Publications

09 Jun 2022
HBS Case

From Truck Driver to Manager: US Foods’ Novel Approach to Staff Shortages

CHEF’STORE locations have boomed, leading the company to consider opening new stores. Also, the company relies on another distributor to supply products at the cash-and-carry outlets, thereby avoiding additional complications to its core... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

Research Summary

Competing in New Markets

Strategic advisors counsel managers to conduct a thorough competitive analysis emphasizing key points of differentiation. But for new markets, Professor McDonald’s research suggests that reports of the threat posed by similar rivals may be greatly exaggerated, and... View Details

July–August 2018
Article

Learning by Contributing: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Contribution to Crowdsourced Public Goods

By: Frank Nagle

As the economy becomes more information based, firms are increasingly using crowdsourced public goods as inputs for innovation and production. Counterintuitively, some firms pay their employees to contribute to the creation of these goods, which can be used freely by... View Details

Keywords: Open Source Distribution; Applications and Software; Competitive Strategy; Learning; Competitive Advantage

Find at Harvard

10 Apr 2007
First Look

First Look: April 10, 2007

conclude that stars add more value than they capture. I discuss implications for managers in the motion picture industry. Brokerage, Boundary Spanning, and Leadership in Open Innovation Communities... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

October 2015 (Revised September 2016)
Technical Note

Flight: Now without Humans Aboard

By: Mitchell Weiss, Karim Lakhani, HT Kung and Kerry Herman

This note provides an overview of the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, or drones) industry in September 2015. UAVs offered many potential applications in industries as diverse as aerial imaging and photography, agriculture, construction, infrastructure inspection and... View Details

Keywords: Public Entrepreneurship; Drones; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Product Design; Research and Development; Technological Innovation; Rights; Ethics; Strategy; Transportation Networks; Market Entry and Exit; Innovation and Management; European Union; Asia; United States

02 Jan 2007
Research & Ideas

Most Popular Articles of 2006

mistake. Sandra Cha of McGill University and Amy Edmondson of Harvard Business School discuss what to do when values backfire. Open Source Science: A New Model for Innovation Borrowing a practice that is... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

January 2017 (Revised August 2017)
Case

Weathernews

By: Karim R. Lakhani and Akiko Kanno

Tomohiro Ishibashi (Bashi), chief executive officer for B to S, and Julia Foote LeStage, chief innovation officer of Weathernews Inc., were addressing a panel at the HBS Digital Summit on creative uses of big data. They told the summit attendees about how the Sakura... View Details

Keywords: Crowdsourcing; Operations; Globalization; Weather; Forecasting and Prediction; Global Strategy

16 Apr 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, April 16, 2019

history of creativity studies. Indeed, an examination of these seminal papers helps the new generation of creativity and innovation researchers to be mindful of the past and unafraid to explore it. Publisher's link:... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

24 Jul 2006
Research & Ideas

How Kayak Users Built a New Industry

route by which new designs come into being. Talking with other researchers, I learned that there were some theoretical open questions. In the first place, user-innovation communities are pervasive—wherever users innovate, they form... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Entertainment & Recreation

18 Jul 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, July 18, 2017

and associated creative behavior in the life and work of ordinary individuals. Yet evidence is mounting that such individuals can be responsible for important instances of creativity and innovation in the world: View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

February 2024
Module Note

Collaborate on the Core, Compete on the Edges

By: Frank Nagle

In the rapidly evolving environment of modern business, the digitization of economic activity and the ubiquitous integration of technology across industries are fundamentally altering how companies develop and implement strategy. The rise of digital technologies has... View Details

Keywords: Technology Adoption; Competition; Cooperation; Collaborative Innovation and Invention

28 Oct 2008
First Look

First Look: October 28, 2008

and to calculate metrics to compare their levels of modularity. Our research takes advantage of a natural experiment in this industry, where products exist that fulfill the same function, but that have been developed using very different organizational... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

February 2014 (Revised May 2014)
Background Note

Flying High, Landing Low: Strengths and Challenges for U.S. Air Transportation

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Aditi Jain and Ai-Ling Jamila Malone

The U.S. air transportation system flies high on some indicators, mostly involving capacity to take to the air, but lands low on others, mostly involving ground facilities and processes. This note provides an overview of the history and current state of air... View Details

23 May 2017
First Look

First Look at New Ideas and Research: May 23, 2017

Using data from a randomized field experiment embedded in a startup boot camp for early stage entrepreneurs, our findings show that innovators who are more open to experience do generate better ideas, but... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

August 2024
Case

Cristina Ventura: The Career of a Catalyst

By: Linda A. Hill, Allison J. Wigen and Ruth Page

This multimedia case follows the career of Chief Catalyst Officer for the Lane Crawford Joyce Group (LCJG), Cristina Ventura. After beginning her career in luxury in Europe and Asia, Ventura was recruited in 2011 to open Apple’s flagship stores in Hong Kong and South... View Details

Keywords: Innovation Leadership; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Leadership Style; Leading Change; Entrepreneurship; Luxury; Family Business; Personal Development and Career; Fashion Industry; Retail Industry; Technology Industry; Asia; China; Hong Kong

September 1998 (Revised August 1999)
Case

IBM's Lotus Development in 1999

By: Stephen P. Bradley and Kelley Porter

Describes Lotus' acquisition by IBM, its movement from proprietary standards to open standards, and its current market position. Microsoft is gaining ground with its Exchange Server, and Lotus has received unfavorable press. View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Technological Innovation; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Product Marketing; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Information Technology Industry; Web Services Industry