Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(560)
- Faculty Publications (90)
- 2020
- Working Paper
Algorithm-Augmented Work and Domain Experience: The Countervailing Forces of Ability and Aversion
By: Ryan Allen and Prithwiraj Choudhury
Past research offers mixed perspectives on whether domain experience helps or hurts algorithm-augmented work performance. To reconcile these perspectives, we theorize that domain experience affects algorithm-augmented performance via two distinct countervailing... View Details
- 2020
- Working Paper
The Evolutionary Nature of Breakthrough Innovation: Re-Evaluating the Exploration vs. Exploitation Dichotomy
By: Dominika K. Sarnecka and Gary P. Pisano
Over the past few decades, a consensus has emerged that breakthrough innovations emerge from exploration of novel terrain while more routine innovations are the product of exploitation. In this paper, we revisit this explore versus exploit dichotomy with an analysis... View Details
- November 2020
- Article
Casting Conference Calls
By: Lauren Cohen, Dong Lou and Christopher J. Malloy
We explore a subtle but important mechanism through which firms can control information flow to the markets. We find that firms that “cast” their conference calls by disproportionately calling on bullish analysts tend to underperform in the future. Firms that call on... View Details
- October 2020
- Technical Note
Organizational Reinvention
By: Ryan Raffaelli
This note is designed to introduce students to the fundamental concepts of leading innovation in established organizations. Reinvention is a process whereby organizations respond to changes in the environment that threaten their core business model, technologies,... View Details
- July 2020 (Revised September 2021)
- Case
Mr. Five Percent: Calouste Gulbenkian and the Origins of Global Oil
By: Geoffrey Jones and Yazeed Al-Rashed
This case describes the business career of Calouste Gulbenkian, a skilled intermediary who was able to secure 5 percent of a vast oil concession covering much of the Middle East that was signed in 1928. Gulbenkian was an ethnic Armenian born in the Ottoman Empire,... View Details
Keywords: Oil; Globalization; Energy Sources; History; Biography; Energy Industry; Turkey; Central Asia; Middle East
- June 2020
- Article
Start-up Inertia versus Flexibility: The Role of Founder Identity in a Nascent Industry
By: Tiona Zuzul and Mary Tripsas
Through an inductive, comparative study of four early entrants in the nascent air taxi market, we examine why start-ups, generally characterized as flexible, malleable entities, might instead exhibit inertial behavior. While two of the firms engaged in ongoing... View Details
- April 2020 (Revised October 2021)
- Case
SpaceX, Economies of Scale, and a Revolution in Space Access
By: Matthew C. Weinzierl, Kylie Lucas and Mehak Sarang
From the time he transformed the world of online banking, Elon Musk established himself as a bold innovator. After selling X.com to PayPal in 2002, he founded a series of revolutionary start-ups, starting with Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX). Hoping to "make... View Details
- 2020
- Working Paper
No Line Left Behind: Assortative Matching Inside the Firm
By: Achyuta Adhvaryu, Vittorio Bassi, Anant Nyshadham and Jorge Tamayo
How do firms pair workers with managers, and which constraints affect the allocation of labor within the firm? We characterize the sorting pattern of managers to workers in a large readymade garment manufacturer in India and then explore potential drivers of the... View Details
- January 2020
- Article
Gifts of the Immigrants, Woes of the Natives: Lessons from the Age of Mass Migration
By: Marco Tabellini
In this paper, I jointly investigate the political and the economic effects of immigration and study the causes of anti-immigrant sentiments. I exploit exogenous variation in European immigration to U.S. cities between 1910 and 1930 induced by World War I and the... View Details
- January 2020
- Article
Jack of All Trades and Master of Knowledge: The Role of Diversification in New Distant Knowledge Integration
By: Frank Nagle and Florenta Teodoridis
We consider the role of individual-level diversification as a mechanism through which skilled researchers engage in successful exploration—recognizing and integrating new knowledge external to one’s domains of expertise. To approach an ideal experiment, we (1) employ a... View Details
- 2019
- Article
Does Big Data Enhance Firm Innovation Competency? The Mediating Role of Data-driven Insights
By: Maryam Ghasemaghaei and Goran Calic
Grounded in gestalt insight learning theory and organizational learning theory, we collected data from 280 middle and top-level managers to investigate the impact of each big data characteristic (i.e., data volume, data velocity, data variety, and data veracity) on... View Details
- 2020
- Chapter
Ethical Business, Corruption and Economic Development in Comparative Perspective
By: Janet Hunter and G. Jones
This chapter contextualises the drivers of corruption in Turkish business through comparisons with Japan and India in the late 19th century. It identifies the developmental state as a common driver of corruption. Catching up by using extensive state intervention had... View Details
Keywords: Corruption; Crime and Corruption; Economic Growth; Turkey; Middle East; Central Asia; Japan; India
- September 2019
- Article
Bankruptcy Spillovers
By: Shai Bernstein, Emanuele Colonnelli, Xavier Giroud and Benjamin Iverson
How do different bankruptcy approaches affect the local economy? Using U.S. Census microdata, we explore the spillover effects of reorganization and liquidation on geographically proximate firms. We exploit the random assignment of bankruptcy judges as a source of... View Details
- 2019
- Book
The Business of Platforms: Strategy in the Age of Digital Competition, Innovation, and Power
By: Michael A. Cusumano, Annabelle Gawer and David B. Yoffie
The Business of Platforms explores the strategic, economic, and technology management challenges of digital platform businesses. We have five major themes in the book: 1) The world’s most valuable companies are all platforms, in part because platforms have... View Details
- 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
- August 28, 2018
- Article
How Intermittent Breaks in Interaction Improve Collective Intelligence
By: Ethan Bernstein, Jesse Shore and David Lazer
People influence each other when they interact to solve problems. Such social influence introduces both benefits (higher average solution quality due to exploitation of existing answers through social learning) and costs (lower maximum solution quality due to a... View Details
Keywords: Transparency; Social Influence; Collective Intelligence; Interaction; Problem Solving; Collaboration; Intermittant; Breaks; Always On; Communication Technologies; Communication; Design; Information; Management; Leadership; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Performance; Social and Collaborative Networks; Information Technology
- March 2018
- Teaching Note
ISRO: Explore Space or Exploit CubeSats?
ISRO, India’s space agency, established to address domestic challenges with space technology, is one of the six largest space agencies in the world. Through its 59 missions, ISRO has launched numerous satellites for communication, disaster management, navigation,... View Details
- December 2017
- Supplement
CEO Succession at Cisco: Video Supplement
By: Boris Groysberg and J. Yo-Jud Cheng
Excerpts of videotaped class visits and an interview with former Cisco CEO John Chambers about Cisco’s CEO succession planning process. Topics include Chambers’ reflections on the process; the roles of the incumbent CEO, board of directors, executive search, and the... View Details
- November–December 2017
- Article
Innovation Streams and Executive Leadership
By: Michael Tushman
Incumbent firms face steep challenges in dealing with technological change and associated innovation streams. The firm's senior leadership team, and especially R&D leadership, plays a central role in shaping a firm's ability to both exploit existing capabilities and... View Details
- April 2017 (Revised July 2017)
- Case
ISRO: Explore Space or Exploit CubeSats?
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) achieved global acclaim by launching successful missions to the moon and Mars at a fraction of the cost of prior Western missions. It is now faced with an important strategic dilemma—whether to continue exploring deep space... View Details