Publications

18 May 2012
News

Where Venture Capital is Heading

Keywords: NASA; contests; Funds, Trusts, and Other Financial Vehicles; Finance

27 Apr 2015
News

“A Unique Leadership Experience”

ceiling in the low-gravity atmosphere of the International Space Station. For the last five months, Virts, an astronaut with NASA since 2000, has served as the commander on the International Space Station, working with a crew of five to... View Details

Keywords: April White; NASA

25 Jun 2014
News

A Man on a Mission

NASA is that even though you become a manager or supervisor, you don't lose touch with the technical world," he says. "Early on, my work was still 80 percent science and 20 percent administrative. At the division chief level, you start to... View Details

Keywords: Robert S. Benchley; NASA; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services; Scientific Research and Development Services

08 Dec 2013
News

Orbital Sciences Explores Outer Space for Dollars

Keywords: Orbital Sciences; NASA; rockets; Space Research and Technology; Government; Air Transportation; Transportation

2018
Working Paper

What Is Your Problem? The Importance of ‘Problem Storming’ for Crossing Knowledge Boundaries

By: Hila Lifshitz - Assaf

In this study, I focus on the emergent processes and practices enacted when using crowdsourcing to solve R&D problems that experts are challenged with. While the literature on crowdsourcing focuses on the online process, this study looks at the full process that takes... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Nasa; Problem Solving; Problem Formulation; Knowledge Boundaries; Innovation and Invention; Research and Development; Problems and Challenges

Article

Innovation Contests for High-Tech Procurement

By: Jin Hyun Paik, Martin Scholl, Rinat A. Sergeev, Steven Randazzo and Karim R. Lakhani

Innovation managers rarely use crowdsourcing as an innovative instrument despite extensive academic and theoretical research. The lack of tools available to compare and measure crowdsourcing, specifically contests, against traditional methods of procuring goods and... View Details

Keywords: Open Innovation; Contests; Crowdsourcing; Nasa; Evaluation; Acquisition; Information Technology; Innovation and Invention; Performance Evaluation; Framework

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2019
Working Paper

Breaking and Reconfiguring the Boundaries Between Domain Experts and Crowds to Solve Complex R&D Problems through Partial Decomposition

By: Hila Lifshitz - Assaf and Zoe Szajnfarber

The need for domain experts is all but universally assumed when organizing for scientific and technological innovation. In contrast, we are witnessing a burgeoning of citizen science, crowdsourcing, and other “open” methods based on the opposite assumption that crowds... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Problem Solving; Expertise; Crowdsourcing; Nasa; Experience and Expertise; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Research and Development

Article

Dismantling Knowledge Boundaries at NASA: The Critical Role of Professional Identity in Open Innovation

By: Hila Lifshitz - Assaf

Using a longitudinal in-depth field study at NASA, I investigate how the open, or peer-production, innovation model affects R&D professionals, their work, and the locus of innovation. R&D professionals are known for keeping their knowledge work within clearly defined... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Knowledge Boundaries; Boundary Work; Professional Identity; Open Innovation; Identity Work; Technological Change; Nasa; Innovation and Invention; Knowledge; Science; Technology; Engineering; Change; Aerospace Industry; North and Central America

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19 Sep 2023
Research & Ideas

What Chandrayaan-3 Says About India's Entrepreneurial Approach to Space

been a bunch of agencies, the Russians, the Chinese, NASA at one point, who’ve all been interested in going there. And prior studies have revealed frozen water in that part of the moon. It’s been really inaccessible, but as you can... View Details

Keywords: by Clea Simon, Harvard Gazette; Aerospace

01 Mar 2004
Lessons from the Classroom

Mission to Mars: It Really Is Rocket Science

In a recent case study, professor Alan MacCormack and research associate Jay Wynn swung for the moon—Mars, actually. After two high-profile missions to Mars failed in 2000, MacCormack wanted to understand the organizational and procedural remedies View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

OCT TechNovation: Accessing the Ideas Cloud

Through a renewed focus on innovation and technology, NASA seeks to be an important catalyst for intellectual and economic expansion for the nation. Our inaugural TechNovation Speaker Forum gathered NASA employees from across the agency to listen to our special... View Details

06 May 2014
Video

Charles F. Bolden, Jr,

08 Jul 2011
News

The last shuttle for innovation

31 May 2016
HBS Case

Who Owns Space?

lofty target of commercial space travel, where he hoped to change the New Space sector as dramatically as Amazon was changing retail. His timing was characteristically prescient, since NASA was in the process of winding down its space... View Details

Keywords: Re: Matthew C. Weinzierl; Aerospace

April 2004 (Revised May 2010)
Case

Columbia's Final Mission

By: Richard M.J. Bohmer, Amy C. Edmondson, Michael Roberto, Laura Feldman and Erika Ferlins

Describes the 16-day final mission of the space shuttle Columbia in January 2003 in which seven astronauts died. Includes background on NASA and the creation of the human space flight program, including the 1970 Apollo 13 crisis and 1986 Challenger disaster. Examines... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Crisis Management; Management Skills; Organizational Culture; Groups and Teams; Behavior; Aerospace Industry

October 2002 (Revised May 2021)
Case

Group Process in the Challenger Launch Decision (A)

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Laura Feldman

The night before the launch of the Challenger shuttle, officials from Morton Thiokol (Solid Rocket Booster manufacturer) and NASA participated in a teleconference to discuss whether to postpone the shuttle launch due to predicted low temperatures at Kennedy Space... View Details

Keywords: Process Analysis; Problems and Challenges; Groups and Teams; Engineering; Risk Management; Analysis; Decision Making; Aerospace Industry; United States

February 2016 (Revised May 2016)
Case

Blue Origin, NASA, and New Space (A)

By: Matthew Weinzierl and Angela Acocella

Jeff Bezos, six years after starting a revolution in retailing with Amazon.com, turned his life-long passion for space into a start-up, Blue Origin. Blue (as it was called) was a part of the New Space industry, a collection of startup aerospace engineering companies... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Partners and Partnerships; Transportation; Business Startups; Government and Politics; Business and Government Relations; Aerospace Industry

26 May 2009
News

Charlie Bolden and the Boomers, Still Flying High

December 2020 (Revised March 2021)
Case

Made In Space, Expectations Management, and the Business of In-Space Manufacturing

By: Matthew C. Weinzierl and Mehak Sarang

After having proven its base technology (3D printing) through NASA solicitations and contracts, Made In Space was searching for a viable commercial application. But the business case for the leading candidate, high-quality fiber optic cable for use on Earth, remained... View Details

Keywords: Aerospace; Space; Space Economy; 3D Printing; Manufacturing; Public-private Partnership; Partners and Partnerships; Strategy; Business and Government Relations; Aerospace Industry; Manufacturing Industry