivasan, Suraj, Dennis W. Campbell, Susanna Gallani, and Amram Migdal. "Sales Misconduct at Wells Fargo Community Bank." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 118-022, March 2018. View Details
- Gallani, Susanna, Gregory Sabin, and Katherine Cui. "J.C. Penney: Tough Choices for Allen Questrom." Harvard Business School Case 118-041, December 2017. View Details
- Gallani, Susanna, Gregory Sabin, Amela Pjetrovic, and Edoardo Cacciamani. "J.C. Penney: Tough Choices for Allen Questrom (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 121-032, September 2020. View Details
- Gallani, Susanna, Tiffany Y. Chang, Brian J. Hall, and Jee Eun Shin. "Buffer.com." Harvard Business School Case 917-019, May 2017. View Details
- Gallani, Susanna, Tiffany Y. Chang, Brian J. Hall, and Jee Eun Shin. "Buffer.com (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 917-020, May 2017. View Details
- Kaplan, Robert S., and Susanna Gallani. "Cost Variance Analysis." Harvard Business School Background Note 117-006, October 2016. (Revised March 2022.) View Details
- Gallani, Susanna, and Eva Labro. "VMD Medical Imaging Center." Harvard Business School Case 117-002, August 2016. View Details
- Gallani, Susanna, and Eva Labro. "VMD Medical Imaging Center." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 117-003, August 2016. (Revised June 2018.) View Details
- Gallani, Susanna, and Eva Labro. "RegionFly: Cutting Costs in the Airline Industry." Harvard Business School Case 116-047, May 2016. (Revised August 2022.) View Details
- Gallani, Susanna, and Eva Labro. "RegionFly: Cutting Costs in the Airline Industry." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 116-053, May 2016. (Revised November 2022.) View Details
- Other Publications and Materials
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- Gallani, Susanna, and Derek A. Haas. "Physicians Can Help Cut Costs. They Just Need the Right Incentives." Harvard Business Review Digital Articles (October 16, 2024). View Details
- Gallani, Susanna, Lidia Moura, and Katie Sonnefeldt. "Can AI Save Physicians from Burnout?" Harvard Business School Working Knowledge (August 13, 2024). View Details
- Gallani, Susanna, and Lidia Moura. "Providing Value and Equity in Medicare's Dementia Care Is a Must." Newsweek (July 24, 2024). View Details
- Moura, Lidia, and Susanna Gallani. "Stemming the Ripple Effect of Untreated Mental Illness: A Prescription for Change: Reimagining U.S. Healthcare." Psychology Today (website) (April 29, 2024). View Details
- Gallani, Susanna, Mary Witkowski, Lauren Haskins, Haley Jeffcoat, Vinita Mujumdar, and Frank Opelka. "Today's Surgeon Compensation Models Fall Short: Aligning Incentives to Create More Equitable and Value-based Compensation Models." Bulletin of the American College of Surgeons 106, no. 4 (April 2021): 33–39. View Details
- Gallani, Susanna, Mary Ellen Carter, and Ana Albuquerque. "Comment: Are ISS Recommendations Informative? Evidence from Assessments of Compensation Practices." U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, 2020. (Comments on Proposed Rule: Amendments to Exemptions from the Proxy Rules for Proxy Voting Advice.) View Details
- Gallani, Susanna. "Incentives Don't Help People Change, but Peer Pressure Does." Harvard Business Review Digital Articles (March 23, 2017). View Details
- Research Summary
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Performance management in healthcare provider organizations presents particular challehges, motivate by historical industry practices, market structures and dynamics, and cultural peculiarities. Through her research studies and case studies, Prof. Gallani explores various challenges associated with designing and implementing performance management systems, including performance measurement, compensation, and non-monetary incentives. Particular aspects of interest in her current work include studies of managerial causes of professional burnout and moral distress.Healthcare provider organizations are becoming progressively more involved in ways to improve health equity and address social determinants of health (SDOH). In this line of work, Prof. Gallani studies organizational factors interacting with the implementation of SODH initiatives. In particular, she is interested in exploring the ways multiple organizations coordinate to offer a systemic response to SDOH, how they measure the effectiveness of their initiatives, and how they create accountability across organizational lines.In this line of research, Prof. Gallani explores the interplay between monetary and non-monetary incentives in organization. In particular, she explores the effectiveness of non-monetary motivation mechanisms, including mission statements and company values, feedback, social pressure, recognition, etc. and the ways in which they interact with workers compensation contracts. This research spans across different industries and organizational levels.In this line of work, Prof. Gallani explores the influence of external actors on the design and effectiveness of executive compensation. Prominent external actors she has examined in her work include compensation consultants, proxy advisory firms, and institutional investors.
- Teaching
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At HBS, Professor Gallani teaches in the Executive Education Program for Leadership Development and in focused Executive Education programs, including Managing Health Care Delivery, Driving Corporate Performance, and several programs focused on the implementation of Value-Based Health Care strategies. She has previously taught Executing Strategy, a second-year elective in the MBA program, and the required curriculum course Financial Reporting and Control. She collaborates with Harvard Medical School by teaching in the required third-year course Essentials of the Profession II, in the Surgical Leadership Program, and in the program for Leadership in Management: Southeast Asia. She also teaches in the introductory course for dual major MD/MBA students Medicine and Management.
- Awards & Honors
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Received a 2023 Outstanding Reviewer Award at the Annual Meeting of the Management Accounting Section of the American Accounting Association.Winner of the Best Paper Award at the 2022 Conference of the Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, Technology Section, for "The Effects of Electronic Medical Records on Hospital Utilization Costs" with Luminita Enache, Xue Guo, and Eddie Riedl.Received the 2022 Midyear Meeting Outstanding Reviewer Award from the Management Accounting Section of the American Accounting Association.Received the 2021 Robert F. Greenhill Award.Received the 2019 Midyear Meeting Outstanding Reviewer Award from the Management Accounting Section of the American Accounting Association.Recipient of the Outstanding Contribution in Review Award from Accounting, Organizations, and Society in 2018.
- Additional Information
- Areas of Interest
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