minimal viable product - Publications - Faculty & Research

27 Oct 2015
News

Sweet Success

wondering if there was some way we could have a positive impact on the local economy.” The Turners considered maple sugaring at a neighbor’s casual suggestion, and the more they learned about it, the more it seemed like a viable option.... View Details

Keywords: Deborah Blagg

Web

2022 Reunion Presentations - Alumni

customers are partitioned away from the operation, they are less likely to fully appreciate the work going on behind the scenes, causing them to place a lower value on the product or service being offered. To address this problem, leaders... View Details

14 Jul 2022
Research & Ideas

When the Rubber Meets the Road, Most Commuters Text and Email While Driving

how automated cars might be designed to minimize major accidents. For their time-use study, the researchers conducted online interviews with about 400 knowledge workers, who make up a large percentage of commuters on today’s roadways and... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald

02 Dec 2010
What Do You Think?

Making Right Choices: Art or Science?

explores choices we make as consumers of products and services, many of which she has observed in her numerous experiments. Her definition of choice is "the ability to exercise control over ourselves and our environment. In order to... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

11 May 2010
First Look

First Look: May 11

Standard theories of corporate ownership assume that because markets are efficient, insiders ultimately bear agency costs and therefore have a strong incentive to minimize conflicts of interest with outside investors. We show that if... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

04 May 2011
Research & Ideas

Is Web Surfing Distracting Your Workers?

according to new research. The researchers found that the students facing temptation were more apt to make mistakes and were less productive By banning web surfing, employers are essentially asking their workers to resist temptation until... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

10 Oct 2011
Research & Ideas

Retailing Revolution: Category Killers on the Brink

the web. Given that the forecast for total retail sales over the next several years is flat to minimal growth after inflation, any sales that occur online will be at the expense of in-store sales. Clearly, bricks-and-mortar store View Details

Keywords: by Rajiv Lal & Jose B. Alvarez; Retail

28 Apr 2003
Research & Ideas

Supply Chain Risk: Deal With It

the right times. They'd done it by implementing techniques and technologies at an unprecedented pace; among them, the lean production method introduced by W. Edwards Deming, just-in-time manufacturing, single-source suppliers, and global... View Details

Keywords: by David Stauffer

11 Oct 2006
What Do You Think?

How Do We Respond to the “Dependency Ratio” Dilemma?

"The only viable long term solution is for people (and their employers) to invest enough over the length of their working life . [It] is the only way in which the dependency ratio can be made irrelevant." Other suggestions... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

17 Jul 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, July 17, 2018

a product of the international Communist movement’s model of revolution in the developing world that envisioned new states following a “non-capitalist path of development.” In Iran, this was compounded by the use of Allende-era Chile as a... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

17 Jan 2019
Research & Ideas

Why Business Should Support Employees Who Are Caregivers

personal caregiving obligations is an approach employers almost entirely overlook as a mechanism for maximizing employee productivity and minimizing turnover,” the authors write in the study, which was... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Health

13 Jun 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, June 13

was substantial. We also show that immigrant inventors were more productive than native born inventors; however, they received significantly lower levels of labor income. The immigrant inventor wage gap cannot be explained by... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

22 Feb 2022
News

New Urban Order

surface, a green roof, or supporting solar panels or wind turbines when possible,” Carty says. “And building wastewater can be treated and reused for flushing toilets and watering plants, for example, which has the added benefit of diverting water discharge from... View Details

Keywords: Kathleen Fu, Deborah Blagg, Julia Hanna, and Maureen Harmon; illustrations by; energy; environment; sustainability; entrepreneurship; Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation; Transportation; Water, Sewage and Supply Systems; Utilities; Construction of Buildings; Construction; Waste Management and Remediation Services; Corporate Services

13 Apr 2009
Research & Ideas

Kind of Blue: Pushing Boundaries with Miles Davis

product development terms, you might call this something like "jumping to the next S-curve." By the "S-curve" we mean the pattern that new innovations typically follow when they are introduced. At first a few people,... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Music

17 Nov 2020
Research & Ideas

Why a Blended Workforce May Be Key to Lasting Competitive Advantage

In recent years, companies have been anxious about the lack of skilled workers to fill pivotal jobs. But then came COVID-19 and a subsequent recession. The ensuing business turmoil and record-high unemployment may have temporarily distracted companies from their... View Details

Keywords: by Joseph B. Fuller

13 Apr 2016
Research & Ideas

Why Your Company Wants to be a 'Cognitive Referent' (Hint: SpaceX)

Technology and Operations Management Unit at Harvard Business School. After all, 2007 was the year that Twitter was founded; Airbnb formed the following year. For startups jockeying for position in nascent markets, pressure is intense to come up with a View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Aerospace; Food & Beverage; Retail

05 Mar 2012
Research & Ideas

Is JC Penney’s Makeover the Future of Retailing?

"00," instead of 99 cents, and exclude the suggested retail price of a product on the tag in favor of just one marked-down price. "I think that on the consumer side this has simplified pricing, which makes a lot of sense," Lal says. “All... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Retail

29 Aug 2005
Research & Ideas

How Organizations Create Social Value

better focus on creating economic value by minimizing costs and maximizing efficiency. Companies can bring social value into alignment with their core competencies, improving motivation, loyalty, skill development, and even View Details

Keywords: by Manda Salls

19 Jan 2022
Blog Post

From Retail to HBS: How I’m Building a Career Path at the Intersection of Arts, Culture, and Business

challenge to predict what would resonate with customers when dealing with such subjective, creative products – but that blend of art and science is also what made it so fun for me. Why did you decide to pursue an MBA? After college, I had... View Details

04 Dec 2012
First Look

First Look: December 4

are incompatible mediated the relationship between ambient cultural disharmony and creativity. Alternative mechanisms such as negative affect and cognitive disruption were not viable mediators. Although ambient cultural disharmony... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

Publications