Publications

SSRN

24 Jul 2012
First Look

First Look: July 24

gas regulations are more likely to share greenhouse gas emissions levels and reduction targets. Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/12-026.pdf The Rich Get Richer: Enabling Conditions for View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

19 Dec 2016
Research & Ideas

The 10 Most Popular Stories of 2016

Credit: iStockPhoto Startups often struggle to find their first customers—especially in the sharing economy, where survival depends on securing users on both the supply and demand sides. No surprise, then, that our readers flocked to a... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

30 Jan 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Modularity and Intellectual Property Protection

Keywords: by Carliss Y. Baldwin & Joachim Henkel

2025
Working Paper

Navigating Choppy Waters: How U.S. Trade Policy Uncertainty Affects Small Businesses

By: David Atkin, Zoë Cullen and Ebehi Iyoha

This paper explores the impact of recent changes in the US trade policy environment on small businesses. Drawing on a survey of more than 4,000 small businesses conducted between March 22 and 31, 2025, we examine firms’ knowledge, expectations, and decisions during... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Risk and Uncertainty; Government Legislation; Globalization; International Relations; Small Business

Fall 2013
Article

Engaging Supply Chains in Climate Change

By: Chonnikarn Fern Jira and Michael W. Toffel

Suppliers are increasingly being asked to share information about their vulnerability to climate change and their strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Their responses vary widely. We theorize and empirically identify several factors associated with suppliers... View Details

Keywords: Knowledge Sharing; Motivation and Incentives; Risk Management; Climate Change; Supply Chain Management; Environmental Sustainability

April, 2023
Article

Reducing Information Barriers to Solar Adoption: Experimental Evidence from India

By: Meera Mahadevan, Robyn C. Meeks and Takashi Yamano

Off-grid solar technologies hold promise for unelectrified and low-quality electricity settings; however, their adoption remains low. Important barriers to adoption, such as incomplete information remain relatively unexplored in developing countries. In collaboration... View Details

Keywords: Technology Adoption; Renewable Energy; Knowledge Sharing; Developing Countries and Economies; India

22 Sep 2009
First Look

First Look: September 22

Working PapersMixed Source Authors:Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Gastón Llanes Abstract We study competitive interaction between profit-maximizing firms that sell software and complementary goods or services. In addition to tactical price competition, we allow firms... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

December 2021
Article

Negativity Spreads More Than Positivity on Twitter after Both Positive and Negative Political Situations

By: Jonas Paul Schöne, Brian Parkinson and Amit Goldenberg

What type of emotional language spreads further in political discourses on social media? Previous research has focused on situations that primarily elicited negative emotions, showing that negative language tended to spread further. The current project extends existing... View Details

Keywords: Negative Emotions; Emotional Influence; Emotional Resonance; Political Discourse; Emotion Contagion; Intergroup; Interactive Communication; Emotions; Government and Politics; Social Media

2007
Working Paper

Global Competitors as Next-Door Neighbors: Competition and Geographic Concentration in the Semiconductor Industry

By: Minyuan Zhao and Juan Alcacer

Despite the many advantages offered by technology clusters, firms located in them face the risk of losing valuable knowledge to nearby competitors. In this study, we argue that multi-location firms strategically organize their R&D activities to appropriate the value of... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Industry Clusters; Innovation and Invention; Geographic Location; Competitive Strategy; Globalization; Semiconductor Industry

SSRN

01 Mar 2022
What Do You Think?

Is It Time for More Reverse Mentoring?

allow themselves to appear to be vulnerable, for once lacking the answers to everything? Is it time for more reverse mentoring? What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments below. Editor’s Note: Heskett speculates on the... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

02 Jan 2001
Research & Ideas

Gurus in the Garage

phrase "tragedy of the commons" to describe a system in which people acting rationally and in their own self-interest destroy the very resources they all share for their livelihood. His original example was of colonial farmers.... View Details

Keywords: by Dorothy Leonard & Walter Swap

March 2009
Article

Applicant and Examiner Citations in U.S. Patents: An Overview and Analysis

By: Juan Alcacer, Michelle Gittelman and Bhaven Sampat

Prior art patent citations have become a popular measure of patent quality and knowledge flow between firms. Interpreting these measurements is complicated, in some cases, because prior art citations are added by patent examiners as well as by patent applicants. The... View Details

Keywords: Citations; Patents; Knowledge Sharing; Measurement and Metrics; Quality; United States

Purchase

30 Apr 2008
Sharpening Your Skills

Sharpening Your Skills: Brand Management

Sharpening Your Skills dives into the HBS Working Knowledge archives to bring together articles on ways to improve your business skills. Questions To Be Answered Does branding work for business-to-business marketing? Can individuals... View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Sports; Publishing; Auto

May 2009
Case

Montgomery County Business Roundtable for Education

By: Allen S. Grossman and Geoff Eckman Marietta

Montgomery County Business Roundtable for Education (MCBRE) was a business-public education partnership with Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) that promoted cross-sector knowledge sharing and academic excellence. Its suite of core student programs, such as “720,”... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Knowledge Sharing; Leadership; Partners and Partnerships; Education; Business and Community Relations; Education Industry; United States

24 Aug 2018
Blog Post

Meet the MS/MBA: Engineering Sciences Class of 2020

about the new program and this is what we learned: What excites you most about the MS/MBA: Engineering Sciences Program? Adar Anon BS, Computer Science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem "I am most excited about studying and working together with my MS/MBA:... View Details

Article

Management Practices, Relational Contracts and the Decline of General Motors

By: Susan Helper and Rebecca Henderson

General Motors was once regarded as one of the best managed and most successful firms in the world, but between 1980 and 2009 its share of the U.S. market fell from 62.6% to 19.8%, and in 2009 the firm went bankrupt. In this paper we argue that the conventional... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Design; Management Practices and Processes; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Manufacturing Industry; Auto Industry; United States

16 May 2000
Research & Ideas

The Simple Economics of Open Source

pay-off, no reward? Could it be driven, as some media reports have admiringly suggested, purely by intellectual fervor on the part of programmers, perhaps coupled with a noble desire to share and dispense View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Technology

2009
Working Paper

Varied Experience, Team Familiarity, and Learning: The Mediating Role of Psychological Safety

By: Bradley R. Staats, Francesca Gino and Gary P. Pisano

Prior work examining the relationship of varied experience (i.e., the concurrent completion of multiple tasks) and learning by groups finds inconsistent results. We hypothesize that team familiarity, i.e, individuals' prior shared work experience, may help explain this... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Learning; Performance Effectiveness; Groups and Teams; Social Psychology; Familiarity