Publications

2016
Book

Innovation Equity: Assessing and Managing the Monetary Value of New Products and Services

By: Elie Ofek, Eitan Muller and Barak Libai

This book bridges the gap between what academics know, and what innovation stakeholders—from managers, to investors, to analysts, to consumers—need to know about how new products and services are expected to perform in the marketplace. The book develops a compelling... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Technology Diffusion; New Products; Customer Lifetime Value; Monetization Strategy; Social Influence; Innovation Adoption; Forecasting Demand; Commercialization; Marketing Strategy; Practice; Customer Value and Value Chain; Research; Innovation and Management; Technology Adoption; Forecasting and Prediction; Product Development

November 2000 (Revised April 2004)
Case

Airbus A3XX: Developing the World's Largest Commercial Jet (A)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Michael Kane

In July 2000, Airbus Industries' supervisory board is on the verge of approving a $13 billion investment for the development of a new super jumbo jet known as the A3XX that would seat from 550 to 1,000 passengers. Having secured approximately 20 orders for the new jet,... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Investment; Forecasting and Prediction; Capital Budgeting; Valuation; Government and Politics; Demand and Consumers; Product Development; Product Positioning; Air Transportation Industry; Manufacturing Industry

Summer 2017
Article

Performance Feedback in Competitive Product Development

By: Daniel P. Gross

Performance feedback is ubiquitous in competitive settings where new products are developed. This article introduces a fundamental tension between incentives and improvement in the provision of feedback. Using a sample of 4,294 commercial logo design tournaments, I... View Details

Keywords: Feedback; Evaluation; Tournaments; Innovation; Performance Evaluation; Motivation and Incentives; Rank and Position; Product Development; Learning

January 1989 (Revised March 1995)
Case

Du Pont Freon Products Division (A)

By: Richard H.K. Vietor and Forest L. Reinhardt

In 1988, the Du Pont Co. is abruptly confronted with solid scientific evidence that chlorofluorocarbons are destroying the earth's ozone shield. Du Pont, with its Freon brand product line serving markets for foam insulation, electronics solvents, and especially... View Details

Keywords: Business Divisions; Policy; Management; Brands and Branding; Production; Service Operations; Natural Environment; Competition; Corporate Strategy; Environmental Sustainability

03 Nov 2015
Video

Harnessing productive tensions in hybrid organizations

June 2022
Case

PFA Pensions: The Climate Plus Product

By: Daniel Green, Victoria Ivashina and Alys Ferragamo

The case explores whether alternative investments play a unique role in achieving low carbon dioxide emissions at the portfolio level. This case is set in April of 2020 and follows Kasper Ahrndt Lorenzen, Chief Investment Officer, and Peter Tind Larsen, Head of... View Details

Keywords: Carbon Emissions; Carbon Footprint; Alternative Assets; Alternative Investment Vehicles; Pension Fund Investing; Private Equity; Renewable Energy; Investment Portfolio; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Denmark

01 Dec 2014
News

Instilling Production with Principles

clean out their closets and earn some cash or score discounted used clothing and lighten fashion’s carbon footprint. Revitalizing Bricks and Mortar Under the guidance of product manager Soufi Esmaeilzadeh (MBA 2010), Google Maps comes... View Details

Keywords: April White; fashion; Manufacturing

25 Apr 2005
Research & Ideas

New Learning at American Home Products

commercializing new biotechnology. This lack of technical capabilities led to two major acquisitions late in the twentieth century. In 1989 American Home Products acquired, for $666 million, 60 percent of... View Details

Keywords: by Alfred D. Chandler Jr.; Chemical; Health; Manufacturing; Pharmaceutical

April 2002
Supplement

Cityspace: Product Demonstration and Reflections by Marc Meyohas, Founder

Consists of two parts. The first part shows a television commercial by NEC portraying the Cityspace information kiosks. This commercial was aired in the United Kingdom in 1998. The second part shows Marc Meyohas, founder of Cityspace, reflecting on the business model... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Strategy; Entrepreneurship; United Kingdom

Article

The Cross Section of Bank Value

By: Mark Egan, Stefan Lewellen and Adi Sunderam

We study the determinants of value creation in U.S. commercial banks. We develop novel measures of individual banks' productivities at collecting deposits and making loans. We relate these measures to bank market values and find that deposit productivity is responsible... View Details

Keywords: Productivity; Banks and Banking; Valuation; Performance Productivity; Value Creation; United States

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July 2013 (Revised November 2021)
Module Note

Exploration vs. Exploitation

By: Willy Shih

This module note introduces James March's concept of exploration and exploitation, and the management challenge of balancing the allocation of resources to the two activities in the firm. The note also touches on the O'Reilly and Tushman paper on the ambidextrous... View Details

February 1996
Case

Active Coatings, Inc. (A): Challenges in Managing Product Development

Two entrepreneurs face a tough decision when confronted with disappointing test results from the medical application they have chosen to commercialize their innovative process technology. They must decide whether to redesign the technology's current lead-application or... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Decision Choices and Conditions; Product Development

23 Mar 2020
Research & Ideas

Product Disasters Can Be Fertile Ground for Innovation

to answer: Would negative publicity from the accident affect future innovation in that segment of the medical device industry? Would people’s perception of safety issues reduce demand for products using radiation? Do accidents chill... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Health; Medical Devices & Supplies

February 2019 (Revised August 2019)
Case

KangaTech

By: Karim R. Lakhani, Patrick J. Ferguson, Sarah Fleischer, Jin Hyun Paik and Steven Randazzo

On a warm January afternoon in 2019, Steve Saunders, Dave Scerri, Carl Dilena, and Nick Haslam (see Exhibit 1 for biographies), co-founders of KangaTech, wrapped up the latest round of discussions about the future direction of their sports-technology start-up. Focused... View Details

Keywords: Startup; Technology Commercialization; Prototype; Business Startups; Technological Innovation; Sports; Health; Commercialization; Research and Development; Decision Making; Growth and Development Strategy; Technology Industry; Sports Industry; Health Industry; Australia

March–April 2013
Article

Vaporware, Suddenware and Trueware: New Product Preannouncements under Market Uncertainty

By: Elie Ofek and Ozge Turut

A firm may want to preannounce its plans to develop a new product in order to stimulate future demand. But given that such communications can affect rivals' incentives to develop the same new product, a firm may decide to preannounce untruthfully in order to deter... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Announcements; Competition; Product Launch; Product Development

Web

Commercialization of the Polarizer - Edwin H. Land & Polaroid | Harvard Business School

would need to install new headlights and windshield glass and all U.S. states would require a change in product manufacturing. Land took away valuable lessons from the experience: "I knew then that I would never go into a View Details

December 2006
Article

How User Innovations Become Commercial Products: A Theoretical Investigation and a Case Study

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin, Christoph Hienerth and Eric von Hippel

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Product; Theory; Information

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2018
Working Paper

Creativity Under Fire: The Effects of Competition on Creative Production

By: Daniel P. Gross

Though fundamental to innovation and essential to many industries and occupations, individual creativity has received limited attention as an economic behavior and has historically proven difficult to study. This paper studies the incentive effects of competition on... View Details

Keywords: Incentives; Tournaments; Radical Vs. Incremental Innovation; Motivation and Incentives; Competition; Creativity; Innovation and Invention