Publications

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October 1994 (Revised April 1995)
Case

Visionary Design Systems: Are Incentives Enough?

By: George P. Baker III and Karin B Monsler

A compensation case about Visionary Design Systems (VDS), a small, high-tech full service systems integration firm based in Silicon Valley with eleven offices throughout the country. All employees, including engineers, administrators, and receptionists, received a... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Cost vs Benefits; Compensation and Benefits; Employee Stock Ownership Plan; San Francisco

October 2000 (Revised November 2001)
Case

Garage.com (A)

By: Dorothy A. Leonard and Elizabeth Kind

Silicon Valley's Garage.com matches venture capital and corporate angel investors with high-tech start-ups that are looking for early stage funding. As a Web-based service, Garage.com fields inquiries from entrepreneurs and investors around the world, and is eager to... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Corporate Strategy; Business Growth and Maturation; Venture Capital; Investment; Internet and the Web; Expansion; Operations; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Global Strategy; Technological Innovation; Brands and Branding; Information Technology Industry

Find at Harvard

23 May 2000
Research & Ideas

Minding the Muse: The Impact of Downsizing on Corporate Creativity

Not long ago, the senior management of a leading high-tech company was surprised to learn that research showed their R&D groups' creative performance to be in a prolonged slump following a corporate downsizing. The company's... View Details

Keywords: by Peter K. Jacobs

March 2009 (Revised June 2010)
Case

TOTO: The Bottom Line

TOTO, the leading manufacturer of toilets in Japan, is struggling to penetrate the U.S. market with its premier bidet-toilets, which are present in 63% of homes in Japan. The case examines the behavioral, cultural, and institutional barriers that TOTO faces in gaining... View Details

Keywords: Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Disruptive Innovation; Product Positioning; Market Entry and Exit; Organizational Culture; Consumer Products Industry; Japan; United States

June 2023
Teaching Note

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited: Global Leadership in Chipmaking

By: William C. Kirby and Noah B. Truwit

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 321-126. The general purpose of this case is to explore the evolving nature of business relations across the Taiwan strait, focusing on the prominence of Taiwan's high-tech industry. After the legendary founder of Taiwan Semiconductor... View Details

Keywords: Geopolitical Units; Government and Politics; Competition; Production; Disruption; Semiconductor Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Taiwan; Taiwan Strait; China

June 2012 (Revised February 2014)
Case

Low-Carbon, Indigenous Innovation in China

By: Richard H.K. Vietor

For the past seven years or so, the Chinese government has been powering ahead with industrial policies to promote low-carbon energy technologies—wind, solar, electric batteries and vehicles, nuclear power, and even carbon capture and sequestration. In 2009, the... View Details

Keywords: Energy; Renewables; Carbon; Environment; Industrial Policy; Competitiveness; Environmental Sustainability; Policy; Renewable Energy; Competition; Globalized Markets and Industries; Energy Industry; China

15 May 2012
First Look

First Look: May 15

and Yaron Yehezkel Abstract In the context of platform competition in a two-sided market, we study how ex-ante uncertainty and ex-post asymmetric information concerning the value of a new technology affects the strategies of the platforms and the View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

14 Feb 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research: February 14

https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=52096 2016 Financial Market History: Reflections on the Past for Investors Today The Origins of High-Tech Venture Investing in America By: Nicholas, Tom... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

October 2023 (Revised March 2024)
Case

KOKO Networks: Bridging Energy Transition and Affordability with Carbon Financing

By: George Serafeim, Siko Sikochi and Namrata Arora

The problem was massive: two million hectares of African forests were lost annually to charcoal production for cooking, an area equivalent to 13 times Greater London, resulting in one billion tons of carbon emissions yearly. At the same time, an estimated 700,000... View Details

Keywords: Clean Tech; Digital; Carbon Credits; Carbon Offsetting; Climate Change; Entrepreneurship; Energy Sources; Environmental Sustainability; Health; Market Design; Business Startups; Transition; Environmental Regulation; Policy; Energy Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Africa; Kenya; Rwanda

21 Jun 2007
Working Paper Summaries

Multi-Sided Platforms: From Microfoundations to Design and Expansion Strategies

Keywords: by Andrei Hagiu; Technology

23 Apr 2013
First Look

First Look: April 23

implement principles of open and distributed innovation. Working Papers Competing with Privacy By: Casadesus-Masanell, Ramon, and Andres Hervas-Drane Abstract—We analyze the implications of consumer privacy for competition in the marketplace. We consider a View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

23 Apr 2012
Research & Ideas

How to Brand a Next-Generation Product

very deliberate effort to market the iPad as a sibling to the Mac. Macs keep their names with each successive upgrade, analysts noted, while iPhones sport sequential numbers and letters to indicate improvements. “Consumers don't... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

16 Sep 2015
Research & Ideas

Can Applied Economics Save Homeless Puppies?

matching system for New England, correcting public school choice programs in New York and Boston, and tackling markets for new medical residents, economists, and lawyers. That same year, Christine L. Exley and Elena Battles launched a... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Retail

17 Nov 2003
Research & Ideas

The Business of Babies

We prefer to think of babies as cuddly bundles of joy, but they are also products at the center of a multibillion-dollar market in adoptions and scientific conception, a market that few people acknowledge... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Health

02 Nov 2020
What Do You Think?

Is Antitrust Just a Quaint Notion in the Digital Age?

etc.” Several responses questioned whether there was damage to the consumer, often at issue in antitrust. As Shoshanna Zuboff pointed out, in “free” high-tech services, the consumer benefits and resulting satisfaction are highly visible;... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Retail; Technology; Telecommunications; Communications; Consumer Products; Service

February 2017 (Revised December 2018)
Case

From Start-Up to Grown-Up Nation: The Future of the Israeli Innovation Ecosystem (Abridged)

By: Elie Ofek and Margot Eiran

In June 2016, Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, wrestled with how to sustain Israel’s strong innovation track record and the country’s reputation as the “start-up nation.” Despite the economic miracle the country had wrought since its founding, he... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Management; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Government and Politics; Economy; Equality and Inequality; Israel

January 2009 (Revised January 2010)
Case

Responding to the Wii?

By: Andrei Hagiu and Hanna Halaburda

After years of gaming console industry leadership, how should Sony respond to the overwhelming success of competitor Nintendo's user-friendly Wii over Sony's high-tech PlayStation 3? It was August 2008 and Kazuo Hirai, chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment... View Details

Keywords: Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Two-Sided Platforms; Industry Structures; Competitive Strategy; Electronics Industry; Video Game Industry