Publications

06 Feb 2006
Research & Ideas

Sorting Out the Patent Craze

include bodies as varied in scope as the Financial Accounting Standards Board on one end to the DSL Forum on the other. On the tech side, SSOs work both with technology sponsors and users to develop a set of standards for products to... View Details

Keywords: by Sara Grant; Technology

Article

Why Every Organization Needs an Augmented Reality Strategy

By: Michael E. Porter and James E. Heppelmann

While the physical world is three-dimensional, most data is trapped on two-dimensional pages and screens. This gulf between the real and digital worlds prevents us from fully exploiting the volumes of information now available to us. Augmented reality (AR), a set of... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Innovation Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance Effectiveness

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July 2011 (Revised September 2011)
Case

Game Time Decision for AppDirect

By: Andrei Hagiu, Laura Arjona and Emily Zhang

AppDirect is a start-up that offers small businesses software-as-a-service solutions through a business app marketplace and portal. Daniel Saks, co-founder and co-CEO, is faced with the key question of deciding distribution strategy: should AppDirect find channel... View Details

Keywords: Digital Platforms; Distribution; Applications and Software; Innovation Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Business Growth and Maturation; Competitive Strategy; Information Technology Industry; United States

24 May 2021
Blog Post

Rebekah Emanuel: Host of Season 3 of the Climate Rising Podcast

up and helping them find the actionable steps that pull on the best of what the innovation sector knows at the moment. The goal is to give them tools in their pocket that they didn't have before. For entrepreneurs at the early stage, I... View Details

January 2025 (Revised April 2025)
Case

Duolingo: On a 'Streak'

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Nicole Tempest Keller and Nicole Luo

In December 2024, Severin Hacker, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Duolingo, reflected on the remarkable evolution of the language-learning app he helped launch in 2011. As the #1 most downloaded education app in the world, Duolingo had over 100 million... View Details

Keywords: Learning; AI and Machine Learning; Growth and Development Strategy; Motivation and Incentives; Diversification; Business Model; Market Entry and Exit; Technology Industry; Education Industry; United States

28 Mar 2018
HBS Seminar

Tim O’Reilly, O’Reilly Media

22 Nov 2023
Research & Ideas

Humans vs. Machines: Untangling the Tasks AI Can (and Can't) Handle

efficiently managed by AI,” the paper explains. Cyborgs, referring to fictional beings who are part human, part machine, integrated technology with every task. “Cyborg users don’t just delegate tasks; they intertwine their efforts with AI... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Information Technology; Technology

Article

Assessing the Food and Drug Administration's Risk-Based Framework for Software Precertification with Top Health Apps in the United States: Quality Improvement Study

By: Noy Alon, Ariel Dora Stern and John Torous

BACKGROUND: As the development of mobile health apps continues to accelerate, the need to implement a framework that can standardize categorizing these apps to allow for efficient, yet robust regulation grows. However, regulators and researchers are faced with numerous... View Details

Keywords: Mobile Health; Smartphone; Food And Drug Administration; Risk-based Framework; Health Care and Treatment; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Applications and Software; Framework

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Research Summary

Overview

When information is digitized, it can be aggregated and shared nearly instantly. I am interested in how this acceleration in the aggregation and availability of information, via digitization, affects firms and firm strategy. Platforms have emerged as marketplaces for... View Details

Keywords: Market Platforms; Social Media; Information Disclosure; Platform Strategy; Innovation Strategy; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Technological Innovation; Intellectual Property; Information; Technology Platform; Information Industry; Information Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Web Services Industry

03 Jun 2022
Blog Post

HiHome Sweet HiHome

jointly by SEAS and Harvard Business School, while Shu was in the Undergraduate Technology Innovation Fellows program, run by SEAS, HBS, and the Harvard Faculty of Arts & Sciences. The two got to chatting, laying the seeds for HiHome,... View Details

January 2019
Case

Understanding the Brand Equity of Nestlé Crunch Bar: A Market Research Case

By: Jill Avery and Gerald Zaltman

In early 2018, Nestlé announced the sale of its U.S. candy-making division and a select collection of 20 of its confectionery brands, including the Nestlé Crunch Bar, to Ferrero SpA for $2.8 billion. Under the terms of the Nestlé acquisition, each of the purchased... View Details

Keywords: Brand Equity; Marketing; Market Research; Qualitative Research; Marketing Communication; Customer Satisfaction; Brands and Branding; Consumer Behavior; Marketing Communications; Marketing Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry; United States; North America; Italy

March 2002 (Revised January 2003)
Case

Microsoft: Positioning the Tablet PC

By: Youngme E. Moon and Christina L. Darwall

Microsoft is preparing for the launch of the Tablet PC, which allows users to use a pen (stylus) to run Windows and Windows applications, annotate documents, and create handwritten documents for later reference or even conversion to text. Microsoft's original equipment... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Product Positioning; Market Entry and Exit; Information Infrastructure; Applications and Software; Computer Industry

18 Feb 2014
First Look

First Look: February 18

range of contexts, information costs approach zero. In this chapter, we discuss how sharply reduced information costs enable organizations to engage with communities of developers, professionals, and users for core View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

26 Apr 2023
In Practice

Is AI Coming for Your Job?

users may have additional knowledge or context that the AI doesn’t (e.g. that the AI hasn’t been trained on, propriety knowledge, a better understanding of the specific task at hand, etc.). Another risk with these generative AI models is... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Technology

09 Jan 2024
In Practice

Harnessing AI: What Businesses Need to Know in ChatGPT’s Second Year

crowdsource diverse viewpoints and innovative solutions to their most complex solutions. Take the Netflix challenge. In 2006, Netflix launched an open competition for the best collaborative filtering algorithm to predict View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Information Technology

22 Feb 2024
Research & Ideas

How to Make AI 'Forget' All the Private Data It Shouldn't Have

underpin this technology typically subsume the information that users enter, helping the software provide better answers over time. Working Knowledge spoke with Seth Neel, an expert on machine “unlearning” who is an assistant professor at... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Technology; Information Technology

14 Nov 2017
First Look

New Research and Ideas: November 14, 2017

similarly in U.S. and international samples. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=53447 November–December 2017 Harvard Business Review The Board's New Innovation Imperative: Directors Need to Rethink Their... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

May 2003
Module Note

Product Development Process Design and Improvement

By: Stefan H. Thomke

Describes the conceptual foundations and pedagogy for a module on the design and improvement of processes for the development of products and services. Can also be used as part of a more general course on Managing Technology and Innovation. Central to Managing Product... View Details

Keywords: Product Development; Design; Performance Improvement; Innovation and Management; Information Technology; Customers; Information Management; Business Processes; Learning; Transformation; Service Operations