Publications

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

Keywords: Business Model; Innovation and Invention; Two-Sided Platforms; Motivation and Incentives; Social and Collaborative Networks; Competition; Software; Technology Industry

Educators

01 Mar 2010
News

Lords of Strategy

original Hendersonianism: “In this new environment, the essence of strategy is not the structure of a company’s position in products and markets, but the dynamics of its behaviors. The goal is to identify and View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons; Publishing Industries (except Internet); Information; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Professional Services

September 1982 (Revised October 1988)
Background Note

Note on Implementing Strategy

By: Richard G. Hamermesh

Presents a framework for thinking about problems of implementing strategy. Defines the tasks of implementation and the range of implementation situations, then develops four approaches to implementation and reviews a range of implementation skills. Intended for use in... View Details

Keywords: Strategy

Educators

January 2010 (Revised March 2010)
Background Note

A Note on Direct Selling in Developing Economies

By: Michael Chu and Joel Emilio Bregman Segre

Informal and formal direct selling play a particularly important role in developing countries characterized by markets with limited retail sectors. This note explores the practice of direct selling for the company, the sales person, and the consumer, as well as the... View Details

Keywords: Customers; Developing Countries and Economies; Marketing Channels; Marketing Strategy; Emerging Markets; Sales

Educators

April 2015
Teaching Note

Yara International: Africa Strategy

By: Michael Porter and Jorge Ramirez-Vallejo

Leading fertilizer producer Yara International demonstrates the concept of creating shared value through the Southern Agricultural Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) initiative, which brought together multiple organizations to enhance agricultural development in rural... View Details

Keywords: Shared Value; Tanzania; Agriculture Reform; Africa; Tanzania

26 Mar 2006
Research & Ideas

The Office of Strategy Management

typical organization the budgeting process is partitioned from the strategy development process. The result is that key strategic investments often get lost in the pressures of daily operational management,... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

June 2019
Article

Financial Development and Technology Diffusion

By: Diego Comin and Ramana Nanda

We examine the extent to which financial market development impacts the diffusion of 16 major technologies, looking across 17 countries, from 1870 to 2000. We find that greater depth in financial markets leads to faster technology diffusion for more capital-intensive... View Details

Keywords: Technology Diffusion; Technology Adoption; Commercialization; Financial Markets

Register to Read

November 1999 (Revised June 2000)
Case

FairMarket: Managing Business Development

By: William A. Sahlman, Michael J. Roberts and Cathy Taylor

Describes the evolution of FairMarket, a provider of turnkey auction services to community and merchant Web sites. Describes several deals that the CEO must negotiate, requiring a view of the company's valuation. View Details

Keywords: Partners and Partnerships; Internet and the Web; Valuation; Negotiation Deal; Auctions; Growth and Development Strategy; Web Services Industry

2003
Other Unpublished Work

The Development of the Cluster Concept—Present Experiences and Recent Developments

By: Christian H.M. Ketels

This review presents an overview of the current research on clusters and cluster-based economic development. It is organized in three parts: First, it takes a look at the conceptual foundations of the cluster approach, discussing the definition of clusters, the... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Industry Clusters; Development Economics; Performance; Framework; Knowledge Sharing; Policy

Read Now

September 2011
Article

Up Close and Personal: Developing Foundations for Leader Development through Personalization of Management Learning

By: Gianpiero Petriglieri, Jack D. Wood and Jennifer L. Petriglieri

This paper examines the process through which management students develop personal foundations (such as self-awareness, self-management, and a grounding life narrative) for the ongoing development and practice of leadership. We conducted an inductive, qualitative study... View Details

Keywords: Leadership Development; Innovation and Invention; Personal Development and Career; Curriculum and Courses; Customization and Personalization; Learning; Management Practices and Processes; Business Education

Read Now

Over a billion people use social platforms on the Internet, making them the most frequently visited category of sites. Some platforms, such as eHarmony, MeetUp, and Twitter, allow us to connect to strangers. eHarmony alone is estimated to account for one in six new... View Details

11 Jan 2010
Research & Ideas

Mixing Open Source and Proprietary Software Strategies

strategies that managers can take into consideration when setting the course for their own firms. A Q&A with Llanes follows. Julia Hanna: How did you come to be interested in this particular area of research? Gaston Llanes: We started... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Web Services

November, 2022
Article

Role of Context in Knowledge Flows: Host Country versus Headquarters as Sources of MNC Subsidiary Knowledge Inheritance

By: Mike Horia Teodorescu, Prithwiraj Choudhury and Tarun Khanna

We respond to calls in the strategy and international business literature for elucidating how multinational subsidiaries develop contextual intelligence in host countries and how they use the local context as a source of valuable opportunities for learning. Applying... View Details

Keywords: MNCs; Knowledge Flows; Innovation; Gravity Model; Absorptive Capacity; Multinational Firms and Management; Business Subsidiaries; Knowledge Management; Business Headquarters; Innovation and Invention

Web

Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

HBS ISC Professor Michael Porter retired from the Harvard Business School faculty on November 30, 2023. Harvard Business Review: Smart, Connected Products Health Care: Value-Based Health Care U.S. COMPETITIVENESS: Competition in the Politics Industry The Institute for... View Details

December 2021
Article

The Evolutionary Nature of Breakthrough Innovation: An Empirical Investigation of Firm Search Strategies

By: Dominika Kinga Randle and Gary P. Pisano

Breakthrough innovation has been an important topic of study for generations of scholars. Previous research in this domain has focused on exploring the way breakthroughs emerge from cumulative combination and recombination of prior technologies and knowledge components... View Details

Keywords: Breakthrough Innovation; Exploration And Exploitation; Search Strategy; Innovation and Invention; Technological Innovation; Strategy