Publications

Disruption and transformation get a lot of hype, and for good reason. Digital technologies have disrupted entire industries and incumbents have often struggled in this new world. Typical approaches used by legacy players such as using technology to improve... View Details

November 2014
Case

Oasys Water: Balancing Strategic Partnerships & Financing Decisions

By: Ramana Nanda, William A. Sahlman and Sid Misra

Oasys Water had developed a proprietary water treatment technology based on an innovative forward osmosis process that could remove dissolved solids from water more effectively and efficiently than existing technologies. As Oasys looked to scale, it was exploring... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Finance; Finance; Strategy; Entrepreneurship; China

01 Mar 2024
News

Case Study: Testing the Waters

Illustration by Christina Spano Endurance training was nothing new to Lauren Picasso (MBA 2014), who’d raced through her younger years as a cross-country runner and swimmer. In 2017, when she was director of marketing at Jet.com and looking for a physical challenge,... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; Food and Beverage Stores; Retail Trade

Teaching Interest

AMP 170 - General Management: Processes and Action

The Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program (AMP) helps drive corporate performance by honing individual capabilities to the highest level of performance. The result is a... View Details

June 2022
Teaching Plan

GreenLight Fund

By: Brian Trelstad and Mel Martin

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 320-053. As Tara Noland, the Executive Director (ED) of GreenLight Cincinnati, reflected on her first few years on the job. Noland had delivered on what she had been hired to do in the city: work with leading philanthropists and nonprofit... View Details

Keywords: Philanthropy; Venture Philanthropy; Replication; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Venture Capital; Social Issues; Decision Making; Cincinnati

Research Summary

Consumer's Relationships with Technologies

Susan M. Fournier is involved with two lines of research investigating consumers' relationships with technological products. The first project (with Professor David Mick of the University of Wisconsin) concerns 'everyday technologies' such as... View Details

21 May 2024
News

A New Chapter

set for massive positive impact, and the demand is there; the only real impediment is bold philanthropy,” Wolf says. At HBS, Wolf studied with Clayton Christensen, whose theory of disruptive innovation... View Details

Keywords: Catherine O’Neill Grace; photo by Cayce Clifford

February 2023 (Revised May 2023)
Case

Doing Business in Athens, Greece

By: Alan D. MacCormack, Carlota Moniz and Emilie Billaud

This case examines the challenges and opportunities of doing business in Greece. It highlights Greece's economic transformation in the decades leading up to 2023 in the context of its history, culture, and politics. The case gives an overview of some of the main... View Details

Keywords: Business and Government Relations; Technological Innovation; Foreign Direct Investment; Economic Growth; Financial Crisis; Technology Industry; Tourism Industry; Shipping Industry; Greece; Athens

18 Mar 2014
First Look

First Look: March 18

innovation and entrepreneurship in renewable energy. Using data from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, we first show that patenting in renewable energy remains highly concentrated in a few large energy firms. In 2009, the top 20 firms... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

07 Apr 2021
Research & Ideas

How Teams Work: Lessons from the Pandemic

happened—can leave some attendees in the dark about nuances and next steps. The researchers also found that switching from on-site to remote work reduced “bounce time,” a term they use to describe impromptu brainstorming sessions. The disappearance View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

30 Jun 2009
First Look

First Look: June 30

held no competitive advantage. That's been a disaster, maintain Harvard professors Pisano and Shih, because today's low-value manufacturing operations hold the seeds of tomorrow's innovative new products.... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

October 2019
Case

Agility Africa

By: Juan Alcacer, Caroline M. Elkins and Esel Çekin

This case illustrates the challenge and opportunities that firms face when developing and executing new business models in high-risk, low-infrastructure, low-trust countries. It features a global logistics group, Agility, that aimed to become the leader in supplying... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Business Model; Innovation and Invention; Expansion; Emerging Markets; Decision Choices and Conditions; Real Estate Industry; Distribution Industry; Africa

March 2010 (Revised August 2010)
Case

Systems Infrastructure at Google (A)

By: Linda A. Hill and Emily Stecker

This case describes how a senior vice president of engineering at Google, Bill Coughran, leads a high-performing engineering organization. The case focuses specifically on Coughran's encouraging two teams of engineers to develop competing solutions for application... View Details

Keywords: Independent Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Innovation Leadership; Leadership Development; Product Design; Groups and Teams; Creativity; Motivation and Incentives; Competitive Strategy; Technology Industry; United States

21 Mar 2018
Research & Ideas

Why Artificial Intelligence Isn't a Sure Thing to Increase Productivity

iStock Thinking about the fast-approaching era of artificial intelligence, employers rejoice in the increases to productivity such tools could bring, while workers are more likely to calculate the time left before R2-D2 takes over their... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Technology; Information

Web

Resources - Christensen Center for Teaching & Learning

by promoting the intelligent use of information technology. The Organizational Behavior Teaching Society Dedicated to innovative teaching and learning in the organizational and management sciences. Journals... View Details

25 Aug 2022
News

Understanding the Digital, Data, and Design Institute at Harvard

impact of its research labs is broad, the Institute has built four common platforms for external engagement that will enable rapid innovation and continual refinements as information flows between the labs... View Details

December 1997 (Revised April 1998)
Case

www.springs.com

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Melissa Dailey

Business Week's June 1997 "Rising Star" profile of Springs Industries' president and COO, Crandall Bowles, reported that she was poised to become one of the top two or three women executives in the country. In November 1997, the company announced Bowles' appointment to... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Operations; Product Marketing; Management; Strategy; Consumer Products Industry; South Carolina