Publications

December 2000
Case

CellFor, Inc.

By: Ray A. Goldberg, Carin-Isabel Knoop, Frantz Edward Alphonse and Laure Mougeot Stroock

A new private company has developed a process to clone and multiply seeds for the forestry industry. View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Transition; Technological Innovation; Private Ownership; Research and Development; Science-Based Business; Technology Adoption; Forestry Industry

Keywords: crowdsourcing; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools

01 Jun 2013
News

Collective Wisdom

according to Karim R. Lakhani, is that thanks to the Internet, crowdsourcing has moved into new and unexpected industries and organizations, establishing itself as a mainstream strategy for View Details

28 May 2013
Research & Ideas

Can LEGO Snap Together a Future in Asia?

more localized products coupled with licensing agreements linked to specific movie franchises might be an option, but an expensive one. The company also had to consider that "diminishing play time and the threat of a disruptive... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Entertainment & Recreation

27 Aug 2012
Research & Ideas

Employee-Suggestion Programs That Work

Bumping up against accepted theories in process improvement, a new research paper from Harvard Business School questions the value of prioritizing problems identified by frontline employees. Citing a hospital safety improvement program based on employee suggestions,... View Details

Keywords: by Paul Guttry

January 2017 (Revised October 2021)
Case

Delivering the Goods at Shippo

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Jeffrey F. Rayport and Olivia Hull

Laura Behrens Wu, CEO of software start-up Shippo, prepares her pitch for a Series A funding round following a successful seed round. Customer adoption of Shippo’s e-commerce dashboard application, which allows small and medium retailers to compare delivery rates... View Details

01 Apr 1999
News

Q & A: Confronting New Technologies: When Doing Right Is Wrong

customers about their needs and collect relevant market data. But when markets do not yet exist, neither do customers. The process must be an interactive one wherein innovators work to sell disruptive... View Details

February 2007 (Revised September 2008)
Case

CMM versus Agile: Methodology Wars in Software Development

A CIO decides whether to adopt the "Capability Maturity Model" (CMM) within her IT department. The decision is proving surprisingly controversial; some of her best developers prefer adopting an "agile" methodological approach instead. Compares and contrasts the CMM and... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Management; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Product Development; Business Processes; Information Technology; Applications and Software

October 2006 (Revised March 2007)
Case

The ColorMatch Hair Color System

By: Clayton M. Christensen and Matthew Beecher

Describes the challenge of finding the right market for a product. View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Innovation and Invention; Markets; Product; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry

April 1997
Case

Display Technologies, Inc.

By: Jonathan West, H. Kent Bowen and Ryota Matsui

Display Technologies, Inc. (DTI) is a new joint venture between Toshiba and IBM Japan that is manufacturing the most advanced form of flat panel displays. With success in achieving significant production volumes, DTI has been asked to double its output as quickly as... View Details

Keywords: Joint Ventures; Decision Choices and Conditions; Technological Innovation; Growth and Development Strategy; Product Development; Production; Performance Expectations; Electronics Industry

21 Nov 2012
Research & Ideas

What Health Care Managers Need to Know--and How to Teach Them

digital platform, and the increased fiscal pressures created by the worldwide economic crisis. Unfortunately, the educational programs for future health care leaders fail to provide many of the needed skills, according to a survey of CEOs... View Details

Keywords: by Paul Guttry; Health; Education

December 2002 (Revised February 2003)
Case

Wyndham International: Fostering High-Touch with High-Tech

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Gabriele Piccoli

Examines a hotel chain's attempt to use information technology to achieve market dominance and build customer loyalty during a period of global industry decline. View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Competitive Strategy; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Technological Innovation; Information Technology; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Strategy; Accommodations Industry

April 1996 (Revised April 2004)
Case

Virtual Vineyards

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Alvin J. Silk, Lisa Klein Pearo and Thomas A. Gerace

Virtual Vineyards markets wine from small California vineyards directly to consumers through its site on the World Wide Web. It also facilitates fulfillment of customer orders. The case focuses on the ways in which Virtual Vineyards provides value to end consumers... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Technological Innovation; Management; Service Operations; Internet and the Web

October 2023 (Revised November 2023)
Case

Recycle & Re-Match: The Future of Soccer Turfs

By: George Serafeim, Lena Duchene and Carlota Moniz

By August 2023, Re-Match, an artificial turf waste-to-value company, had operations in Denmark and the Netherlands and had recycled over 160,000 tons of waste and plastic fiber. With recent capital injection from the VC firm Verdane and a dual revenue business model,... View Details

February 2024
Case

Horizon Quantum Computing

By: Paul A. Gompers and Billy Chan

In 2023, the Singapore-based startup company Horizon Quantum Computing was on the cusp of fast expansion and the founder faced the challenge to decide where to open the second office outside Singapore. To make a choice from the list of 10 countries, the founder had to... View Details

Keywords: Business Plan; Entrepreneurship; Entrepreneurial Finance; Disruptive Innovation; Business Offices; Business Startups; Talent and Talent Management; Decision Choices and Conditions; Partners and Partnerships; Expansion; Information Technology Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Singapore; Asia

1997
Chapter

Disruptive Technologies: Catching the Wave

By: Joseph L. Bower and Clayton M. Christensen

Keywords: Disruptive Innovation; Technological Innovation; Disruption

01 Mar 2005
News

Better Care at Lower Cost

The U.S. health-care industry isn’t immune to the forces of disruptive innovation that already have transformed other businesses, from computer manufacturing to retailing, HBS professor Clayton M. Christensen told 250 participants at the... View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools

06 Oct 2020
News

Clearing the Path to Citizenship

appropriate federal forms, which can sometimes exceed 600 pages, and independent immigration attorneys review the applications to ensure all the necessary supporting documents are included. The company... View Details

Keywords: April White

25 Nov 2014
First Look

First Look: November 25

effectively, where they can be damaging, and where additional complementary mechanisms to spur innovation may be appropriate. Publisher's link:... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

July – August 2011
Article

Evolve (Again)

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter

Frenzy over social networks and interactive media can produce equally overhyped predictions that everything will change, not to mention money-losing investments in silly ventures. Separating enduring strategic lessons from the hype can help avoid a new crash. Hint: the... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Venture Capital; Investment; Technological Innovation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Partners and Partnerships

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