Publications
Publications
Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(1,802)
- Faculty Publications (400)
- January 2010 (Revised April 2011)
- Case
Google Inc.
By: Benjamin Edelman and Thomas R. Eisenmann
Describes Google's history, business model, governance structure, corporate culture, and processes for managing innovation. Reviews Google's recent strategic initiatives and the threats they pose to Yahoo, Microsoft, and others. Asks what Google should do next. One... View Details
- January 2010 (Revised May 2012)
- Case
TopCoder (A): Developing Software through Crowdsourcing
By: Karim R. Lakhani, David A. Garvin and Eric Lonstein
TopCoder's crowdsourcing-based business model, in which software is developed through online tournaments, is presented. The case highlights how TopCoder has created a unique two-sided innovation platform consisting of a global community of over 225,000 developers who... View Details
- 2010
- Working Paper
The Architecture of Complex Systems: Do Core-periphery Structures Dominate?
By: Alan MacCormack, Carliss Y. Baldwin and John Rusnak
Any complex technological system can be decomposed into a number of subsystems and associated components, some of which are core to system function while others are only peripheral. The dynamics of how such "core-periphery" structures evolve and become embedded in a... View Details
- October 2009 (Revised July 2012)
- Case
Emotiv Systems Inc.: It's the Thoughts that Count
By: Elie Ofek, Jason Riis and Paul Hamilton
Emotiv is getting ready to launch its innovative brain-computer interfacing (BCI) technology. The company has developed a special headset, called EPOC, and highly sophisticated software that can translate a person's emotions, cognitive thoughts, and facial expressions... View Details
- September – October 2009
- Article
Critical Decisions in Software Development: Updating the State of the Practice
By: Alan MacCormack, Michael A. Cusumano, Chris Kemerer and Bill Crandall
This article focuses on how to choose the "right" software development process, how to structure global software design chains, how to manage the interaction of project structure and software design, and how to balance innovation and efficiency in a software business. View Details
- 2009
- Working Paper
Fluid Tasks and Fluid Teams: The Impact of Diversity in Experience and Team Familiarity on Team Performance
By: Robert S. Huckman and Bradley R. Staats
In this paper, we consider how the structures of tasks and teams interact to affect team performance. We study the effects of diversity in experience on a team's ability to respond to task changes, by separately examining interpersonal team diversity (i.e., differences... View Details
- 2009
- Working Paper
Principles that Matter: Sustaining Software Innovation from the Client to the Web
By: Marco Iansiti
Economic analysis often reviews the role of principles—such as respect for intellectual property rights—in driving innovation. Given the interdependent nature of innovation in information technology, three core principles have emerged that work together to ensure that... View Details
- April 2009
- Case
SAP AG: Orchestrating the Ecosystem
By: Marco Iansiti and Karim R. Lakhani
Business ecosystems require careful orchestration and strategic choices regarding make/buy/partner decisions and membership access. This case examines the strategic and technological issues related to managing SAP's thriving ecosystem of user communities, software... View Details
- February 2009
- Case
Paresh Patel: Building a Life in the Context of Global Business - October 2007
By: Howard H. Stevenson and Shirley Spence
This case tells the story of Paresh Patel, born in Boston to an Indian immigrant family, as he develops an entrepreneurial career, participates in the Indian diaspora, and builds a family life. It provides background on Paresh's heritage, describes his youth and... View Details
- January 2009 (Revised February 2009)
- Case
F-Secure Corporation: Software as a Service (SaaS) in the Security Solutions Market
By: Lynda M. Applegate, Robert D. Austin, Kalle Lyytinen, Esko Penttinen and Timo Saarinen
Describes the development of a business model based on "software as a service" (SaaS) for security solution distributed through Internet Service Providers (ISPs). F-Secure disruptively entered a mature business with dominant players by executing an innovative new... View Details
- January 2009
- Article
Team Familiarity, Role Experience, and Performance: Evidence from Indian Software Services
By: Robert S. Huckman, Bradley R. Staats and David M. Upton
Much of the literature on team learning views experience as a unidimensional concept captured by the cumulative production volume of, or the number of projects completed by, a team. Implicit in this approach is the assumption that teams are stable in their membership... View Details
- January 2009
- Journal Article
The Fiscal Impact of High-skilled Emigration: Flows of Indians to the U.S.
By: Mihir Desai, D. Kapur, J. McHale and K Rogers
Easing immigration restrictions for the highly skilled in developed countries portends a future of increased human capital outflows from developing countries. The myriad consequences of these developments for developing countries include the direct loss of the fiscal... View Details
- December 2008 (Revised December 2010)
- Case
Hema Hattangady and Conzerv (A)
By: Michael L. Tushman and David Kiron
This case describes the evolution of a fast-growing Indian energy firm. It illustrates both leadership change as Hema is evolving as a leader, as well as how organization architecture (culture, systems, incentives, and human resources) is evolving. The case highlights... View Details
- December 2008
- Article
Which Kind of Collaboration Is Right for You?
By: Roberto Verganti and Gary P. Pisano
Nowadays, virtually no companies innovate alone. Firms team up with a variety of partners, in a wide number of ways, to create new technologies, products, and services. But what is the best way to leverage the power of outsiders? To help executives answer that... View Details
- 2008
- Working Paper
Variation in Experience and Team Familiarity: Addressing the Knowledge Acquisition-Application Problem
By: Robert S. Huckman and Bradley R. Staats
Prior work in organizational learning has failed to find a consistent effect of variation in experience on performance. While some studies find a positive relationship between these two variables, others find no effect or even a negative relationship. In this paper, we... View Details
- 8 Aug 2008
- Conference Presentation
Where Will Open Development Communities Prevail?
- May 2008 (Revised May 2008)
- Case
Symyx Technologies, Inc.
By: H. Kent Bowen, Courtney Purrington and Thomas D. Perry
Symyx is a science-based company spun out of Berkeley. Its unique materials technology has been exploited for 10 years, but the company needs a new business model. The company concept required the invention of hardware and software to do high throughput materials... View Details
- March 2008
- Course Overview Note
Dynamic Markets
By: Joshua D. Coval and Erik Stafford
The Dynamic Markets course at Harvard Business School is organized around the hands-on application of financial decision making in a wide variety of capital market settings. The course relies heavily on in-class simulations of a range of market settings where students... View Details
- March 2008 (Revised August 2009)
- Case
Linden Lab: Opening Second Life
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld
In early 2008, managers in Linden Lab, creator of the virtual world Second Life, faced decisions about the company's strategy. Despite profound initial skepticism about demand for a user-generated virtual world that was not a traditional game, Second Life had achieved... View Details
- 2008
- Working Paper
Exploring the Duality between Product and Organizational Architectures: A Test of the Mirroring Hypothesis
By: Alan D. MacCormack, John Rusnak and Carliss Y. Baldwin
A variety of academic studies argue that a relationship exists between the structure of an organization and the design of the products that this organization produces. Specifically, products tend to "mirror" the architectures of the organizations in which they are... View Details