Publications

December 2021 (Revised January 2023)
Supplement

Katerra (B)

By: Lindsay N. Hyde, Thomas R. Eisenmann and Tom Quinn

In May 2020, SoftBank executives, having invested nearly $2 billion in Katerra, decided the vision of an end-to-end, vertically-integrated construction process was worth saving—with some major changes to company structure. The SoftBank Vision Fund invested $200 million... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Failure; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Entrepreneurship; Construction; Real Estate Industry; Construction Industry; Technology Industry; United States

February 1984
Case

Megalith, Inc. -- Hay Associates (C)

By: D. Quinn Mills, George W. Baird and George W. Baird

Provides a glossary of executive compensation terms. Rewritten by G.W. Baird, company partner. View Details

Keywords: Executive Compensation; Compensation and Benefits; Employment Industry

November 2023
Case

The Commons Project in Rwanda—Building Digital Infrastructure for the Global Public Good

By: Álvaro Rodríguez Arregui and Tom Quinn

In September 2022, The Commons Project Foundation (TCP) CEO Zhenya Lindgardt and her team met on a Zoom call to discuss building tools to help Rwandans manage their health data. They believed that helping Africa build digital infrastructure would improve much-needed... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Capital; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Health Care and Treatment; Information Management; Adaptation; Information Infrastructure; Information Technology Industry; Rwanda; United States

May 2013
Article

Hybrid Innovation in Meiji Japan

By: Tom Nicholas

Japan's hybrid innovation system during the Meiji era of technological modernization provides a useful laboratory for examining the effectiveness of complementary mechanisms to patents. Patents were introduced in 1885, and by 1911, 1.2 million mostly non-pecuniary... View Details

Keywords: Prizes; Technological Innovation; System; Patents; Knowledge; Value; Cost vs Benefits; Factories, Labs, and Plants; Performance Effectiveness; Japan

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February 1984
Case

Megalith, Inc. -- Hay Associates (B)

By: D. Quinn Mills and George W. Baird

Describes Hay Associates Climate Survey Questionnaire and the eight dimensions of organizational climate. Rewritten by G.W. Baird, company partner. View Details

Keywords: Surveys; Organizations; Human Resources

Web

Pre-Class Arrival - Christensen Center for Teaching & Learning

Teaching by the Case Method Pre-Class Arrival Preparing to Teach Leading in the Classroom Pre-Class Arrival Diversity and Inclusion Openings Cold Calling Questioning, Listening & Responding Transitions Closings Timing Participation... View Details

Web

Winners & Runners-Up | New Venture Competition

tech-enabled nannies. Social Enterprise Track, 2017 Flare Quinn Fitzgerald (MBA 2017) Sara de Zarraga (MBA 2017) Social Enterprise Track Winner Flare is reinventing personal security by creating tech-enabled... View Details

Web

Accounting & Management Awards & Honors - Faculty & Research

Chamber of Commerce and Japonica Partners in 2015. Eugene F. Soltes : Winner of the Best Paper Award at the 2015 California Corporate Finance Conference for “Being Surprised by the Unsurprising: Earnings Seasonality and Stock Returns”... View Details

01 Dec 2023
News

A Continuum of Innovation

As senior associate dean and chair of the MBA Program, Matt Weinzierl has a running list of questions that he and Jana P. Kierstead, the executive director of MBA and Doctoral programs, always keep in mind. They range from the curricular (How can we ensure that the MBA... View Details

Keywords: Jennifer Gillespie

February 2022
Supplement

Agora (B)

By: Lindsay N. Hyde, Thomas R. Eisenmann and Tom Quinn

This is the conclusion to Agora (A), where founder Elsa Sze decides if she wants to continue investing energy in her civic technology startup.
Agora was a civic technology (civic tech) startup founded by Elsa Sze, who wanted to enhance the connection between... View Details

Keywords: Civic Technology; Government Administration; Conferences; Business Startups; Business Strategy

December 2012
Article

Inducement Prizes and Innovation

By: Liam Brunt, Josh Lerner and Tom Nicholas

We examine the effect of prizes on innovation using data on awards for technological development offered by the Royal Agricultural Society of England at annual competitions between 1839 and 1939. We find that the effects of prizes on competitive entry are large, and we... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Patents; Innovation and Invention; Information Technology; Growth and Development; England

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01 Aug 1998
News

Spangler Family Gift Endows New Campus Center

Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot: "Let us do something while we have the chance. It is not every day that we are needed." Together with his wife, Meredith Riggs Spangler, and two daughters, Anna Spangler Nelson (MBA '88) and Abigail Riggs Spangler, Dick Spangler... View Details

Keywords: Nancy O. Perry

Web

Developing Instructor Style - Christensen Center for Teaching & Learning

Teaching by the Case Method Developing Instructor Style Preparing to Teach Getting Started Developing Instructor Style Shaping the Learning Environment Knowing Your Students Planning a Class Session Leading in the Classroom Providing... View Details

13 Apr 2021
News

Why Start-ups Fail

Research Summary

Work/family

By: D. Quinn Mills

I have just published, in 2004, a book on how professionals might manage the challenge of balancing work and family demands. The book is oriented not at the problem, which is often dealt with in publications by others, but with six steps for dealing with it. View Details

Forthcoming
Article

Human Capital and the Managerial Revolution in the United States: Evidence from General Electric

By: Tom Nicholas

This paper estimates the returns to human capital accumulation during the first era of mega-firms in the United States by linking employees at General Electric—a canonical enterprise associated with the “visible hand” of managerial hierarchies—to the 1940 census. I... View Details

Keywords: Returns To Education; Management Practices; Hierarchies; Management Practices and Processes; Rank and Position; Human Capital; Talent and Talent Management; Business History; United States

February 2013
Case

18 Months in a Startup: Zaggora.com

By: Tom Nicholas

The founders of Zaggora reflected back on a tumultuous year-and-a-half in which they had generated, from just $40,000 in personal savings, a multi-million dollar sportswear enterprise selling Hotpants to women. These were hotpants not of the 1960s hipster variety, but... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Growth Management; Problems and Challenges; Business Startups; Brands and Branding; Innovation and Invention; Corporate Finance; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Sports Industry