Publications

Article

The Information Technology Ecosystem: Structure, Health, and Performance

By: Marco Iansiti and Gregory L. Richards

A number of modern industries are organized as complex networks of firms whose integrated efforts are necessary to deliver value to end customers. The complexity of these networks, or business ecosystems, and the associated interdependencies among firms, make... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Networks; Value; Customers; Performance Productivity; Product; Applications and Software; Innovation and Invention; Competition; Business Model; Information Infrastructure; Information Technology Industry

2024
Working Paper

The Value of AI Innovations

By: Wilbur Xinyuan Chen, Terrence Tianshuo Shi and Suraj Srinivasan

We study the value of AI innovations as it diffuses across general and application sectors, using the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) AI patent dataset. Investors value these innovations more than others, as AI patents exhibit a 9% value premium,... View Details

Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Valuation; Technological Innovation; Open Source Distribution; Patents; Policy; Knowledge Sharing; Technology Industry

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01 Jun 2022
News

'Rooted' In Innovation

in 2019 that is already creating jobs and expanding economic opportunities in his home country of Cameroon. In May, CassVita was honored with a Harvard President’s Innovation Challenge Award funded by the Bertarelli Foundation. Cassava is... View Details

Keywords: Deborah Blagg

01 Apr 1996
News

Technology for Learning's Sake

In an interview in last December's Bulletin Dean Kim B. Clark talked of launching "a profound transformation around information technology (IT)," an initiative that would earn for the School an unequaled reputation for intelligent,... View Details

Keywords: by Deborah Blagg; photo by David Zadig

March 2003 (Revised August 2005)
Case

Making SMaL Big: SMaL Camera Technologies

By: Clayton M. Christensen and Scott Duncan Anthony

SMaL Camera Technologies CEO Maurizio Arienzo was trying to decide what market opportunities SMaL should target. The company had developed a revolutionary imaging technology that powered small digital still and video cameras. Its first-generation product--a kit to... View Details

Keywords: Product Development; Decision Making; Disruptive Innovation; Market Entry and Exit; Electronics Industry; Computer Industry; Massachusetts

25 Jul 2011
Research & Ideas

How Disruptive Innovation is Remaking the University

competition, but because they are are cheaper and easier to use. In The Innovative University, Christensen and Henry J. Eyring take the idea of disruptive innovation to the field of higher education, where... View Details

Keywords: by Clayton M. Christensen & Henry J. Eyring; Education

January 2014 (Revised March 2015)
Case

Google Car

By: Karim R. Lakhani, James Weber and Christine Snively

By 2013, Google, while not a traditional manufacturer of automobiles, had invested millions of dollars in its self-driving cars which had logged over 500,000 miles of testing. The Google management team faced several questions. Should Google continue to invest in the... View Details

Keywords: Digital Services; Innovation; Technology; Technological Innovation; Internet and the Web; Market Entry and Exit; Transportation; Auto Industry; United States

May 2020
Case

M-Lab: Enabling Innovation at Mitsubishi Corporation

By: Krishna Palepu and Allison M. Ciechanover

M-Lab’s founding goals were to infuse an innovation mindset into Mitsubishi Corporation; to catalyze new business opportunities; and to enable a dialogue between Japanese business and Silicon Valley. M-Lab housed representatives from each of Mitsubishi Corporation’s... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Disruption; Transformation; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Multinational Firms and Management; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Japan; United States

April 2012
Case

Danish National Advanced Technology Foundation

By: Willy Shih and Margaret Pierson

Danish National Advanced Technology Foundation (DNATF), a government agency, invests in public-private partnerships to stimulate commercialization of Danish scientific research within the country's industry. DNATF established a process for evaluating proposals, making... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Commercialization; Management Practices and Processes; Experience and Expertise; Innovation and Invention; Public Ownership; Business and Government Relations; Technology Industry; Denmark

26 Nov 2007
Research & Ideas

Best Practices of Global Innovators

related to the possession of deep individual technical skills in hundreds of diverse disciplines," the researchers conclude in their paper, Innovation through Global Collaboration: A New Source of Competitive Advantage. "Boeing's unique... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

October 2017 (Revised April 2019)
Case

Eastern Bank: Innovating Through Eastern Labs

By: Karen Mills, Dennis Campbell and Aaron Mukerjee

Eastern Bank is a 200-year-old New England mutual bank with a community focus. Eastern specializes in small business lending, having made strategic investments to become the top SBA lender in New England in the midst of the Great Recession, when other banks were... View Details

Keywords: Banks and Banking; Technological Innovation; Entrepreneurship; Management

10 Nov 2008
Research Event

Social Media Leads the Future of Technology

technology meant that innovation to solve a problem could arrive from any quarter: prominent companies, nonprofit enterprises, "two students in a dorm room, or mothers or fathers after they have done... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

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

09 Aug 2010
Research & Ideas

How to Speed Up Energy Innovation

it's very unlikely that one can pick the winning technology in advance. The lovely thing about a price for low-carbon energy is that it's technology neutral. It tells View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Energy; Utilities

01 Mar 2012
News

The Accidental Innovator

Sal Khan (MBA 2003) Sal Khan (MBA 2003) is an energetic, amiable young man, with a twinkle in his eye and a fondness for jokes and self-deprecation. He’s unpretentious and unassuming, despite holding three degrees from MIT, where he was president of his class (as he... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons; Educational Support Services; Educational Services; News, Library, Internet, and Other Services; Information

Article

Frame Flexibility: The Role of Cognitive and Emotional Framing in Innovation Adoption by Incumbent Firms

By: Ryan Raffaelli, Mary Ann Glynn and Michael Tushman

Why do incumbent firms frequently reject nonincremental innovations? Beyond technical, structural, or economic factors, we propose an additional factor: the degree of the top management team's (TMT) frame flexibility, i.e., their capability to cognitively expand an... View Details

Keywords: Innovation Adoption; Cognition; Framing; Emotional Resonance; Incumbent Inertia; Innovation and Invention; Technology Adoption; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management

October 2016 (Revised November 2016)
Case

Innovating Beyond Ochsner

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Olivia Hull

The Ochsner Health System has developed a proprietary software tool designed to treat hypertension. Built into the system’s electronic medical records, the Hypertension Digital Medicine program allows patients to record their blood pressure at home and share readings... View Details

December 1994 (Revised June 1995)
Case

State Street Boston Corporation: Leading with Information Technology

A financial institution, State Street Boston Corp., is transformed from regional bank to global custodian and money manager. The corresponding evolution of the company's information systems is illustrated, focusing on the role attributed to information technology in a... View Details

Keywords: Expansion; Information Technology; Business Strategy; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry; United States