Publications

17 Jul 2012
News

IBM Deploys Talent, Technology and Innovation for Global Social Progress

April 2006 (Revised May 2009)
Case

Inverness Medical Innovations - Born Global (A)

Ron Zwanziger has just started his third company, having just sold the last one for $1.3 billion to Johnson & Johnson. As part of the deal with J&J, certain assets were transferred to the new company, Inverness Medical Innovations, which, at the time of its creation,... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Firms and Management; Mergers and Acquisitions; Entrepreneurship; Health Care and Treatment; Corporate Finance; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Health Industry; Waltham

29 Sep 2003
Research & Ideas

Why Managing Innovation is Like Theater

flaky, unreliable, art-based processes. We reject this premise. Our close examination of art-based processes shows that they're understandable and reliable, capable of sophisticated innovation at levels many "scientific"... View Details

Keywords: by Rob Austin & Lee Devin

14 Oct 2002
Research & Ideas

The Widening Rift Between Corporations and Society

Society is evolving and it is leaving business behind, say HBS professor Shoshana Zuboff and James Maxmin. In their new book, The Support Economy: Why Corporations are Failing Individuals and the Next Episode of Capitalism, they address... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

06 Nov 2000
Research & Ideas

The Determinants of Corporate Venture Capital Success

Corporate-sponsored venture funds first appeared in the 1960s, about two decades after the first flowering of the venture capital industry. Ever since, they have mirrored the cyclic nature of the industry as a whole. But there are important differences, write Gompers... View Details

Keywords: by Paul Gompers & Josh Lerner

2017
Working Paper

The Use and Misuse of Patent Data: Issues for Corporate Finance and Beyond

By: Josh Lerner

Patents and citations are powerful tools for understanding innovative activity inside the firm and are increasingly used in corporate finance research. But due to the complexities of patent data collection and the changing spatial and industry composition of innovative... View Details

Keywords: Patents; Analytics and Data Science; Corporate Finance; Research; Problems and Challenges

January 1996 (Revised March 1998)
Case

Linking Strategy and Innovation: Materials Technology Corporation

By: Clayton M. Christensen

Materials Technology Corp. (MTC), a high-tech materials company, is struggling in its development portfolio and to achieve a better record of delivering new products on time. View Details

Keywords: Technology; Innovation and Invention; Business Strategy; Time Management; Product; Production; Manufacturing Industry; Chemical Industry; Technology Industry; United States

November 2007 (Revised May 2008)
Case

Creativity under the Gun at Litmus Corporation

By: Teresa M. Amabile and Yana Litovsky

Teaches students to diagnose the circumstances under which time pressure can facilitate or hinder creativity. A team's creative "genius", Miles Grady, who previously conceptualized a revolutionary material for an important new product, must now significantly change... View Details

Keywords: Situation or Environment; Creativity; Innovation and Management; Problems and Challenges

April 2006
Case

Medical Innovation Beyond MedStar: Mobilizing for National Impact

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter, Ryan Raffaelli and Michelle Heskett

Dr. Craig Feied, director of MedStar Health's Medical Informatics programs, wanted his innovations to influence national health care. Since joining Washington Hospital Center's Emergency Department in 1995 with Dr. Mark Smith, their information system had become the... View Details

Keywords: Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Policy; Government and Politics; Innovation and Management; Projects; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Health Industry; Washington (state, US)

March 2022 (Revised January 2023)
Case

Clara Wu Tsai and Brooklyn Loan Innovation

By: Archie L. Jones, Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Henry McGee

Philanthropist Clara Wu Tsai is committed to racial equity and investing in Brooklyn-based minority business owners. In the wake of the George Floyd murder, she decides to create a new initiative called the Social Justice Fund and commit an initial $50 million over 10... View Details

Keywords: Minority-owned Businesses; Racial Equity; Entrepreneurship; Race; Values and Beliefs; Small Business; Partners and Partnerships; Social Issues; Investment; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Decision Making; Brooklyn

November 2021
Article

Corporate Strategy and the Theory of the Firm in the Digital Age

By: Markus Menz, Sven Kunisch, Julian Birkinshaw, David J. Collis, Nicolai J. Foss, Robert E. Hoskisson and John Prescott

The purpose of this article is to reinvigorate research in the intersection of corporate strategy and the theory of the firm in light of the rapid advancement of digital technologies. Using the theory of the firm as an interpretive lens, we focus our analysis on the... View Details

Keywords: Digitalization; Multi-business Firm; Scale And Scope; Theory Of The Firm; Corporate Strategy; Technological Innovation; Competitive Advantage; Organizational Design; Theory; Research; Digital Transformation

Find at Harvard

September 1991
Case

Rethinking the Corporate Workplace: Case Managers at Mutual Benefit Life

By: Robert G. Eccles Jr.

In early 1991, a spirit of innovation and organizational change was in the air at Mutual Benefit Life, with the success of the new "case manager" program its most concrete manifestation. Using powerful computer workstations, case managers could see insurance... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Technological Innovation; Change Management; Information Technology; Insurance; Human Resources; Insurance Industry

10 Nov 2020
Sharpening Your Skills

Research News and Tips: Innovating Across Time Zones

Harvard Business Review 98, no. 5 (September–October 2020): 98–105. Weaknesses in supply chain strategy exposed As anyone who went grocery shopping in the early days of the pandemic can tell you, empty shelves revealed how COVID-19 did a number on global supply chains.... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

June 2010 (Revised August 2011)
Case

Tennant Company: Innovating Within and Beyond the Core

By: Lynda M. Applegate, Toby E. Stuart and James Weber

Tennant, a leading producer of floor cleaning equipment, must determine the business model to use for its new chemical-free cleaning technology. In 2005, Tennant Company had developed an innovative, environmentally friendly cleaning technology that could potentially... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Business Startups; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Disruptive Innovation; Organizational Structure; Business Strategy; Value Creation; Consumer Products Industry; Industrial Products Industry

20 Jul 2009
Research & Ideas

Markets or Communities? The Best Ways to Manage Outside Innovation

Thanks to technology and instant global communication, it has never been easier for companies to seek solutions to problems or find new ideas from sources outside their own corporate walls. But the art of managing these external View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Technology

2018
Dictionary Entry

Communicating about Climate Change with Corporate Leaders and Stakeholders

By: Andrew J. Hoffman

Within the corporate sector, climate change represents an unfolding market shift, one that is driven by policy but also by pressures from a variety of market constituents such as consumers, suppliers, buyers, insurance companies, banks, and others. The shift takes... View Details

Keywords: Adaptation; Climate Change; Transition; Innovation Strategy; Markets