Publications

05 Jul 2006
Working Paper Summaries

Learning Tradeoffs in Organizations: Measuring Multiple Dimensions of Improvement to Investigate Learning-Curve Heterogeneity

Keywords: by Francesca Gino, Richard M.J. Bohmer, Amy C. Edmondson, Gary P. Pisano & Ann B. Winslow; Health

2015
Chapter

Innovation and Business Growth

By: William R. Kerr

Innovation and the pursuit of new business opportunities are essential for growth at the firm level; moreover, they provide the foundation for an economy to achieve new levels of technological prowess, productivity, and ultimately prosperity. This chapter describes... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Economic Growth; Innovation and Invention

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23 Mar 2021
News

Should Gig Work Be Government-Run?

June 2012
Article

Leadership Is a Conversation

By: Boris Groysberg and Michael Slind

Globalization and new technologies have sharply reduced the efficacy of command-and-control management and its accompanying forms of corporate communication. In the course of a recent research project, the authors concluded that by talking with employees, rather than... View Details

Keywords: Employees; Management Style; Interpersonal Communication; Leadership; Cooperation; Partners and Partnerships

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Aptiv's board must decide whether a joint venture with an auto maker is the right next step in the company's efforts to develop and commercialize a production-ready autonomous driving system. While many commentators believed that Aptiv's self-driving technologies... View Details

June 1998 (Revised August 2001)
Case

Wells Fargo Online Financial Services (A)

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Nicole Tempest

Wells Fargo, the industry leader in electronic banking, has implemented a Balanced Scorecard in its online financial services group (OFS) to track and measure performance. The OFS group develops and supports services that allow existing and future banking customers to... View Details

Keywords: Balanced Scorecard; Internet and the Web; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Corporate Strategy; Performance Evaluation; Finance; Change; Situation or Environment; Measurement and Metrics; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry

10 Apr 2006
Research & Ideas

Lessons from the Browser Wars

In a famous example of how first movers can lose their advantage, second-mover Microsoft won the Web browser wars from Netscape and continues to dominate the market today. But that competition was the subject of another "war," this one among researchers who... View Details

Keywords: by Sara Grant; Technology; Technology; Technology

February 2011 (Revised September 2013)
Case

Sarvajal: Water for All

By: John D. Macomber and Mona Sinha

Entrepreneur wrestles with business model using SMS and RFID technology, franchising, and leasing to rapidly grow off-the-grid water purification business without subsidies. The company seeks to provide potable water services to rural and urban India where the public... View Details

Keywords: Business Subsidiaries; Business Model; Communication Technology; Private Sector; Social Entrepreneurship; Cost Management; Rural Scope; Emerging Markets; Infrastructure; Problems and Challenges; Information Infrastructure; India

Michael Parzen is a Senior Lecturer in the Technology and Operations Management unit at Harvard Business School. He is an applied statistician with extensive experience in data science education and currently teaches Applied Business Analytics as an MBA elective... View Details

October 2023
Case

Vida Health: Transforming Chronic Disease Treatment

By: William Sahlman and Nicole Tempest Keller

San Francisco based Vida Health, founded by Stephanie Tilenius, former vice president of Commerce and Payments at Google, was a B2B digital health startup focused on the treatment of cardiometabolic conditions, such as diabetes and obesity. Its innovative digital... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Demand and Consumers; Health Care and Treatment; Product Marketing; Risk and Uncertainty; Technological Innovation; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; United States; California; San Francisco

Eugene Soltes is a Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School where his work focuses on corporate integrity and risk management. His research utilizes data analytics to identify organizational cultures and compliance systems that can effectively... View Details

11 Jun 2020
In Practice

Are Digital Organizations Better at Overcoming COVID?

industry. That said, technology will be most powerfully utilized during the pandemic by those firms who apply it organization-wide to create more nimble, efficient organizations, more capable of managing the... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

January 2022 (Revised September 2023)
Case

Simplifyy

By: Paul A. Gompers and Alicia Dadlani

Jake Lisby, co-founder and CEO of Simplifyy, a property technology startup in Kansas City, Missouri, was both exhausted and exhilarated by the flurry of activity surrounding the pivot of the business model in late 2021. Simplifyy, a venture-backed PropTech company, was... View Details

Keywords: SaaS; SaaS Business Models; Business Model; Business Startups; Small Business; Geographic Location; Technological Innovation; Information Technology; Transformation; Problems and Challenges; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; United States; Missouri

April 1991 (Revised June 1993)
Case

McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. in 1990 (A)

Describes McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc.'s competitive position in 1990. McCaw is the largest cellular phone service company in the United States. It faces challenges of technological change and formulating strategy in an industry with a highly uncertain future.... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Communication Technology; Competition; Change Management; Investment; Telecommunications Industry; United States

09 Mar 2003
Research & Ideas

Six Keys to Building New Markets by Unleashing Disruptive Innovation

Managers today have a problem. They know their companies must grow. But growth is hard, especially given today's economic environment where investment capital is difficult to come by and firms are reluctant to take risks. View Details

Keywords: by Clayton M. Christensen, Michael E. Raynor & Scott D. Anthony

Research Summary

Science-Based Business and the Business of Science

By: H. Kent Bowen

Science and technology can provide strategic advantage to companies' through differentiated products and processes. The focus of our research is on unusually productive and creative labs that are the sources of breakthroughs that create platforms for sustained... View Details

02 Nov 2019
News

American Business Schools Are Reinventing the MBA

August 1984 (Revised June 1986)
Case

Cray Research, Inc.

By: Francis Aguilar

Cray Research faces several management problems as a result of rapid growth and the need for continued growth. Issues to be discussed include 1) whether Cray should be a marketing or a technology company; 2) new and powerful competition; 3) products to offer as Cray... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Change Management; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Technological Innovation; Growth Management; Product Marketing