Publications

02 Oct 2007
First Look

First Look: October 2, 2007

innovation. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, we show that more IP protection and building stronger barriers around innovation are not always the best path to capturing value. Paradoxically, innovators can... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

21 Aug 2000
Research & Ideas

Inside the OR: Disrupted Routines and New Technologies

Why did a group of Harvard Business School professors become interested in an innovative new heart surgery technique? It turns out that a hospital's operating room provides an excellent controlled arena from which to explore the role that... View Details

Keywords: by Hilah Geer

25 Sep 2006
Research & Ideas

How Software Platforms Revolutionize Business

Software Platforms Drive Innovation and Transform Industries, available October 4 from MIT Press. Evans is Managing Director of the Global Competitive Policy Practice at LEGC LLC. Hagiu is a professor in the Strategy unit at Harvard... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Video Game; Web Services

08 Mar 2021
In Practice

COVID Killed the Traditional Workplace. What Should Companies Do Now?

A year ago, COVID-19 forced many companies to send employees home—often with a laptop and a prayer. Now, with COVID cases subsiding and vaccinations rising, the prospect of returning to old office routines appears more possible. But will employees want to flock back to... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

July 2019 (Revised May 2021)
Case

Acelerex

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In early 2019, Randell Johnson, Founder and Chief Executive of Acelerex, was reflecting on the company’s first year of rapid growth and the challenges of scaling the business that lay ahead. Acelerex was riding the waves of change taking place in electrical power grids... View Details

Keywords: Energy; Energy Sources; Growth Management; Expansion; Global Strategy; Cash Flow; Energy Industry; Web Services Industry; Consulting Industry

June 1998 (Revised April 2000)
Case

GM Powertrain

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Mikelle Eastley

Discusses a young MBA plant manager who is improving the operations of a small General Motors components plant in Fredericksburg, Virginia. At 29 years old, Joe Hinrichs is the youngest plant manager at GM, and in his new assignment, he is faced with the daunting... View Details

Keywords: Service Operations; Labor Unions; Problems and Challenges; Technological Innovation; Change Management; Machinery and Machining; Manufacturing Industry; Auto Industry; United States

23 Feb 2011
First Look

First Look: Feb. 23

heterogeneity within each BRIC. Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/11-083.pdf Innovating at the World's Crossroads: How Multicultural Networks Promote Creativity Author:Roy Y. J. Chua Abstract This research examines the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

29 Sep 2015
First Look

September 29, 2015

powerful commercial engine it is today. This book describes how many of the key innovations that made this possible came from entrepreneurs and iconoclasts who were outside the mainstream—and how the commercialization of the Internet was... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

30 Mar 2003
Research & Ideas

The Future of IT Consulting

addition, networking and the Internet moved the IT infrastructure for the IBM standard to an emerging environment characterized by open standards. Accordingly, the IT infrastructure became simpler and more complex at the same time through... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Johnston; Consulting

25 Jan 2021
Book

In a Nutshell, Why American Capitalism Succeeded

business in the United States. The book introduces readers to innovative business leaders, like Francis Cabot Lowell, who helped bring textile manufacturing, and the Industrial Revolution, to New England; Lydia Pinkham, who pioneered... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Manufacturing

March 2022 (Revised July 2022)
Case

Nexleaf Analytics: Saving the World Using the Internet of Things

By: Frank Nagle

In 2019, a decade after co-founding Nexleaf Analytics, CEO Nithya Ramanathan faced an important decision that would impact the ability of the small, but growing, not-for-profit organization to thrive for another decade. Their sensor technologies and big data analytics... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Technological Innovation; Nonprofit Organizations; Competitive Strategy; Patents; Expansion; Information Technology; Health Industry; Information Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Technology Industry

10 Jan 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research: January 10, 2017

Eastern agreements. These include the opening to China after decades of mutual hostility with the United States; détente and the first nuclear arms control treaty with the Soviets at the height of the Cold War; the Paris peace treaty with... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

January 2016 (Revised January 2017)
Case

Rumie: Bringing Digital Education to the Underserved

By: John J-H Kim and Amram Migdal

In fall of 2015, the Toronto, Canada–based education technology nonprofit Rumie had distributed thousands of computer tablets preloaded with collections of thousands of pieces of curated educational content to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in some of the most... View Details

Keywords: Edtech; Education Technology; Social Enterprise; Nonprofit; Education Startup; Technological Innovation; Nonprofit Organizations; Social Entrepreneurship; Education; Business Startups; Education Industry; Canada; Africa

06 May 2021
HBS Case

How Four Women Made Miami More Equitable for Startups

Noting that many urban youth lacked tech skills, she and her husband Derek Pearson launched Code Fever, a company offering training camps and hackathons for young people, and transformed a vacant building in a historically Black neighborhood into a co-working space and... View Details

Keywords: by Carolyn DiPaolo

21 Oct 2015
Research & Ideas

How to Predict if a New Business Idea is Any Good

In 2008, entrepreneur Brian Chesky and his two San Francisco roommates made the rounds of Silicon Valley VC firms with what they thought was a great idea: a website and mobile app that would allow homeowners to open their homes to... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Accommodations; Financial Services

16 Mar 2020
Research & Ideas

How the Coronavirus Is Already Rewriting the Future of Business

a Google doc or Slack. This is how virtual companies work. If you and I are working as a team, I can work in a Google doc and explain what I’ve done, and you can wake up in a different time zone or city, open it up, and see the work I’ve... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

2009
Chapter

Creating Superior Customer Value in a Connected World

By: Ranjay Gulati

"In the early twenty-first century, customers are more demanding than ever, and difficult economic times make them all the more so. As customers tighten their wallets and increase their demands, firms face greater pressure to provide superior customer value. Reducing... View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Customer Value and Value Chain; Consumer Behavior; Product Design; Social and Collaborative Networks; Value Creation