Publications

2018
Working Paper

Product Quality and Entering Through Tying: Experimental Evidence

Dominant platform businesses often develop products in adjacent markets to complement their core business. One common approach used to gain traction in these adjacent markets has been to pursue a tying strategy. For example, Microsoft pre-installed Internet Explorer... View Details

Keywords: Market Entry and Exit; Digital Platforms; Competitive Strategy; Product Marketing; Quality

SSRN

September 1998 (Revised August 1999)
Case

IBM's Lotus Development in 1999

By: Stephen P. Bradley and Kelley Porter

Describes Lotus' acquisition by IBM, its movement from proprietary standards to open standards, and its current market position. Microsoft is gaining ground with its Exchange Server, and Lotus has received unfavorable press. View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Technological Innovation; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Product Marketing; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Information Technology Industry; Web Services Industry

2020
Other Teaching and Training Material

Leading the Charge: A Podcase about Product Management at Opower

By: Jeffrey Rayport and John J. Lafkas

The Opower podcase materials contain audio from professor Jeffrey Rayport's interview with Ben Foster, the former vice president of product management at Opower, and more recently the co-founder of Prodify. In the podcase, Ben discusses how product management works in... View Details

Keywords: Product; Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Customization and Personalization; Conflict Management; Software

19 Dec 2012
Research & Ideas

How to be Extremely Productive

project flopped, don't attack the person"). Deborah Blagg: Classic productivity books often focus on time management, but Extreme Productivity takes a much broader look. It reads more like a... View Details

Keywords: by Deborah Blagg

April 1988 (Revised April 1991)
Case

Boeing 767: From Concept to Production (A)

By: David A. Garvin

Describes the evolution of the Boeing 767 from the conception of the project to the start of manufacturing. Shows how the company manages an enormously complex and risky project and introduces students to a variety of estimating and management tools. The decision issue... View Details

Keywords: Production; Product Design; Product Development; Decisions; Risk and Uncertainty; Risk Management; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Air Transportation Industry; Manufacturing Industry

19 Dec 2018
Working Paper Summaries

Find and Replace: R&D Investment Following the Erosion of Existing Products

Keywords: by Joshua Krieger, Xuelin Li, and Richard T. Thakor

1999
Chapter

Nihon Kigyou no Shin-Seihin Kaihatsu ni okeru Gojuu-nen no Hensen (50-Year History of How New Product Development Changed within Japanese Companies)

By: Hirotaka Takeuchi

March 2011
Case

Cash Flow Productivity at PepsiCo: Communicating Value to Retailers

PepsiCo developed a new metric that better measured the value added by Pepsi products than did gross margin, the traditional metric used by retailers to determine shelf space and promotional activity. The new metric, cash flow productivity, captured the value of... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Cash Flow; Measurement and Metrics; Distribution; Performance Productivity; Value Creation; Food and Beverage Industry; Retail Industry

Find at Harvard

July 1997
Case

Allentown Materials Corporation: The Electronic Products Division (B)

By: Michael Beer

Focuses on the recommendations and implementation strategy made by the organizational development group to address the division's problems. A rewritten version of an earlier case. View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Electronics Industry; United States

November 2011
Teaching Note

WrapItUp: Developing a New Compensation Plan (Brief Case)

By: W. Earl Sasser, Jr. and Rachel Shelton

Teaching Note for Product #4362 View Details

Keywords: Empowerment; Middle Management; Human Resource Management; Compensation; Incentives; Motivation; Management; Motivation and Incentives; Compensation and Benefits

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

06 Apr 2016
Research & Ideas

Should Entrepreneurs Pitch Products or Ideas for Products?

In trying to secure financial backing for a new product, independent innovators generally face the question of how much to invest in development before showing it around. Should they create, say, a working prototype (and maybe even... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Motion Pictures & Video; Entertainment & Recreation; Banking

July–August 2015
Article

Engineering Reverse Innovations: Principles for Creating Successful Products for Emerging Markets

By: Amos Winter and Vijay Govindarajan

Multinationals are starting to catch on to the logic of reverse innovation, in which products are designed first for consumers in low-income countries and then adapted into disruptive offerings for developed economies. But only a handful of companies have managed to do... View Details

Keywords: Innovation Strategy; Emerging Markets

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27 Dec 2010
Research & Ideas

HBS Faculty on 2010’s Biggest Business Developments

Business School professors—former Medtronic chairman and CEO Bill George, economist and entrepreneurship expert Bill Sahlman, and innovation and strategy authority Rosabeth Moss Kanter—to offer their thoughts on some of the year's most significant View Details

Keywords: by Staff

2019
Chapter

A Claim to Own Productive Property

By: Nien-hê Hsieh

BOOK ABSTRACT: The status of economic liberties remains a serious lacuna in the theory and practice of human rights. Should a minimally just society protect the freedoms to sell, save, profit, and invest? Is being prohibited to run a business a human rights violation?... View Details