Publications

SSRN

05 Aug 2010
What Do You Think?

What Is Customer Opinion Good For?

Summing Up Customer inputs to the product development process count, but in different ways and at different times, according to many responding to this month's column. As Alexander Gat put it, competing and pioneering View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett; Technology

01 Mar 2017
News

Students Forecast Climate Change’s Impact

MORE Watch three students discuss their approach to the climate change challenge MORE Watch three students discuss their approach to the climate change challenge Professors Mike Toffel and Marco Iansiti presented the more than 900 RC students in their View Details

Keywords: Dan Morrell

July 1994 (Revised March 1995)
Case

Microsoft: Multimedia Publications (B)

By: Marco Iansiti and Ellen Stein

Microsoft is about to release an apparently successful CD-ROM baseball product. The company is trying to determine what product(s) should be developed next, how it should organize itself, and what role it should play in the development of such products. View Details

Keywords: Product Development; Applications and Software; Product Design; Organizational Structure; Product Launch; Business Strategy; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Washington (state, US)

12 Feb 2020
News

Culture Shift at Big Blue

it. Red Hat’s success boils down the power of collaborative culture, Bacon writes. Which is just what IBM needs now, as it aims to become more competitive in the cloud wars. “His clear understanding of the technology and enterprise market... View Details

Keywords: Computer and Electronic Product Manufacturing; Computer and Electronic Product Manufacturing

25 Sep 2000
Research & Ideas

More Than the Sum of Its Parts: The Impact of Modularity on the Computer Industry

whole system. In effect, each module was free to evolve along its own trajectory. By accommodating unforeseen, after-the-fact improvements, the modular approach unleashed value for the system as a whole. At the request of Working Knowledge, Dean Clark, an expert in... View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Consumer Products; Consumer Products; Consumer Products

October 2019 (Revised January 2020)
Background Note

Evolution of the Drone Industry

By: Rory McDonald, Andy Wu, Emilie Billaud and Ryan Bayer

This note focuses on the development of the drone industry in recent years and provides insights on the drone technology, regulations, applications, market size, top players, and ecosystem. This note was written in conjunction with the case study “Parrot: Navigating... View Details

Keywords: Drones; Information Technology; Disruption; Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Engineering; Product Development; Technology Industry; Asia; Europe; North America; United States

November 2012 (Revised May 2013)
Case

ASUSTeK and the Google Nexus 7 Tablet

By: Willy C. Shih and Jyun-Cheng Wang

Days after Jerry Shen introduced a new tablet computer at the Consumer Electronics Show, a Google meeting convinced him to go with a lower price point and co-branding as the Nexus 7. While his company would have a premier position at launch, companies like Samsung... View Details

Profile

Cynthia Samanian

through the Rock Center for Entrepreneurship, including the Minimum Viable Product Fund (MVP) and Business Plan Competition. Overall, these experiences at HBS gave me the confidence to pursue my goal of working at a startup and eventually... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Technology

06 Aug 2018
Research & Ideas

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

Management Practice in Business Administration at Harvard Business School, who recently published a paper on the topic of technology commoditization in MIT Sloan Management Review. According to Shih, manufacturers are able to duplicate... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Manufacturing; Electronics

21 Oct 2024
Research & Ideas

What Happens in Vegas Could Shape the Metaverse

how elevated footbridges connect competing resorts in Las Vegas today, a true metaverse could allow users to hop between different and even competing worlds, rather than confining them to separate closed-off experiences. While new View Details

Keywords: by Scott Nover; Information Technology; Information Technology

Career Coach

Minal Mehta

Minal (Harvard Business School ‘10, Stanford ‘03) has over two decades of experience in the technology industry. Most recently, she was the cofounder and CEO of AllTakes, a venture-backed online platform designed to foster secure and... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Technology; Technology

08 Jul 2002
Research & Ideas

How to Fashion Your New E-Business Model

and infrastructure to launch new product lines or businesses, or enter new markets. Industrial Age business innovation's favored producers. The innovations included: Physical or analog production and... View Details

Keywords: by Lynda M. Applegate

October 1991 (Revised November 1993)
Case

Philips' Compact Disc Introduction (A)

Asks that students adopt the perspective of Philips in 1979, after technical development of the CD was complete, but three years before it was introduced commercially. At that time, Philips' management had to decide whether to attempt to establish a CD standard through... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Market Entry and Exit; Product Launch; Standards; Product Development; Technology Industry

August 2003 (Revised September 2003)
Case

Tower Software

Tower Software (TS) is a publicly traded corporation engaged in multiple facets of the computer software business. Its flagship product, TS SERVE, is a successful proprietary network operating system. TS also develops and sells applications software for word... View Details

Keywords: Applications and Software; Product Launch; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry