Publications

SSRN

April 2025
Case

Radical Transformation at Bayer: Dynamic Shared Ownership

By: Boris Groysberg and Gamze Yucaoglu

In 2023, Bill Anderson became CEO of Bayer AG, a 160-year-old life sciences giant looking to strengthen its pharma pipeline, manage debt, and cut through bureaucracy. His bold response: Dynamic Shared Ownership (DSO), a radical model replacing traditional hierarchies... View Details

Keywords: Human Resources; Business Strategy; Alignment; Innovation and Management; Organizational Structure; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

March 2018 (Revised September 2023)
Case

X: The Foghorn Decision

By: Robert S. Huckman, Karim R. Lakhani and Kyle R. Myers

In February 2016, Kathy Hannun—a project leader at X, Alphabet Inc.'s so-called "moonshot factory"—had to prepare a recommendation for the senior leadership of X regarding the future of Foghorn, a project she was leading to develop a carbon-neutral process for... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; R＆D Project Management; Radical Innovation; Clean Technology; Innovation and Management; Technological Innovation; Energy; Research and Development; Projects; Management; Decision Choices and Conditions; Technology Industry; Energy Industry; Green Technology Industry; California

February 2008 (Revised November 2008)
Case

Radical Collaboration: IBM Microelectronics Joint Development Alliances

By: Willy Shih, Gary Pisano and Andrew A. King

IBM's "Radical Collaboration" model has been an innovative approach to meeting the challenges of the huge R&D and capital investments that are needed to stay competitive in the global semiconductor industry. This model has required a rethinking of what is proprietary,... View Details

Keywords: Cost Management; Investment; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Problems and Challenges; Alliances; Networks; Partners and Partnerships; Research and Development; Competitive Advantage; Semiconductor Industry

The need has emerged for a better understanding of design research and design innovation and how they are linked. In our discussion, we consider design as the process of “making sense of things.” Hence, our questions turn more precisely into the following ones: What... View Details

Article

Entrepreneurship in the Large Corporation: A Longitudinal Study of How Established Firms Create Breakthrough Inventions

By: Gautam Ahuja and Curba Morris Lampert

We present a model that explains how established firms create breakthrough inventions. We identify three organizational pathologies that inhibit breakthrough inventions: the familiarity trap—favoring the familiar; the maturity trap—favoring the mature;... View Details

Keywords: Radical Innovation; Organizational Learning; Technology; Strategy; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Business Processes; Innovation and Invention; Chemical Industry

05 Sep 2013
News

Who Will Radically Disrupt American Health Care?

20 Sep 2017
Research & Ideas

The Three Types of Leaders Who Create Radical Change

research associate at HBS. The article appears in the new issue of Stanford Social Innovation Review. “If you look at the history of any successful social change movement, you’ll see there were moments of really effective agitation,... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

17 Apr 2017
News

Jeff Immelt Wants a Radical Transformation of GE

jet engines, and for years made its home in leafy Connecticut will officially open its new corporate headquarters in downtown Boston, smack in the middle of the city’s burgeoning innovation district. According to the Boston Globe, after... View Details

Keywords: Miscellaneous Manufacturing; Manufacturing

Fall 2012
Article

Innovation Strategy and Entry Deterrence

By: Ozge Turut and Elie Ofek

We model an incumbent's decision to pursue radical or incremental innovation when facing a rival entrant. The radical innovation may yield lucrative financial returns but entails significant technological and market-related uncertainties. It is also particularly... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Innovation Strategy; Risk and Uncertainty; Markets; Mathematical Methods

Find at Harvard

2018
Working Paper

Creativity Under Fire: The Effects of Competition on Creative Production

By: Daniel P. Gross

Though fundamental to innovation and essential to many industries and occupations, individual creativity has received limited attention as an economic behavior and has historically proven difficult to study. This paper studies the incentive effects of competition on... View Details

Keywords: Incentives; Tournaments; Radical Vs. Incremental Innovation; Motivation and Incentives; Competition; Creativity; Innovation and Invention

SSRN

Article

The Radical Flank Effect and Cross-occupational Collaboration for Technology Development during a Power Shift

By: Emily Truelove and Katherine C. Kellogg

This 12-month ethnographic study of an early entrant into the U.S. car-sharing industry demonstrates that when an organization shifts its focus from developing radical new technology to incrementally improving this technology, the shift may spark an internal power... View Details

Keywords: Groups and Teams; Conflict and Resolution; Power and Influence; Perception; Behavior; Collaborative Innovation and Invention

February 2019 (Revised April 2021)
Case

Honda Innovations: Leveraging External Insights to Accelerate Creation

By: Antonio Davila

Nick Sugimoto, CEO of Honda Innovations—the open innovation organization of Honda, has to decide how to extend his organization’s approach to innovation across the world. Honda Innovations dates back to 2000 when Honda created Honda Research Institute in Silicon... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Radical Innovation; Corporate Venturing; Corporate Innovation; Organization Structure; Management Control; Business Units; Disruption; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Global Strategy; Disruptive Innovation; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Organizational Structure; Strategy; Auto Industry; San Francisco; Japan

Research Summary

Design Driven Innovation

By: Roberto Verganti

Firms, managers and scholars have often balanced between two approaches to innovation: user centered (where incremental innovation is pulled by the market) and technology push (where innovation comes from breakthrough development in technologies). However there is a... View Details

08 Feb 2024
News

Got a Radical Idea at Work? Find a Partner.

January 2009 (Revised May 2009)
Case

Innovation at Mahindra & Mahindra (A)

By: Stefan H. Thomke and Briana Doerr Luthra

Describes the Mahindra & Mahindra Group's approach to innovation. The Group is among the top industrial houses in India and its managing director Anand Mahindra has put innovation at the core of its growth strategy. Emphasis is placed on managing the balance between... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Problems and Challenges; Marketing; Business Processes; Product; Innovation Strategy; Organizational Design; Demand and Consumers; Auto Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; India