Publications

June 2015 (Revised January 2017)
Case

Epistar and the Global LED Market

By: Willy C. Shih, Chen-Fu Chien and Hung-Kai Wang

It took BJ Lee many years to learn how to navigate the patent minefield that was the global LED industry. When his company was first spun off from the Industrial Technology Research Institute in Taiwan, he thought the essence of a good IP strategy was to develop a... View Details

Keywords: Intellectual Property Management; Patenting; Patent Litigation; Intellectual Property; Patents; Semiconductor Industry; Semiconductor Industry; Asia; United States; Japan; Taiwan

Educators

June 1995 (Revised June 1996)
Case

Comp.Sys.Intel: The Internet and the Pentium Chip Controversy (B)

By: Joseph L. Badaracco Jr. and Jerry Useem

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Information Infrastructure; Ethics; Semiconductor Industry; Semiconductor Industry

June 1995 (Revised June 1996)
Case

Comp.Sys.Intel: The Internet and the Pentium Chip Controversy (A)

By: Joseph L. Badaracco Jr. and Jerry Useem

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Information Infrastructure; Ethics; Semiconductor Industry; Semiconductor Industry

23 Aug 2004
Research & Ideas

Strategy for Small Fish

easily in response to massive shifts in the technological environment. In essence, this means that they can much more easily "plug in" to a different way of doing business. Examples are provided by NVIDIA easily cutting across generations of View Details

Keywords: by Marco Iansiti & Roy Levien

10 Jun 2002
Research & Ideas

Disruption: The Art of Framing

controlling the flow of the investment. For an example of what we mean, let's look at Teradyne, the maker of semiconductor test equipment. In 1997, the company was confronted with an important innovation: the application of CMOS chip... View Details

Keywords: by Clark Gilbert & Joseph L. Bower

April 2025
Supplement

ZEISS: Commercializing Science

By: Maria P. Roche and Richie Zitomer

Spreadsheet Supplement for HBS Case No. 725-359. View Details

June 2018 (Revised August 2019)
Case

Qualcomm Inc., 2019

By: David B. Yoffie and Andrew S. Choi

This case is set in mid-2019, when Qualcomm was struggling with unwanted take-over battles, fights with Apple and the Chinese government, and internal dissension on the board of directors. Ten years earlier Qualcomm was hailed as a monopoly on CDMA technologies and... View Details

Keywords: Technology Cycles; Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Intellectual Property; Information Technology; Standards; Business Model; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Semiconductor Industry; Semiconductor Industry

Educators

05 Aug 2010
What Do You Think?

What Is Customer Opinion Good For?

products arise from strong insight, gut feel and imagination. Bad ideas, lousy products or services can be avoided by serious market research." Andy Robin pointed out that in the semiconductor business "one still had to spend a lot of... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett; Technology

May 1973 (Revised June 1976)
Case

Teradyne, Inc. (A)

By: Robert H. Hayes

Keywords: Semiconductor Industry; Semiconductor Industry

06 Aug 2018
Research & Ideas

Supersmart Manufacturing Tools are Lowering Prices on TVs, Bulbs, and Solar Panels

afford to, as it was too expensive, and the technology was getting too complicated and specialized. A company that specializes in making tools, on the other hand, can spread those costs over multiple customers. The latest generation lithography tool for making View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Manufacturing; Electronics

Summer 2018
Article

Why High-Tech Commoditization Is Accelerating

By: Willy C. Shih

Knowledge embedded within state-of-the-art production and design tools is a powerful force that is leveling the global technology playing field. It democratizes innovation and makes future competition more challenging. This paper describes the knowledge flows through... View Details

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21 Oct 2008
First Look

First Look: October 21, 2008

Asian industrial cluster with global scope which has no participants or competitors in the West. The case can also be used to expose students to the global supply chain for key information technology components. Taiwan and Korea are today the major world centers for... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

17 Oct 2012
Research & Ideas

America Needs a Manufacturing Renaissance

foundation upon which future innovative sectors can be built is crumbling. When the semiconductor production business moved to Asia in the 1980s, it brought with it a whole host of capabilities—electronic-materials processing, deposition... View Details

Keywords: by Gary P. Pisano & Willy C. Shih; Manufacturing

March 1993 (Revised June 1994)
Case

Intel Corporation: Going into OverDrive

In May 1992, Intel Corp., the leading supplier of microprocessors for IBM-compatible personal computers, announced the retail availability of OverDrive processors, a new line of performance upgrades for the Intel 486 series of microprocessors. The case chronicles the... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Expansion; Product Marketing; Semiconductor Industry; Semiconductor Industry; Semiconductor Industry

Educators

June 2000 (Revised June 2003)
Teaching Note

Arrow Electronics, Inc. TN

By: Das Narayandas

Teaching Note for (9-598-022). View Details

Keywords: Product Marketing; Sales; Business Subsidiaries; Internet and the Web; Distribution; Business Model; Decision Choices and Conditions; Problems and Challenges; Semiconductor Industry; Semiconductor Industry

09 Sep 2008
First Look

First Look: September 9, 2008

of one of the largest semiconductor clusters in Europe. Contrary to conventional wisdom in the semiconductor industry, the Dresden team only copied from its home corporate locations in the United States... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

August 2001
Teaching Note

Apax Partners and Dialog Semiconductor: March 1998 TN

By: G. Felda Hardymon, Josh Lerner and Ann Leamon

Teaching Note for (9-201-044). View Details

Keywords: Semiconductor Industry; Semiconductor Industry