Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(875)
- Faculty Publications (383)
- September 2011
- Article
What Drives Innovation?
By: Tom Nicholas
The idea that innovation drives economic growth is incontrovertible, but the factors that, in turn, drive innovation are not fully understood. This paper surveys the recent literature, focusing on three main drivers: intellectual property rights institutions, the... View Details
- August 2011
- Supplement
InnoCentive.com (B)
By: Karim R. Lakhani and Eric Lonstein
InnoCentive.com enables clients to tap into internal and external solver networks to address various business issues. In 2008, InnoCentive introduced "InnoCentive@Work" (lC@W), which recognized clients' reluctance to share problems and solutions with an external... View Details
- August 2011
- Article
Independent Invention During the Rise of the Corporate Economy in Britain and Japan
By: Tom Nicholas
Independent inventors accounted for approximately half of all patents in Britain and Japan by 1930, despite the rise of the corporate economy and the spread of industrial R&D. A mixture of patent renewal and historical citations data reveals that the quality of... View Details
- 2011
- Working Paper
Managing Political Risk in Global Business: Beiersdorf 1914-1990
By: Geoffrey Jones and Christina Lubinski
This working paper examines corporate strategies of political risk management during the twentieth century. It focuses especially on Beiersdorf, a German-based pharmaceutical and skin care company. During World War I the expropriation of its brands and trademarks... View Details
- June 2011 (Revised October 2013)
- Case
Gene Patents (A)
By: Richard Hamermesh, David Kiron and Phillip Andrews
In March 2010, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Sweet overturned 30 years of legal precedent and ruled that unaltered human genes could not be patented. This case reviews patent law and how it relates to our increasing knowledge of the Human Genome. The case issues... View Details
- April 2011 (Revised September 2011)
- Case
Willy Jacobsohn and Beiersdorf: Managing Expropriation and Anti-Semitism
By: Geoffrey G. Jones and Christina Lubinski
This case examines the management of home and host country risk by Beiersdorf during the interwar years. It can be used both in business history courses and more generally to teach political risk management by multinational corporations. Beiersdorf, a German personal... View Details
- April 2011
- Teaching Note
Office of Technology Transfer - Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences (TN)
By: Willy Shih and Sen Chai
Teaching Note for 611057. View Details
- April 2011
- Article
Private Equity and Long-Run Investment: The Case of Innovation
By: Josh Lerner, Morten Sorensen and Per Stromberg
A long-standing controversy is whether LBOs relieve managers from short-term pressures of dispersed shareholders, or whether LBO funds themselves are driven by short-term profit motives and sacrifice long-term growth to boost short-term performance. We investigate 495... View Details
- April 2011
- Article
The Origins of Japanese Technological Modernization
By: Tom Nicholas
Explanations of Japanese technological modernization from the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century have increasingly focused on domestic capabilities as opposed to the traditional emphasis on knowledge transfers from the West. Yet, the literature is mostly... View Details
Keywords: Knowledge Sharing; Body of Literature; Innovation and Invention; Technological Innovation; Patents; Measurement and Metrics; Expansion; Growth and Development Strategy; Economic Growth; Developing Countries and Economies; Information Technology; Technology Industry; Japan; Germany; Great Britain; United States
- March 2011 (Revised April 2018)
- Case
1366 Technologies: Scaling the Venture
By: Joseph B. Lassiter III, Ramana Nanda, David Kiron and Evan Richardson
For some time, 1366's co-founders, Frank van Mierlo and Ely Sachs, had faced a choice, which was now made all the more stark: 1366 could expand to produce silicon wafers itself, raising the required capital from "friendly" investors and building shipment volume slowly,... View Details
- March 2011 (Revised June 2012)
- Case
Office of Technology Transfer - Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences
By: Willy Shih, Sen Chai, Kamen Bliznashki and Courtney Hyland
Gordon Zong is trying to teach Chinese universities and research institutes how to do effective technology transfer and IP licensing, but he is trying to do it in an environment with weak property rights and an underdeveloped support infrastructure. As the managing... View Details
- March 2011
- Case
MorphoSys AG: The Evolution of a Biotechnology Business Model
By: Gary P. Pisano, Ryan Johnson and Carin-Isabel Knoop
In the biotech world, the 18-year-old Munich-based company MorphoSys was a rarity: it was profitable. The company achieved this profitability not by developing and selling its own drugs, but by licensing access to its proprietary library of human antibodies. Recently,... View Details
- March 2011
- Article
Cheaper Patents
By: Tom Nicholas
The 1883 Patents Act in Britain provides perspective for modern patent policy reforms because it radically changed incentives for inventors by reducing filing fees by 84 percent. Patents increased 2.5 fold after the reform, which was evenly distributed across the... View Details
Keywords: Patents; Global Range; Distribution; Demand and Consumers; Organizational Structure; Business Processes; Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Policy; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Fluctuation; Motivation and Incentives; Distribution Industry; United States; Great Britain
- March 2011
- Article
To Join or Not to Join: Examining Patent Pool Participation and Rent Sharing Rules
By: Josh Lerner and Anne Layne-Farrar
In recognition that participation in modern patent pools is voluntary, we present empirical evidence on participation rates and the factors that drive the decision to join a pool, including the profit sharing rules adopted by the pool's founders. In most participation... View Details
- January 2011
- Supplement
Matrix Capital Management (B)
By: Malcolm P. Baker and David Lane
Ben Balbale, a partner at hedge fund Matrix Capital, must decide whether to exit their investment in Rovi Corporation, a company with a diverse portfolio of patents used primarily for digital interactive guides. Rovi's shares are up over 50% from the time Balbale... View Details
- January 2011
- Supplement
Matrix Capital Management (C)
By: Malcolm P. Baker and David Lane
Ben Balbale, a partner at hedge fund Matrix Capital, must decide whether to exit their investment in Rovi Corporation, a company with a diverse portfolio of patents used primarily for digital interactive guides. Rovi's shares are up over 50% from the time Balbale... View Details
- January 2011 (Revised January 2011)
- Case
Marvel Enterprises, Inc. (Abridged)
By: Anita Elberse
The management team of Marvel Enterprises, known for its universe of superhero characters that includes Spider-Man, the Hulk, and X-Men, must reevaluate its marketing strategy. In June 2004, only six years after the company emerged from bankruptcy, Marvel has amassed a... View Details
- January 2011
- Teaching Note
The Travails of Rubber: Goodyear or Badyear? (TN)
By: Tom Nicholas
Teaching Note for 808118. View Details
- January 2011
- Article
Does Intellectual Property Rights Reform Spur Industrial Development?
By: Lee G. Branstetter, Ray Fisman, C. Fritz Foley and Kamal Saggi
An extensive theoretical literature generates ambiguous predictions concerning the effects of intellectual property rights (IPR) reform on industrial development. The impact depends on whether multinational enterprises (MNEs) expand production in reforming countries... View Details
- December 2010 (Revised March 2015)
- Case
The Wright Brothers and Their Flying Machines
By: Tom Nicholas and David Chen
Wilbur (1867-1912) and Orville (1871-1948) Wright were fascinated by the mystery of flight and they built on the ideas of prominent earlier figures such as Octave Chanute (1832-1910) the French-born American who was influential in fostering the free exchange of ideas... View Details