Publications
Publications
Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(369)
- Faculty Publications (115)
- May 2016 (Revised April 2019)
- Case
Olivia Lum: Wanting to Save the World
By: Geoffrey Jones and Essie Alamsyah
This case considers the entrepreneurial career of Olivia Lum, who founded the Singaporean water company Hyflux in 1989. An orphan born in Malaysia, Lum provides a rare case of an entrepreneurial success in a country whose economic success has primarily rested on... View Details
Keywords: Industrial Organization; Chinitz; Agglomeration; Clusters; Cities; Mine; Environmental Management; Operations Management; Sustainable Operations; Environmental Regulation; Entrepreneurship; Globalization; History; Operations; Management; Environmental Sustainability; Green Technology Industry; Green Technology Industry; China; Singapore
- 28 Apr 2016
- Other Presentation
Unlocking the Potential of Geothermal Energy: Strategic Implications for Iceland, Other Nations and the International Community
By: Michael E. Porter and Christian H.M. Ketels
Professor Porter initiated the mapping of Iceland Geothermal Cluster Initiative in cooperation with the consulting company Gekon. He and his colleaque Dr. Christian Ketels introduced their findings in November 2010 at the first Iceland Geothermal Conference held in... View Details
Keywords: Iceland; Geothermal; Renewable; Competitiveness; Competition; Renewable Energy; Energy Industry; Iceland
- Article
Business Groups, Entrepreneurship and the Growth of the Koç Group in Turkey
By: Geoffrey Jones and Asli M. Colpan
This article examines the emergence and development of what became the largest business group in Turkey, the Koç Group. This venture was an important factor in the emergence of modern business enterprise in the new state of the Republic of Turkey from the 1920s. After... View Details
Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Governance; History; Strategy; Auto Industry; Auto Industry; Auto Industry; Auto Industry; Auto Industry; Turkey
- October 2015
- Case
The Maine Food Cluster Project
By: Karen Mills and Aldo Sesia
The Libra Foundation is exploring how to grow the food sector in Maine using the strategy of creating a food cluster initiative. Maine is one of the poorest states in the United States and the food sector is one of the largest employers. Multiple efforts in... View Details
- October 2015
- Article
Agglomerative Forces and Cluster Shapes
By: William R. Kerr and Scott Duke Kominers
We model spatial clusters of similar firms. Our model highlights how agglomerative forces lead to localized, individual connections among firms, while interaction costs generate a defined distance over which attraction forces operate. Overlapping firm interactions... View Details
- 2015
- Working Paper
The Logic of Agglomeration
By: Gilles Duranton and William R. Kerr
This review discusses frontier topics in economic geography as they relate to firms and agglomeration economies. We focus on areas where empirical research is scarce but possible. We first outline a conceptual framework for city formation that allows us to contemplate... View Details
Keywords: Agglomeration; Clusters; Cities; Innovation; Industry Clusters; City; Innovation and Invention
- 16 Sep 2015
- Keynote Speech
Revitalizing Inner Cities: The Strategic Agenda
Keynote presentation at the Inner City Economic Summit, Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, Detroit, MI View Details
- 16 Sep 2015
- Keynote Speech
Revitalizing Inner Cities: The Strategic Agenda (Video)
Video of Keynote presentation at the Inner City Economic Summit, Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, Detroit, MI View Details
- September–October 2015
- Article
Facts and Figuring: An Experimental Investigation of Network Structure and Performance in Information and Solution Spaces
By: Jesse Shore, Ethan Bernstein and David Lazer
Using data from a novel laboratory experiment on complex problem solving in which we varied the structure of 16-person networks, we investigate how an organization's network structure shapes performance of problem-solving tasks. Problem solving, we argue, involves both... View Details
Keywords: Networks; Experiments; Clustering; Problem Solving; Exploration And Exploitation; Knowledge; Search; Collaboration; Collaboration Structures; Transparency; Communication; Communication Technology; Information; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Performance Effectiveness; Theory; Information Industry; Information Industry; Information Industry; Information Industry; Information Industry
