Publications

22 May 2012
First Look

First Look: May 22

http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/11-100.pdf Open Innovation and Organizational Boundaries: The Impact of Task Decomposition and Knowledge Distribution on the Locus of Innovation Authors:Karim R. Lakhani, Hila... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

January 2008 (Revised May 2008)
Case

Subprime Meltdown: American Housing and Global Financial Turmoil

By: Julio Rotemberg

This case focuses on the financial difficulties faced in the U.S. from August to December 2006 as well as their roots in subprime lending. After briefly discussing how mortgages were structured and traded in the pre-1990 period, it describes subprime mortgage lending,... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Central Banking; Financial Markets; Mortgages; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Policy; United States

September 1992 (Revised November 1996)
Case

Royal Automobile Club Rescue Services Division: Transformation Through Technology

By: W. Earl Sasser and Roger H. Hallowell

The Royal Automobile Club uses a new computer and telephone system to improve its service standards and profitability. After the initial impact of changes from technology, the organization faces a need to choose between future technological development or... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Information Technology; Corporate Strategy; Service Industry; Auto Industry; United Kingdom

25 Sep 2000
Research & Ideas

More Than the Sum of Its Parts: The Impact of Modularity on the Computer Industry

potentially serious drawback threatened to stand in the way of further progress. As HBS Dean Kim Clark, and his colleague, Professor Carliss Baldwin, write in their new book, Design Rules: The Power of Modularity, Volume I (The MIT Press),"The support of older... View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Computer; Consumer Products; Technology

2023
Working Paper

Coordinated R&D Programs and the Creation of New Industries

By: Daniel P. Gross and Maria P. Roche

Complex systems technologies—including “deep tech”—are prone to numerous frictions that stymie commercial development. Yet technologies with these features underpin some of the most valuable industries of the past century. We examine how large, mission-oriented... View Details

Keywords: Research and Development; Policy; Business and Government Relations; Technological Innovation; Collaborative Innovation and Invention

SSRN

Read Now

30 Nov 2011
Research & Ideas

Only Capitalists Can Save Capitalism

If capitalism was a stock, the market would appear rather bearish on its future. Bank failures, economic crises, and middle-class riots across the globe appear symptomatic of large systemic weaknesses in the market system, highlighted by... View Details

Keywords: by Maggie Starvish

02 Jul 2009
Research Event

Business Summit: The Role of Social Entrepreneurship in Transforming American Public Education

SchoolsKevin Johnson, CEO & President, St HOPE Public SchoolsWendy Kopp, CEO & Founder, Teach for AmericaMichelle Rhee, Chancellor, Washington DC Public Schools A national crisis exists in public education. The root causes include unaccountable teachers,... View Details

Keywords: Education

03 May 2010
Research & Ideas

What Is the Future of MBA Education?

the limitations of models and markets. At these crossroads, how should business education proceed? We wrote the book to outline the needs and to explain how schools are addressing them in surprisingly innovative ways. We include in-depth... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Education

May 2022
Case

Deborah Quazzo at GSV Ventures

By: William A. Sahlman, Michael D. Smith and Nicole Tempest Keller

As COVID-19 swept across the globe in 2020, the education sector faced unprecedented disruption. Schools and colleges worldwide shut down, forcing over a billion students and teachers to move to online learning. Investor interest in the EdTech space exploded as... View Details

Keywords: Edtech; Technology; Online Learning; COVID-19 Pandemic; Education; Information Technology; Venture Capital; Change Management; Strategy; Education Industry; Financial Services Industry; Chicago; California

24 Jun 2013
Working Paper Summaries

The Entrepreneurial Gap: How Managers Adjust Span of Accountability and Span of Control to Implement Business Strategy

Keywords: by Robert L. Simons

January 2019 (Revised May 2019)
Case

When Trolls Attack: Carbonite vs. Oasis Research

By: Lauren H. Cohen, Umit G. Gurun, Scott Duke Kominers and Sarah Mehta

This case, set in October 2017, follows Danielle Sheer, general counsel for Carbonite, as she defends the company against claims of patent infringement. It provides a broad overview of the U.S. patent system and explores the impact that non-practicing entities... View Details

Keywords: Patent Infringement Litigation; Non-practicing Entities; Patent Trolls; Innovation and Invention; Intellectual Property; Patents; Laws and Statutes; Lawsuits and Litigation; Legal Liability; Computer Industry; Technology Industry; Boston

July 2000 (Revised October 2000)
Case

Cisco Systems: Are You Ready? (A)

By: James L. Heskett and John P. Morgridge

An Internet service provider, INS, in which Cisco Systems has a minority ownership stake, receives an offer of $3.1 billion from Cisco's rival Lucent. Cisco's management has to decide whether to act on a request from INS management that Cisco make a counteroffer. The... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Ownership Stake; Strategic Planning; Innovation and Management; Technology; Information Technology Industry; Web Services Industry

06 Feb 2006
Research & Ideas

Sorting Out the Patent Craze

products. The need to work with other manufacturers was quite limited. Today, the world is much more complicated. Not only are many more firms pursuing innovations in key technologies, but firms are much more willing to patent these... View Details

Keywords: by Sara Grant; Technology

August 2001 (Revised March 2008)
Case

Helios Health (A)

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Alfred Martin

Helios PC system provides personalized drug information to the patients in the doctor's waiting room. It has met with considerable consumer acceptance and a very high return for the drug companies that sponsor it. What price should it charge them for the service? View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Price; Health Care and Treatment; Information Publishing; Innovation and Invention; Product Marketing; Demand and Consumers; Health Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

May 2009
Case

Tokyo Electron Ltd.

By: Willy C. Shih and Andrew A. King

Tokyo Electron Ltd. operates in a constrained innovation environment, defined by modular boundaries that are long standing in the industry that it serves, the global semiconductor manufacturing industry. While the original motivation for these boundaries was division... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Markets and Industries; Governance Controls; Technological Innovation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Boundaries; Manufacturing Industry; Semiconductor Industry

11 Feb 2019
Working Paper Summaries

The IBM PC

Keywords: by Carliss Y. Baldwin; Computer

2009
Book

Supercorp: How Vanguard Companies Create Opportunity, Profits, Growth, and Social Good

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter

Supercorp is based on a 3-year study involving more than 350 interviews in 20 countries to identify the leadership practices and operating methods of major companies seeking profitable growth through innovation that benefits society. For example, when the tsunami and... View Details

Keywords: Profit; Leadership; Mission and Purpose; Opportunities; Welfare

February 2009 (Revised March 2013)
Case

Shanghai Diligence Law Firm (A)

By: Robert G. Eccles and Catherine Zhang

Shanghai Diligence Law Firm, started in January 2006, is a rapidly growing law firm in China's burgeoning legal services market. In addition to the usual challenges facing all professional service firms (picking and retaining talent and building a desired client... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Compensation and Benefits; Retention; Growth and Development Strategy; Service Operations; Motivation and Incentives; Legal Services Industry; China