Publications

Research Summary

Social Innovation

My intellectual agenda addresses this question: How to innovate to solve the world’s toughest challenges? Out of the earth’s population, about 2 billion can afford good products whereas the remaining 5 billion are poor and therefore are nonconsumers.... View Details

2010
Chapter

Breakthrough Inventions and the Growth of Innovation Clusters

By: William R. Kerr

This report provides a comprehensive look at the role of innovation in promoting economic and social development. It examines the impact of innovation on the economic growth of developing countries and the future role of technological innovation in international... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Developing Countries and Economies; Society; Growth and Development; Climate Change; Social Issues; Industry Clusters; Business and Government Relations

March–April 2013
Article

Unlocking Innovation Through Business Experimentation

By: Stefan Thomke

There is a downside to businesses that focus heavily on standardization, optimization, and driving out variability: Such organizations leave themselves vulnerable to underinvesting in experimentation and variation, which are the lifeblood of innovation. Good... View Details

Keywords: Experimentation; Innovation Management; Learning And Development; Research; Innovation and Management; Business Processes

January 1978
Background Note

Note on MITI and the Japanese Liberalization of Direct Foreign Investments

By: Louis T. Wells Jr.

Keywords: Foreign Direct Investment; Japan

Program

Leading and Building a Culture of Innovation

Summary Today's leaders are evolving their approaches to leadership and innovation in response to quantum shifts in how we work and live. In the midst of economic, societal, and technological disruptions,... View Details

February 2023
Article

Maintaining Health Care Innovations After the Pandemic

By: Regina E. Herzlinger, Barak D. Richman and Kevin A. Schulman

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the worst failings of the health care system, but it also stimulated a flurry of innovations that could lead to a much-improved delivery system. These were innovations that were born out of necessity: telemedicine access and use... View Details

Keywords: Health Care; Health Care Industry; Health Care Outcomes; Innovation; Innovation In Healthcare Delivery; COVID; COVID-19 Pandemic; Pandemics; Telemedicine; Telehealth; Ambulatory Care; Vaccines; Innovation and Invention; Change; Health Industry

May 2016
Article

Return Migration and Geography of Innovation in MNEs: A Natural Experiment of Knowledge Production by Local Workers Reporting to Return Migrants

By: Prithwiraj Choudhury

I study whether return migrants facilitate knowledge production by local employees working for them at geographically distant R&D locations. Using unique personnel and patenting data for 1,315 employees at the Indian R&D center of a Fortune 500 technology firm, I... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Innovation and Invention

February 2007 (Revised May 2007)
Background Note

Accidental Innovation

Describes the role accident has historically played in invention and discovery, and raises questions about the importance of variation in business innovation processes. View Details

Keywords: Business Processes; Innovation and Invention

Educators

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October 11, 2016
Article

Innovation Network

By: Daron Acemoglu, Ufuk Akcigit and William R. Kerr

Technological progress builds upon itself, with the expansion of invention in one domain propelling future work in linked fields. Our analysis uses 1.8 million U.S. patents and their citation properties to map the innovation network and its strength. Past innovation... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Networks; Patents

8 Jun 2012 - 12 Jun 2012
Lecture

Legal Challenges of Distributed Innovation

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin

2013
Chapter

Growth and the Quality of Foreign Direct Investment: Is All FDI Equal?

By: Laura Alfaro and Andrew Charlton

In this paper we distinguish different "qualities" of FDI to re-examine the relationship between FDI and growth. We use "quality" to mean the effect of a unit of FDI on economic growth. However, this is difficult to establish because it is a function of many different... View Details

Keywords: Quality; Economic Growth; Foreign Direct Investment

2011
Article

Organizational Errors: Directions for Future Research

By: Paul S. Goodman, Rangaraj Ramanujam, John S. Carroll and Amy C. Edmondson

The goal of this paper is to promote research about organizational errors—i.e., the actions of multiple organizational participants that deviate from organizationally specified rules and can potentially result in adverse organizational outcomes. To that end, we advance... View Details

Keywords: Research; Organizations; Interests; Managerial Roles; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Management Practices and Processes; Learning

Artificial intelligence promises to greatly increase the efficiency of the economy. But it may have an even larger impact on the economy by serving as a new general-purpose “method of invention” that can reshape the nature of the... View Details

March 2003
Case

MySoftware (B): Finding a New Direction

By: H. Kent Bowen, Steven J. Spear and Nicole Tempest

Supplements the (A) case. A rewritten version of an earlier supplement. View Details

Keywords: Information Technology Industry

Research Summary

Managing Innovation

I continue to study the disruptive processes by which innovation transforms -- or fails to transform -- industries and companies. There are three elements to these transformations. The first is a technological enabler -- an innovation that makes complicated, expensive... View Details

March 2010
Article

Does Foreign Direct Investment Promote Growth? Exploring the Role of Financial Markets on Linkages

By: Laura Alfaro, Sebnem Kalemli-Ozcan, Areendam Chanda and Selin Sayek

Do multinational companies generate positive externalities for the host country? The evidence so far is mixed varying from beneficial to detrimental effects of foreign direct investment (FDI) on growth, with many studies that find no effect. In order to provide an... View Details

Keywords: Foreign Direct Investment; Multinational Firms and Management; Financial Markets; Value; Stock Shares; Development Economics

2006
Book

Design-Inspired Innovation

By: James Utterback, Bengt–Arne Vedin, Eduardo Alvarez, Sten Ekman, Susan Walsh Sanderson, Bruce Tether and Roberto Verganti

When an innovation is inspired by design, it transcends technology and utility. The design delights the user, seamlessly integrating the physical object, a service, and its use into something whole. A design-inspired innovation is so simple that it becomes an extension... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Product Design; Product Development