Publications

Article

Frame Flexibility: The Role of Cognitive and Emotional Framing in Innovation Adoption by Incumbent Firms

By: Ryan Raffaelli, Mary Ann Glynn and Michael Tushman

Why do incumbent firms frequently reject nonincremental innovations? Beyond technical, structural, or economic factors, we propose an additional factor: the degree of the top management team's (TMT) frame flexibility, i.e., their capability to cognitively expand an... View Details

Keywords: Innovation Adoption; Cognition; Framing; Emotional Resonance; Incumbent Inertia; Innovation and Invention; Technology Adoption; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management

October 2013
Background Note

Multi-Sided Platforms: Foundations and Strategy

By: Andrei Hagiu

This note offers an analysis of four fundamental strategic decisions and associated tradeoffs that set MSPs apart from other types of businesses (e.g. product firms) and that every MSP entrepreneur and investor should carefully consider. In the last section I also... View Details

Keywords: Multi-Sided Platforms; Strategy; Technology; Technology Industry

September 2012
Teaching Note

Vodafone Japan (A), (B) and (C) (TN)

By: Juan Alcacer

The series of three cases is used in Harvard Business School's (HBS) elective course "Competing Globally" as the second case in the first module (Why?: Strategies to create value globally) (See "Competing Globally: Course Note for Instructors", HBS 713-422). The module... View Details

Keywords: Telecommunications; Technological Innovation; Technology Strategy; Operations Strategy; Information Technology; Operations; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Strategy; Telecommunications Industry; Japan

2016
Working Paper

Innovation Adoption and Organizational Identity: Identity Dynamism as a Strategic Resource for Top Management Team Decision Making

By: Ryan Raffaelli, Mary Ann Glynn and Michael Tushman

Organizations continuously face decisions about whether to adopt radical innovations. We examine the relationship between innovation adoption and identity, linking identity with firm strategy to explain innovation adoption over time. We conceptualize identity as... View Details

Keywords: Dynamic Managerial Capabilities; Organizational Identity; Innovation Adoption; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Culture; Innovation and Invention; Adoption

Summer 2013
Article

IP Modularity: Profiting from Innovation by Aligning Product Architecture with Intellectual Property

By: Joachim Henkel, Carliss Y. Baldwin and Willy C. Shih

Firms seeking to take advantage of distributed innovation and outsourcing can bridge the tension between value creation and value capture by modifying the modular structure of their technical systems. Specifically, this article introduces the concept of "IP... View Details

Keywords: Modularity; Value Appropriation; Distributed Innovation; Open Innovation; Innovation Strategy; Intellectual Property; Value

27 Dec 2018
Working Paper Summaries

Team Learning Capabilities: A Meso Model of Sustained Innovation and Superior Firm Performance

Keywords: by Jean-François Harvey, Henrik Bresman, and Amy C. Edmondson

October 2010 (Revised May 2012)
Background Note

Reverse Engineering, Learning, and Innovation

By: Willy C. Shih

This background reading looks at reverse engineering in the context of piracy and knock-offs in emerging markets like China. It first considers legal aspects of reverse engineering in strong property rights regimes like the United States as a way of unpacking the legal... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Learning; Engineering; Innovation and Invention; Intellectual Property; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Emerging Markets; China; United States

09 Dec 2016
Video

Digital Innovation and Transformation: Goggles Not Required

March 2011 (Revised February 2012)
Case

Innovation and Growth at Actelion Ltd.

By: Gary P. Pisano, Daniela Beyersdorfer and Ruth Dittrich

In late 2010, Jean-Paul Clozel, CEO of the Swiss biotech pharmaceuticals firm Actelion, looks back on a successful decade. The small venture that he had started with a few of his scientist colleagues in the late 1990s to discover novel medicine in a research-driven... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Talent and Talent Management; Innovation and Management; Leadership; Growth and Development Strategy; Product Development; Organizational Culture; Research and Development; Biotechnology Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Switzerland

Research Summary

Privatization, Regulatory Reform and Management Strategy

Alexander Dyck's research illustrates why privatization and deregulation often improve performance and factors that separate success from failure. A simplistic model of privatization and regulatory reform assumed that the shift from government to private sector... View Details

November 2021
Article

Corporate Strategy and the Theory of the Firm in the Digital Age

By: Markus Menz, Sven Kunisch, Julian Birkinshaw, David J. Collis, Nicolai J. Foss, Robert E. Hoskisson and John Prescott

The purpose of this article is to reinvigorate research in the intersection of corporate strategy and the theory of the firm in light of the rapid advancement of digital technologies. Using the theory of the firm as an interpretive lens, we focus our analysis on the... View Details

Keywords: Digitalization; Multi-business Firm; Scale And Scope; Theory Of The Firm; Corporate Strategy; Technological Innovation; Competitive Advantage; Organizational Design; Theory; Research; Digital Transformation

June 2013 (Revised March 2014)
Case

Kvadrat: Leading for Innovation

By: Boris Groysberg and Sarah L. Abbott

In 2013, Anders Byriel, CEO of the family-owned Danish textiles company, Kvadrat, considered the firm's strategic plan. In 2000, Byriel and Mette Bendix, Kvadrat's Product Director, had taken over management of the company from their fathers, who had founded Kvadrat... View Details

Keywords: General Management; Organizational Behavior; Strategy; Performance Management; Leadership; Business or Company Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Practices and Processes; Human Resources; Denmark; Europe; Asia

Article

Financing Innovation

By: William R. Kerr and Ramana Nanda

We review the recent literature on the financing of innovation, inclusive of large companies and new startups. This research strand has been very active over the past five years, generating important new findings, questioning some long-held beliefs, and creating its... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Borrowing and Debt; Innovation and Invention

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Research Summary

Performance Pricing and Business Strategy

By: Frank V. Cespedes

This research focuses on companies that have sustained high willingness-to-pay over diverse market conditions, including economic slumps. It examines how firms identify, articulate, and communicate value to selected customer groups and the organizational implications,... View Details

9 AM – 10 AM EDT, 30 Oct 2019
HBS Online

HBS Online Disruptive Strategy

Make innovation a reality with strategies from two-time World's Most Innovative Business Thinker, Clayton Christensen. Program Dates: October 30, 2019 - December 11, 2019 View Details

30 Sep 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Breakthrough Inventions and Migrating Clusters of Innovation

Keywords: by William R. Kerr; Technology

March 2009 (Revised May 2009)
Background Note

Executing Strategy

By: J. Bruce Harreld

This is a note to introduce the principles for effectively implementing a new strategy. It emphasizes the interdependence of strategy and execution in developing and sustaining superior competitive performance. Primarily based on the notion that strategy should be a... View Details

Keywords: Alignment; Competitive Strategy; Management Teams

9 AM – 10 AM EDT, 21 Aug 2019
HBS Online

HBS Online Disruptive Strategy

Make innovation a reality with strategies from two-time World's Most Innovative Business Thinker, Clayton Christensen. Program Dates: August 21, 2019 - October 02, 2019 View Details

2011
Chapter

Venturesome Consumption, Innovation and Globalization

By: Amar Bhidé