Publications

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January 2025
Case

A Winning Strategy (A): Innovation in Olympic Speed Skating

By: Rebecca Karp, Maria Roche, Maisie Wiltshire-Gordon and Tom Quinn

This case describes two innovators in the Olympic sport of speed skating: the U.S. Men’s team, which devised a new approach to the team pursuit event following their disappointing performance in the 2018 Winter Olympics; and Nils van der Poel, a Swedish skater who... View Details

Keywords: Sports; Disruptive Innovation; Innovation Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Knowledge Sharing; Sports Industry; United States; Sweden; Netherlands; Norway

19 Jul 2004
Research & Ideas

Why Innovations Sit on the Shelf

it's also the reason why many technically excellent innovations get stuck inside an organization and never make it to market. According to our studies, the most effective way for a leader to realign his company is to facilitate View Details

Keywords: by Michael Beer, Russell Eisenstat & Derek Schrader

03 Apr 2006
Research & Ideas

The Competitive Advantage of Global Finance

In the process, he shows how organizations can best equip themselves to take advantage of potential sources of competitive advantage that arise in the global setting. In International Finance: A Casebook, Desai provides case studies on... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Financial Services

2012
Case

Zhejiang Semir Garment Co., Ltd.

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Jie Jiao and Yuren Fang

With the rapid growth of China's economy and China's increasing integration into the global economy in the past two decades, China's leisure clothing and garment enterprises achieved a rapid rise and became an important competitive force confronting the foreign brands... View Details

Keywords: Business Model Innovation; Competitive Strategy; Management Controls; China; China

2022
Book

The Role of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Economic Growth

By: Michael J. Andrews, Aaron Chatterji, Josh Lerner and Scott Stern

We live in an era in which innovation and entrepreneurship seem ubiquitous, particularly in regions like Silicon Valley, Boston, and the Research Triangle Park. But many metrics of economic growth, such as productivity growth and business dynamism, have been at best... View Details

Keywords: Productivity Growth; Production Technologies; Innovation and Invention; Entrepreneurship; Economic Growth; Competition; Organizational Design; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation

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August 2003
Case

Mercury Computer Systems: The Evolution from Integrated Technology to Open Standard

By: Rebecca Henderson and Nancy Confrey

For 20 years, Mercury Computer Systems has thrived, providing products and services that support ultrafast processing of real time data. Now Jay Bertelli, the CEO, faces a critical question: How can the firm compete once the standards on which its products are based... View Details

Keywords: Analytics and Data Science; Open Source Distribution; Strategic Planning; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Information Technology; Information Technology Industry

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17 Jan 2017
Working Paper Summaries

Foreign Competition and Domestic Innovation: Evidence from US Patents

Keywords: by David Autor, David Dorn, Gordon H. Hanson, Pian Shu and Gary Pisano; Manufacturing

June 2001
Case

Competitive Dynamics in Home Video Games (E): The Rise of 3DO and 32-bit Gaming

Describes the launch of the innovative home video game company, 3DO, which had developed a groundbreaking system featuring 32-bit processing and CD-ROM software. Examines the competitive dynamics in the home video game industry from 1970 into the new millennium. View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Competition; Product Launch; Video Game Industry

March 5, 2022
Article

Hospital Capacity Shortages: An SEC-Backed Transparency “PULL” Will Open Beds Faster Than a “PUSH” by HHS

By: Regina E. Herzlinger

In the new normal of ongoing pandemics, hospital bed shortages will continue. Healthcare innovation expert and author of the upcoming book Innovating in Healthcare: Creating Breakthrough Services, Products, and Business Models (Wiley, 2023, 978-1119543008), HBS... View Details

Keywords: Hospital Capacity; Access To Care; Health Pandemics; Health Care and Treatment; Performance Capacity; Planning

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September 2013
Exercise

An Exercise in Designing a Travel Coffee Mug

By: Elie Ofek and Michael Norris

In recent years design has emerged as a critical factor in the success of many new products. This case exercise provides a hands-on way to experience the design process and offers a structured approach for incorporating key considerations that can aid in effective... View Details

Keywords: New Product Development; Innovation; Market Research; Competitive Positioning; Design; Product Development; Consumer Products Industry

12 Sep 2022
Research & Ideas

When Experts Play It Too Safe: Innovation Lessons from a NASA Experiment

breakthroughs may hit the discard pile before companies can evaluate them in full—causing companies to miss out on big competitive leaps, write the researchers in their working paper. Lane, who is affiliated with the Laboratory for View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Aerospace

20 Mar 2017
Book

Why Companies Are Placing Users at the Core of Their Innovation Strategies

Harhoff, director of the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition in Munich. The book includes 25 original contributions providing an extensive view of user and open... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

October 2012 (Revised February 2014)
Teaching Note

Logoplaste: Global Growing Challenges (TN)

By: Juan Alcacer

The case follows Logoplaste in its transformation from a small player in the plastic container industry in Portugal to a mid-sized global firm with operations in 11 countries. The case summarizes Logoplaste's history, with an emphasis on the milestones of its global... View Details

Keywords: R＆D; Innovation; Competitive Advantage; Operations Strategy; Global Strategy; Competition; Operations; Strategy; Manufacturing Industry

12 Nov 2019
Research & Ideas

Corporate Innovation Increasingly Benefits from Government Research

Blanding is a writer based in the Boston area. [Image: Bruce yuanyue Bi / Alamy Stock Photo] Related Reading Political Dysfunction Makes America Less Competitive Do National Security Secrets Hold Back National Innovation? For Better... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

August 2013 (Revised September 2015)
Case

Coursera

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Hyunjin Kim

By providing free and open-access online courses at a large scale, Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platforms seek to innovate the business models of the traditional higher education industry. In a little over a year, Coursera had grown at a rapid rate to emerge as a... View Details

Keywords: Business Models; Strategy; Competition; Business Model; Internet and the Web; Higher Education; Competitive Advantage; Education Industry

Research Summary

National Innovation Systems in the Life Sciences

This is an international comparative study of how institutional contexts shape the process by which science is leveraged into commercial technology. The study explores how variance in corporate governance systems, knowledge- and skill-formation systems, and... View Details

27 Dec 2018
Working Paper Summaries

Team Learning Capabilities: A Meso Model of Sustained Innovation and Superior Firm Performance

Keywords: by Jean-François Harvey, Henrik Bresman, and Amy C. Edmondson

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

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January 1995
Case

3M: Profile of an Innovating Company

By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Afroze A Mohammed

Traces the birth and development of 3M Corp., focusing in particular on the origins of its entrepreneurially-based ability to innovate. In particular, it highlights the role of CEO William L. McKnight in creating a unique set of values, policies, and structures to... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Competitive Advantage; Organizational Culture