Publications

28 Sep 2020
News

In R&D, Generalists Are More Valuable Than You Think

October 2022 (Revised September 2023)
Supplement

SolarWinds Confronts SUNBURST (B)

By: Frank Nagle, George A. Riedel, William R. Kerr and David Lane

Supplements the (A) case, describing actions taken by SolarWinds as well as by regulatory agencies in the aftermath of the immediate crisis. The case also includes reflections by SolarWinds managers on the choices they made with respect to disclosure, media relations,... View Details

Keywords: Cyberattacks; Cybersecurity; Corporate Disclosure; Crisis Management; Customer Focus and Relationships; Legal Liability; Governance Compliance; Business and Government Relations; Information Technology Industry; United States

Purchase

06 Nov 2014
News

Why reports of the death of the salesman are greatly exaggerated

March 2019
Article

Open Source Software and Firm Productivity

As open source software (OSS) is increasingly used as a key input by firms, understanding its impact on productivity becomes critical. This study measures the firm-level productivity impact of nonpecuniary (free) OSS and finds a positive and significant value-added... View Details

Keywords: Applications and Software; Open Source Distribution; Performance Productivity; Information Technology; Strategy

Find at Harvard

12 May 2023
News

Alabama's Yella Fella

Photo credit: Auburn University Photo credit: Auburn University In 1970, Jimmy Rane (OPM 11, 1986) took over a tiny treated-lumber business in Abbeville, Alabama, that was hovering near bankruptcy. Its owners, Rane's in-laws, had died suddenly in a car accident. Over... View Details

Keywords: Merchant Wholesalers, Durable Goods; Wholesale Trade

September 2023
Technical Note

Free and Open Source Software and Hardware

This technical note surveys the concepts of free and open source software and hardware. It introduces the concepts in general, providing a brief history of their development and numerous examples of how companies employ them in practice. Further, it identifies various... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Technological Innovation; Nonprofit Organizations; Competitive Strategy; Patents; Information Technology; Business Model; Open Source Distribution; Applications and Software; Information Technology Industry; Technology Industry

Educators

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04 Dec 2017
News

How a Fast-Growing Startup Built Its Sales Team for Long-Term Success

2021
Working Paper

Does Who Helps You Impact Your Behavior? Examining the Effects of Social Interactions on Knowledge Sharing in Online Communities

By: Eunkwang Seo, Frank Nagle and Sonali K. Shah

Online communities provide vibrant forums for knowledge sharing and are increasingly being used by individual users and firms to source knowledge and create and capture value. Yet, there is much to learn about how the actions of community members affect other members,... View Details

Keywords: Online Communities; Knowledge Development; Innovation; Reciprocity; Knowledge Sharing; Networks; Innovation and Invention; Interpersonal Communication

SSRN

May 2022
Article

Strengthening Digital Infrastructure: A Policy Agenda for Free and Open Source Software

While there is little debate that digital forces are playing an increasingly crucial role in the economy, there is limited understanding of the importance of the digital infrastructure that underlies this role. Much of the discussion around digital infrastructure has... View Details

Keywords: Open Source; Applications and Software; Policy; Infrastructure; Open Source Distribution

02 Feb 2016
News

Hiring Star Salespeople Isn’t the Best Way to Grow

06 Feb 2015
News

The myths behind pushy salespeople

15 Aug 2014
News

Sales Still Matters More than Social Media

March 2022 (Revised July 2022)
Case

Nexleaf Analytics: Saving the World Using the Internet of Things

In 2019, a decade after co-founding Nexleaf Analytics, CEO Nithya Ramanathan faced an important decision that would impact the ability of the small, but growing, not-for-profit organization to thrive for another decade. Their sensor technologies and big data analytics... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Technological Innovation; Nonprofit Organizations; Competitive Strategy; Patents; Expansion; Information Technology; Health Industry; Information Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Technology Industry

Educators

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19 Feb 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, February 19, 2019

deductibles. We show how choice difficulties or biases may lead patients to respond to such increases in patient cost-sharing by reducing demand for high-value care, muddying the traditional argument that the price elasticity of demand... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

09 Jun 2020
News

Accelerating Innovation Through a Network of Ecosystems

December 2011
Article

Data Impediments to Empirical Work on Health Insurance Markets

By: Leemore S. Dafny, David Dranove, Frank Limbrock and Fiona Scott Morton

We compare four datasets that researchers might use to study competition in the health insurance industry. We show that the two datasets most commonly used to estimate market concentration differ considerably from each other (both in levels and in changes over time),... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Analytics and Data Science; Market Participation; Insurance Industry

2022
Article

Improving Efficiency and Reducing Costs of MRI-Guided Prostate Brachytherapy Using Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing

By: Nikhil G. Thaker, Rajat J. Kudchadker, James R. Incalcaterra, Tharakeswara K. Bathala, Robert S. Kaplan, Ankit Agarwal, Deborah A. Kuban, Benjamin D. Frank, Prajnan Das, Thomas W. Feeley and Steven J. Frank

Integrated quality improvement (QI) and cost reduction strategies can help increase value in cancer care. We applied standard QI and TDABC methods to improve workflow efficiency and reduce costs for MRI-guided prostate brachytherapy. We constructed process maps,... View Details

Keywords: Brachytherapy; Quality Improvement; Prostate; Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing; Cost Accounting; Health Care and Treatment; Performance Efficiency; Health Industry