My research examines how firms mobilize key stakeholders and resources around uncertain opportunities. My current work lies at the intersection of strategy and human capital, with a particular focus on organizational entry, ownership, incentives, and the design of work. Using field experiments embedded in real organizational settings, complemented by proprietary data and qualitative research, I study how strategic choices shape firms’ access to talent and other critical resources for growth.
Publications
[1] Singh, Jasjit, Teng, Nina and Netessine, Serguei. (2019). Philanthropic Campaigns and Customer Behavior: Field Experiments on an Online Taxi Booking Platform. Management Science, 65(2): 913–932. (Link)
Nominated for Best Paper Award, Strategic Management Society 2016 Annual Meeting
Nominated for Carolyn Dexter Award, Academy of Management 2016 Annual Meeting
Firms commonly undertake philanthropic campaigns as a means of attracting and retaining customers. Such campaigns often take the form of charity-linked promotions, whereby a firm donates a specific amount to a charitable cause when a customer takes up the promotion through a related purchase. We carried out three field experiments to study such promotions in the context of an online taxi-booking platform. Customers were randomly assigned to different treatment groups, which received either a charity-linked or a discount-based promotion from a range of monetary amounts. Take-up rates for charity-linked promotions were not only much smaller than for discount-based promotions but also less sensitive to the exact amount involved, consistent with a view that the decision to take up a charity-linked promotion was driven in part by a “warm glow” from mere association with giving. We also find a selection effect in promotion take-up: charity-linked promotions were disproportionately taken up by people who had already been more active customers. Although a promotion take-up does seem to represent new demand rather than mere substitution of a booking that would have occurred anyway, longitudinal data analysis reveals little evidence of a lasting treatment effect on long-term demand beyond the promotion period for either kind of promotion. Given the high cost relative to benefit for the promotional bookings themselves, this finding raises concerns regarding the prevalent practice of firms devoting significant funds for short-term promotions without rigorously examining their exact impact.
Papers Under Review
[2] Teng, Nina, Nataliya Langburd Wright, and Aleksandra (Olenka) Kacperczyk. (2025). Disruptive vs. Collaborative Positioning and the Cost of Talent: Evidence from Startup Hiring Field Experiments; Revise & Resubmit (R&R) at Management Science
Finalist, Best Paper Prize, Strategic Management Society 2026 Annual Meeting
2025 BAIC (Bocconi Assembly for Innovation and Cooperation) Conference, 2025 Advances with Field Experiments Conference, 2025 Wharton People & Organizations Conference (Plenary Session)
[3] Teng, Nina. (2026). Competing for Talent Under Uncertainty: Evidence from a Startup Equity Field Experiment; under review at Organization Science
[4] Brahm, Francisco, Xia Li, Claudio Rizzi, and Nina Teng. (2026). Early-Stage Climate Capital and Climate Impact: Experimental Evidence from Seed Investors (link to paper); under review at Management Science
Work in Progress
[5] Teng, Nina and J. Daniel Kim. AI-Agent Delegation Regimes and the Valuation of Technical Leadership: Evidence from a Field Experiment
[6] Teng, Nina and Michael G. Jacobides. Legitimacy Without Incumbents: How Venture Capital Narratives Shaped Grab's Digital Platform Ecosystem Strategy in Southeast Asia
Finalist, Best PhD Paper Prize, SMS 2022 Annual Meeting
Designated as Best Paper for TIM, AOM 2022 Annual Meeting
[7] Teng, Nina and Binglu Wang. Turning Rejections into Gold: A Field Experiment on the Symbolic Framing of Near versus Far Misses in Founder Persistence