Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(293)
- Faculty Publications (41)
- 2017
- Working Paper
A Welfarist Role for Nonwelfarist Rules: An Example with Envy
I propose and formalize an argument for why economists working in the welfarist normative tradition should include nonwelfarist principles in how they judge economic policy. The key idea behind this argument is that the world is too complex, and our ability to model it... View Details
- September 2016
- Article
The Effect of Target Difficulty on Target Completion: The Case of Reducing Carbon Emissions
By: Ioannis Ioannou, Shelley Xin Li and George Serafeim
Targets are an integral component of management control systems and play a significant role in achieving desirable performance outcomes. We focus on a key environmental performance objective—reduction of carbon emissions—as a setting in which to examine how target... 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 Technology Industry; Public Administration Industry; Technology Industry; Service Industry
- 2014
- Working Paper
The Organizational and Geographic Drivers of Absorptive Capacity: An Empirical Analysis of Pharmaceutical R&D Laboratories
By: Francesca Lazzeri and Gary P. Pisano
Scholars and practitioners alike now recognize that a firm's capacity to assimilate and use know-how from external sources—what Cohen and Levinthal (1990) called "absorptive capacity"—plays a central role in innovation performance. In recent years, a common strategy... View Details
- January 2014 (Revised January 2017)
- Case
Nivea (A)
By: Karim R. Lakhani, Johann Fuller, Volker Bilgram and Greta Friar
The case describes the efforts of Beiersdorf, a worldwide leader in the cosmetics and skin care industries, to generate and commercialize new R&D through open innovation using external crowds and "netnographic" analysis. Beiersdorf, best known for its consumer brand... View Details
Keywords: Innovation; Innovation Management; Crowdsourcing; Big Data; Innovation Strategy; Innovation and Management; Knowledge Management; Knowledge Sharing; Research and Development; Social and Collaborative Networks; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Analytics and Data Science; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Consumer Products Industry
- Article
Fast Generalized Subset Scan for Anomalous Pattern Detection
By: Edward McFowland III, Skyler Speakman and Daniel B. Neill
We propose Fast Generalized Subset Scan (FGSS), a new method for detecting anomalous patterns in general categorical data sets. We frame the pattern detection problem as a search over subsets of data records and attributes, maximizing a nonparametric scan statistic... View Details
- Article
Beyond Magic Bullets: True Innovation in Health Care
By: Vaibhav A. Narayan, Marco Mohwinckel, Gary Pisano, Michael Yang and Husseini Manji
The molecular medicine revolution—based on advances in fields such as genomics and network modeling in the decade since the human genome sequence was completed—has changed the way we think about, study, and approach the development of novel therapies. However, these... View Details
- July 2012 (Revised August 2012)
- Case
Global Knowledge Management at Danone (A) (Abridged)
By: Amy C. Edmondson and David Lane
This case explores French consumer goods company Danone's novel approach to knowledge management. In 2007, Human Resource Chief (Executive Vice President) Franck Mougin assesses the company's knowledge-sharing tools and considers his options going forward. Through... View Details
- December 2011
- Article
Prices or Knowledge? What Drives Demand for Financial Services in Emerging Markets?
By: Shawn A. Cole, Thomas Sampson and Bilal Zia
Financial development is critical for growth, but its micro-determinants are not well understood. We test leading theories of low demand for financial services in emerging markets, combining novel survey evidence from Indonesia and India with a field experiment. We... View Details
- August 2010
- Article
Sell-Side School Ties
By: Lauren H. Cohen, Christopher J. Malloy and Andrea Frazzini
We study the impact of social networks on agents' ability to gather superior information about firms. Exploiting novel data on the educational backgrounds of sell-side equity analysts and senior officers of firms, we test the hypothesis that analysts' school ties to... View Details
- 2010
- Chapter
Unlocking the Slices of Genius in Your Organization: Leading for Innovation
By: Linda A. Hill, Maurizio Travaglini, Greg Brandeau and Emily Stecker
There is a widespread consensus that innovation is fast becoming the principal source of differentiation and competitive advantage in today's knowledge-intensive economy. But until we reframe our understanding of what innovation and leadership are all about, we fear... View Details
- 2009
- Working Paper
Prices or Knowledge? What Drives Demand for Financial Services in Emerging Markets?
By: Shawn A. Cole, Thomas Sampson and Bilal Zia
Financial development is critical for growth, but its micro-determinants are not well understood. We test leading theories of low demand for financial services in emerging markets, combining novel survey evidence from Indonesia and India with a field experiment. We... View Details
- October 2008 (Revised February 2014)
- Case
The Northwest Passage
By: Herman B. Leonard and Peter Brannen
Following dozens of failed expeditions to "discover" the NW passage, a Norwegian adventurer employs a new approach that emphasizes rigorous preparation, a lighter, quicker style, and a willingness to adapt to the inhospitable Arctic environment and its people. The case... View Details
- December 2007 (Revised September 2011)
- Case
Global Knowledge Management at Danone (A)
By: Amy C. Edmondson, Bertrand Moingeon, Vincent Marie Dessain and Ane Damgaard Jensen
This case explores French consumer goods company Danone's novel approach to knowledge management. In 2007, Human Resource Chief (Executive Vice President) Franck Mougin assesses the company's knowledge-sharing tools and considers his options going forward. Through... View Details
- 2005
- Working Paper
Silent Saboteurs: How Implicit Theories of Voice Inhibit the Upward Flow of Knowledge in Organizations
By: James R. Detert and Amy C. Edmondson
This article examines, in a series of three studies, how people working in organizational hierarchies wrestle with the challenge of upward voice. We first undertook in-depth exploratory research in a knowledge-intensive multinational corporation in which employee input... View Details
- summer 2003
- Article
Patents, Invalidity, and the Strategic Transmission of Enabling Information
By: James J. Anton and Dennis A. Yao
The patent system encourages innovation and knowledge disclosure by providing exclusivity to inventors. Exclusivity is limited, however, because a substantial fraction of patents have some probability of being ruled invalid when challenged in court. The possibility of... View Details
- Forthcoming
- Article
Beefing IT Up for Your Investor? Engagement with Open Source Communities, Innovation, and Startup Funding: Evidence from GitHub
By: Annamaria Conti, Christian Peukert and Maria P. Roche
We study the engagement of nascent firms with open source communities and its implications for innovation and attracting funding. To do so, we link data on 160,065 U.S. startups from Crunchbase to their activities on the open source software development platform... View Details
- Research Summary
Current Research
By: Leslie K. John
Professor John is a behavioral scientist who uses both laboratory and field experiments to investigate questions that are at the intersection of marketing, organizational behavior, and public policy.
Professor John’s work has been published in leading... View Details
- Research Summary
Design Driven Innovation
By: Roberto Verganti
Firms, managers and scholars have often balanced between two approaches to innovation: user centered (where incremental innovation is pulled by the market) and technology push (where innovation comes from breakthrough development in technologies). However there is a... View Details
- Research Summary
Overview
In examining the competitive dynamics of R&D strategy, Josh has become particularly interested in how the introduction of new knowledge generated by rivals impacts the direction of R&D efforts. Understanding how new information alters project portfolio decisions is... View Details