- 2020
- Working Paper
Social Networks, Ethnicity, and Entrepreneurship
By: William R. Kerr and Martin Mandorff
We study the relationship between ethnicity, occupational choice, and entrepreneurship. Immigrant groups in the United States cluster in specific business sectors. For example, Koreans are 34 times more concentrated in self-employment for dry cleaning than other... View Details
- Article
Visualizing and Measuring Software Portfolio Architecture: A Power Utility Case
By: Robert Lagerström, Carliss Y. Baldwin and Alan MacCormack
In this paper, we test a Design Structure Matrix (DSM) based method for visualizing and
measuring software portfolio architectures. Our data is drawn from a power utility company, comprising 192 software applications with 614 dependencies between them. We
show that the... View Details
- Article
What to Know About Locating in a Cluster
By: Willy C. Shih and Sen Chai
As a study of two industry clusters in Denmark shows, factors that can make clusters attractive—easy people movement and knowledge spillovers—can also make it harder for individual companies to retain proprietary knowledge. View Details
Keywords: Clusters; Clustering; Competitiveness; Life Sciences; Telecommunications; Science-based; Research And Development; Industry Clusters; Research; Innovation Strategy; Innovation and Management; Geographic Location; Pharmaceutical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Denmark
- June 2015
- Case
Silicon Fen
By: Tom Nicholas, David Chambers and Matthew G. Preble
- 2015
- Chapter
Agglomeration and Innovation
By: Gerald Carlino and William R. Kerr
This chapter reviews academic research on the connections between agglomeration and innovation. We first describe the conceptual distinctions between invention and innovation. We then describe how these factors are frequently measured in the data and some resulting... View Details
- Article
Entrepreneurship and Urban Growth: An Empirical Assessment with Historical Mines
By: Edward L. Glaeser, Sari Pekkala Kerr and William R. Kerr
We study entrepreneurship and growth through the lens of U.S. cities. Initial entrepreneurship correlates strongly with urban employment growth, but endogeneity bedevils interpretation. Chinitz (1961) hypothesized that coal mines near cities led to specialization in... View Details
- 2015
- Working Paper
Can Marshall's Clusters Survive Globalization?
By: Giulio Buciuni and Gary P. Pisano
It is widely presumed that in today's globalized economy, the value of geographic clustering of manufacturing industries is no longer valuable. Manufacturing is represented as a highly mobile "commodity" that can be sourced from anywhere in the world where factor costs... View Details
- December 2014
- Article
Clusters, Convergence, and Economic Performance
By: Mercedes Delgado, Michael E. Porter and Scott Stern
This paper evaluates the role of regional cluster composition in regional industry performance. On the one hand, diminishing returns to specialization in a location can result in a convergence effect: the growth rate of an industry within a region may be declining in... View Details
- December 2014
- Article
Location Strategies for Agglomeration Economies
By: Juan Alcácer and Wilbur Chung
Geographically concentrated industry activity creates pools of skilled labor and specialized suppliers, and increases opportunities for knowledge spillovers. The strategic value of these agglomeration economies may vary by firm, depending upon the relative value of... View Details
- 2014
- Working Paper
Entrepreneurship and Business Groups: An Evolutionary Perspective on the Growth of the Koç Group in Turkey
By: Asli M. Coplan and Geoffrey Jones
This working paper examines the origins and development of the Koç Group, which grew to be the largest business group in Turkey. This enterprise was an important actor in the emergence of modern business enterprise in the new state of the Republic of Turkey from the... View Details
- November 2014
- Article
The Global Agglomeration of Multinational Firms
By: Laura Alfaro and Maggie Xiaoyang Chen
The explosion of multinational activities in recent decades is rapidly transforming the global landscape of industrial production. But are the emerging clusters of multinational production the rule or the exception? What drives the offshore agglomeration of... View Details