Publications

Research Summary

Teamwork and Innovative Behavior with Professor Jeff Polzer and Hila Lifshitz

In a field setting, we explore how teamwork could enhance team members' interpersonal relationships and work performance. We collect longitudinal survey data and measure creative performance of a US company's employees before, during, and after they... View Details

June 2015
Article

You Need an Innovation Strategy

By: Gary P. Pisano

Why is it so hard to build and maintain the capacity to innovate? The reason is not simply a failure to execute but a failure to articulate an innovation strategy that aligns innovation efforts with the overall business strategy. Without such a strategy, companies will... View Details

Keywords: Innovation Strategy

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July 2016 (Revised October 2018)
Case

Tolaram: Innovating in Africa

By: Derek van Bever and Efosa Ojomo

Tolaram is a Singaporean company that began operations selling textiles in Nigeria in the 1970s. Executives and brothers, Haresh and Sajesh Aswani, however, saw an opportunity to create an instant noodle market in the country. In 1988, they began importing Indomie... View Details

Keywords: Fast Moving Consumer Goods; Business Model; Disruptive Innovation; Vertical Integration; Emerging Markets; Consumer Products Industry; Nigeria; Africa

2003
Case

E-Business Innovation at Cisco

By: Vijay Govindarajan, Philip Anderson, Chris Trimble and Katrina Veerman

As of March 2001, Cisco Systems prides itself as an "end-to-end networking company." The phrase describes not only their product line but the way they run their business. They created many of the e-business practices that later became cornerstones of the software... View Details

Keywords: Technology Networks; Technological Innovation; Innovation and Management; Business Strategy; Web Services Industry

April 1993 (Revised October 1995)
Case

ALZA and Bio-Electro Systems (A): Technological and Financial Innovation

By: Josh Lerner and Peter Tufano

To develop the next generation of risky products, ALZA, a mature and profitable biotechnology firm specializing in drug delivery systems, must raise $40 million. Organizational constraints and competitive concerns demand that the work be done inside the firm. However,... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Technological Innovation; Business Subsidiaries; Decision Choices and Conditions; Corporate Finance; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

1988
Chapter

Encouraging Innovation and Entrepreneurs in Bureaucratic Companies

By: R. M. Kanter

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Design

April 2017
Supplement

Q&A with Tom Kalil, Deputy Director for Technology & Innovation

By: Linda A. Hill and Allison J. Wigen

In this video supplement to the HBS case study "Tom Kalil, Deputy Director for Technology & Innovation," case protagonist Tom Kalil discusses leading a team of policy entrepreneurs at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy from 2008-2016. View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Government; Government Innovation; Leading Teams; Collaboration; Cross-sector Collaboration; Innovation Strategy; Innovation Leadership; Leadership; Leadership Development; Groups and Teams; Policy; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; United States

2010
Working Paper

Growth through Heterogeneous Innovations

By: Ufuk Akcigit and William R. Kerr

We study how exploration versus exploitation innovations impact economic growth through a tractable endogenous growth framework that contains multiple innovation sizes, multi-product firms, and entry/exit. Firms invest in exploration R&D to acquire new product lines... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Decision Choices and Conditions; Economic Growth; Investment; Innovation and Invention; Patents; Size; Research and Development; United States

September 2023
Teaching Note

Fighting the Battle of the Bulge—Evaluating Do Good/Do Well Innovations in Morbid Obesity Treatment

By: Regina E. Herzlinger

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 304-009. The case is part of the first module of the Innovating in Health Care course. Its purpose is to demonstrate how to evaluate the “do good” and do well” potential of a health care innovation. View Details

Keywords: Innovation In Healthcare Delivery; Innovation; Obesity; Digital Health; Weight Loss; Health Care and Treatment; Innovation and Management; Business Model; Medical Specialties; Mission and Purpose; Health Industry

Article

Innovations à l'hôpital: perspectives américaines [Hospital Innovations: U.S. Perspectives]

By: Maryaline Catillon

Keywords: Hospital Management; Innovation; Health; Health Care and Treatment; Management; Health Industry

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Research Summary

Innovation and Performance Improvement in Health Care

By: Robert S. Huckman

This stream of Professor Huckman's work examines how organizations delivering health care can structure and manage their activities to improve operational performance. It addresses issues including the impact of various forms of familiarity on performance, the impact... View Details

Fall 2013
Article

Spurring Innovation Through Competitions

By: Alan MacCormack, Fiona Murray and Erika Wagner

Alan MacCormack, Fiona Murray, and Erika Wagner examine the phenomenon of corporations using innovation contests. They write: "Companies are searching for better ways to identify and exploit novel solutions. Increasingly, they are discovering that many of the very best... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Innovation Strategy; Innovation and Management

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October 2006 (Revised October 2007)
Case

Information Technology and Innovation at Shinsei Bank

Shinsei Bank was rebuilt from the ashes of a failed predecessor, and pioneered new levels of customer service in retail banking in Japan. The bank's information technology, however, was vestigial at best and not well suited to the new service models Shinsei was... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Banks and Banking; Innovation and Invention; Banking Industry; Japan

September 2019
Teaching Note

Gun Safety in America: Three Leaders Propose Innovative Solutions

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Joseph Paul

This is a teaching note to the original case: Gun violence was a significant problem in America. Three Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative Fellows Christy Wood, Russell Sternlicht, and Gareth Glaser each decided to do something about gun safety. They each used... View Details

July 2013 (Revised July 2015)
Background Note

Innovating in Health Care—Framework

By: Regina E. Herzlinger

Contains the framework for the second-year Innovating in Health Care course. Delineates the role of six exogenous forces on new ventures: structure, financing, regulations, consumers, accountability, technology, and public policy and presents the essential elements of... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Management; Health Industry

2019
Report

U.S. Nuclear Energy Leadership: Innovation and the Strategic Global Challenge

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III

Throughout 2018, the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center convened a “Task Force on US Nuclear Energy Leadership,” which comprised civilian and military experts in foreign policy, defense, and nuclear energy. Senators Mike Crapo (R-ID) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)... View Details

Keywords: Nuclear Energy; Environment; Energy Sources; Energy; Energy Generation; Energy Conservation; Energy Policy; Global Range; Energy Industry