Publications

Spring 2013
Article

China's Quest to Adopt Electric Vehicles

By: Christopher Marquis, Hongyu Zhang and Lixuan Zhou

The Chinese government's effort to create an electric vehicle industry is a bold experiment in local and system-level innovation. It also provides a window into understanding the promise and peril of economic development policies, both for China and for the rest of the... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Development Economics; Emerging Markets; Green Technology Industry; Green Technology Industry; China

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February 2014
Case

BGI: Data-driven Research

By: Willy Shih and Sen Chai

BGI has the largest installed gene-sequencing capacity in the world, and to Zhang Gengyun, general manager of the Life Sciences Division, this represented an opportunity to apply his training as a plant breeder and his early career work as a biochemist to improving... View Details

24 Sep 2020
News

The Race for a Vaccine

technology offered two advantages. First, the company had been focused on creating not a single drug, but a platform for analyzing proteins and producing synthetic mRNA. That same process could be used to... View Details

Keywords: April White; COVID-19; Scientific Research and Development Services

13 Dec 2022
Cold Call Podcast

Metaverse Seoul: How One City Used Citizen Input to Pilot a Government-Run Metaverse

Keywords: Re: Mitchell B. Weiss; Technology; Technology

15 Oct 2008
First Look

First Look: October 15, 2008

accelerated sharply in the U.S. economy. In this paper, we identify several other industry-level changes that have occurred during the same time and argue that they are consistent with an increased use of information View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

03 Mar 2014
Research & Ideas

Facebook’s Future

decade of technological progress will result in major changes, and I believe the site will morph into a potent and active force in people's lives. Today, Facebook is a passive... View Details

Keywords: by Mikolaj Piskorski

13 Jan 2003
Research & Ideas

Making Biotech Work as a Business

create safer and more effective treatments and, of course, reap profits—industry executives, like hopeful patients, still restlessly wait for relief. Given its scientific potential, said Pisano, biotech... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Technology; Technology; Technology

February 2023 (Revised February 2025)
Case

Doing Business in Boston, Massachusetts

By: Laura Alfaro, Leonard A. Schlesinger and Zeke Gillman

This case examines the challenges and opportunities of doing business in Boston, Massachusetts while giving a broad history of the city and surrounding area. View Details

Keywords: Business History; Business and Government Relations; Technological Innovation; Economic Growth; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Boston; Massachusetts

02 Mar 2011
Research & Ideas

Managing the Open Source vs. Proprietary Decision

Editor's note: In their new book, The Comingled Code: Open Source and Economic Development, HBS professor Josh Lerner and London School of Economics professor Mark Schankerman look at the impact of open... View Details

Keywords: by Josh Lerner & Mark Schankerman; Technology

October 2016 (Revised March 2017)
Case

uberPOOL

By: Marco Iansiti, Michael W. Toffel and Amram Migdal

This case describes Uber's uberPOOL service, which let multiple Uber users who were headed in the same direction share a ride and pay substantially lower fares. View Details

Keywords: Uber; uberPOOL; Innovation and Invention; Disruptive Innovation; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Digital Platforms; Transportation; Transportation Networks; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry

February 2008 (Revised December 2023)
Case

Digital Music: From MP3 to Streaming

By: Willy Shih

The emergence of the MP3 file-based music format not only disrupted the market for portable audio players, it also impacted the business models of major record labels. Modularity, and the commoditization spillover enabled by modularity in the personal computer... View Details

Keywords: Recording; Digital Devices; Digital Media; Digital Music; Digital; Digital Economics; Consumer Electronics; Customer Value and Value Chain; Disruptive Innovation; Technological Innovation; Information Technology; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; United States

04 Sep 2019
News

Deep Dive

scientific advancement, team-building, and international cooperation. And the goal had never been a world record for one man. “We want to open the door for future exploration... View Details

Keywords: April White; photo by Jeff Wilson; Scientific Research and Development Services

January 2013
Case

Cabot Corporation: The Fuel Cell Decision (A)

By: Willy Shih and Ying Zhou

Managers at Cabot Corporation are faced with deciding the future of its fuel cell program. The (A) case recounts the view of the business manager and the technical project lead, and the (B) case describes the perspective of a senior manager who is the head of the New... View Details

Research Summary

Overview

When information is digitized, it can be aggregated and shared nearly instantly. I am interested in how this acceleration in the aggregation and availability of information, via digitization, affects firms and firm strategy. Platforms have emerged as marketplaces for... View Details

Keywords: Market Platforms; Social Media; Information Disclosure; Platform Strategy; Innovation Strategy; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Technological Innovation; Intellectual Property; Information; Technology Platform; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry

25 Aug 2022
News

Up on the Corner

Affordable Housing Trust Fund, and will launch a research-based studio with the Cooper Union Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture in spring 2023. The studio, says Dlodlo, will focus on urbanism, innovative... View Details

Keywords: Alexander Gelfand; photographed by Melissa Golden; Real Estate

March 1992 (Revised February 1995)
Supplement

Introduction of FM Radio (C): The Empires Strike Back

Describes the concluding and bitter fight between Armstrong and the established radio manufacturing and broadcasting industry over the new, incompatible, and yet irrepressible FM technology. Illustrates the struggle between a corporation and an established system and... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Leading Change; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry

June 12, 2023
Article

How AI Will Accelerate the Circular Economy

By: Shirley Lu and George Serafeim

Despite living on a planet with finite resources, our economy remains largely linear and full of single-use products. The shift toward a circular economy, where companies recover or recycle resources, has hit roadblocks, including low value of used products and high... View Details

Keywords: Recycling; Materials Management; Innovation and Management; Technological Innovation; Climate Change; Environmental Sustainability; AI and Machine Learning; Operations; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Technology Industry

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October 2005
Case

Saskatchewan Wheat Pool 2005

By: Ray A. Goldberg and Mary L. Shelman

CEO Mayo Schmidt had just guided his firm through five difficult years. Survival had come with the difficult decision to change the 80-year-old agricultural cooperative into a Canadian business corporation. The Saskatchewan Wheat Pool (SWP) now faced the future with a... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Customer Value and Value Chain; Capital; Technological Innovation; Leading Change; Demand and Consumers; Partners and Partnerships; Expansion; Technology Adoption; Food and Beverage Industry; Canada

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May 1999
Background Note

Broadband Race, The

By: David B. Yoffie and Mary Kwak

Surveys developments in broadband in the late 1990s, focusing on the rivalry between telecom companies deploying DSL and cable companies rolling out cable modem service. Reviews the major broadband technologies, examines the state of competition in the United States,... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Internet and the Web; Competition; Telecommunications Industry; United States; Hong Kong; Singapore