Collaborative Innovation and Invention - Publications - Faculty & Research

April 2018
Teaching Note

Formlabs: Selling a New 3D Printer

Teaching Note for HBS No. 817-001. Formlabs is a venture that manufactures and sells 3D printers used in a variety of industries and applications. As the young company prepares to ship its latest model, the head of Customer Development is tasked with developing a... View Details

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One of the most popular mantras for innovation is “avoid criticism.” The underlying assumption is that criticism kills the flow of creativity and the enthusiasm of a team. Aversion to criticism has significantly spread in the last 20 years, especially through the... View Details

November 2023
Case

Axie Infinity: Video Game Meets Blockchain

By: Marco Di Maggio and Wenyao Sha

The narrative unfolds from the perspective of Sky Mavis's leadership team, facing a high-stakes, rapidly evolving digital frontier. They navigate the exhilarating yet tumultuous journey of Axie Infinity, balancing innovation with sustainability. It explores the game's... View Details

Keywords: Blockchain; Business Model; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Currency; Innovation and Management; Business Strategy; Video Game Industry

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Companies compete on the decisions they make. For years—even decades—in response to intensifying global competition, companies decided to outsource their manufacturing operations in order to reduce costs. But we are now seeing the alarming long-term effect of those... View Details

1997
Book

The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail

By: Clayton M. Christensen

His work is cited by the world's best known thought leaders, from Steve Jobs to Malcolm Gladwell. In this classic bestseller, innovation expert Clayton M. Christensen shows how even the most outstanding companies can do everything right—yet still lose market... View Details

Keywords: Disruptive Innovation; Leadership

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23 Apr 2020
Video

Navigating the Crisis & Beyond: Perspectives for Leaders in South Asia - Part 1

September 2002 (Revised October 2002)
Case

Bank of America (A)

By: Stefan H. Thomke and Ashok Nimgade

Describes how Bank of America is creating a system for product and service innovation in its retail banking business. Emphasis is placed on the role of experimentation in some two-dozen real-life "laboratories" that serve as fully operating banking branches and as... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Problems and Challenges; Innovation and Management; Risk and Uncertainty; Change; Failure; Banks and Banking; Learning; Banking Industry

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24 Oct 2023
Cold Call Podcast

How the United States Air Force Accelerated AI Adoption

Keywords: Re: Maria P. Roche

24 May 2023
Blog Post

Innovating, Funding, and Scaling Climate Solutions at Harvard Business School: Day Three of Harvard Climate Action Week

collaborative climate alliances; and the founders, entrepreneurs, and innovators disrupting the climate space. The conference transitioned to its... View Details

Article

The Business of Business Schools: Restoring a Focus on Competing to Win

By: Robert Simons

As business leaders worry about the decline of American competitiveness, business schools are responding by changing their curriculums. But are the topics and approaches taught in today's business schools part of the solution or part of the problem? In this paper, I... View Details

Keywords: Business Schools; Purpose Of Business Schools; Management Education; Business School Curriculum; Strategy Execution; U.S. Competitiveness; Capitalism; Management Profession; Innovation; Competing To Win; Integrated Corporate Reporting; Trends; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decision Making; Design; Business Education; Curriculum and Courses; Innovation and Management

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January 2016
Case

SAP SE: Autism at Work

By: Gary P. Pisano and Robert D. Austin

This case describes SAP's "Autism at Work" program, which integrates people with autism into the company's workforce. The company has a stated objective of making 1% of its workforce people with autism by 2020. SAP's rationale for the program is based on the belief... View Details

Keywords: Software; Human Resource Management; Diversity Management; Germany; Selection and Staffing; Innovation and Management; Applications and Software; Recruitment; Diversity; Information Technology Industry; Germany

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24 Jul 2006
Research & Ideas

How Kayak Users Built a New Industry

kayaking was a wonderful example of how "user innovations" evolve and eventually become commercial products. Hienerth is a professor at Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration,... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Entertainment & Recreation

Kris Johnson Ferreira

Kris Ferreira is the Edgerley Family Associate Professor of Business Administration in the Technology and Operations Management (TOM) Unit. She teaches the Supply Chain Management course in the MBA elective curriculum and analytics in numerous Executive Education... View Details

Keywords: retailing

10 Oct 2000
Research & Ideas

Cross-Sector Collaboration: Lessons from the International Trachoma Initiative

Cross-sector partnerships between for-profit and nonprofit organizations are increasing in frequency and importance. Such collaborations, write Diana Barrett, James Austin and... View Details

Keywords: by Diana Barrett, James Austin & Sheila McCarthy

18 Jun 2024
Research & Ideas

Industrial Decarbonization: Confronting the Hard Challenges of Cement

Cities like Cairo; Chongqing, China; Delhi; and Kinshasa, Congo are experiencing population explosions accompanied by unprecedented demand for homes, offices, factories, and infrastructure. In the United States, the Biden Administration’s policy-driven infrastructure... View Details

Keywords: by by Janelle Conaway; Green Technology; Energy; Industrial Products; Manufacturing

12 Dec 2011
HBS Case

HBS Cases: Clocky, the Runaway Alarm Clock

same time, Harvard Business School Professor Elie Ofek was seeking case studies for his second-year Marketing and Innovation course. "I was looking for new products and... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Consumer Products

28 Aug 2007
First Look

First Look: August 28, 2007

outdated. Instead, innovations are increasingly brought to the market by networks of firms, selected for their unique capabilities, and operating in a coordinated manner. This new model demands that firms... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

Teaching Interest

Public Entrepreneurship

By: Mitchell B. Weiss

Public entrepreneurship is designed for future private entrepreneurs and public leaders who want to build new ventures operating in or selling into traditionally public domains.

The last few years have seen a wave of new public entrepreneurs start companies... View Details

Keywords: Public Entrepreneurship

April 2012
Article

Celebrate Innovation, No Matter Where It Occurs

By: Nitin Nohria

The author offers opinions on technological innovations and innovations in business. It is argued that the country of origin of a technological innovation is less economically important than the ability of a society to capitalize on that innovation and convert it into... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Profit; Commercialization; Marketing; Distribution

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June 2016 (Revised November 2021)
Case

chotuKool: 'Little Cool,' Big Opportunity

By: Rory McDonald, Derek van Bever and Efosa Ojomo

In 2013, a team led by Gopalan Sunderraman, vice president of corporate development at Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd.—one of the companies owned by Godrej Group, a large Indian conglomerate—was preparing to launch an innovative low-cost refrigerator. Developed expressly... View Details

Keywords: Disruptive Innovation; Emerging Markets; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Consumer Products Industry; India

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