Publications

10 Nov 2020
Sharpening Your Skills

Research News and Tips: Innovating Across Time Zones

stakeholders. Here is some expert advice. “Early on, entrepreneurs should avoid a focus on overly specific solutions and instead present the big picture,” write Rory McDonald and Robert Bremner in Harvard... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

01 Apr 2014
First Look

First Look: April 1

purporting to show that Section 203 did in fact give bidders a meaningful opportunity for success; (3) between 1990 and 2010, not a single bidder was able to achieve the 85% threshold required by Section 203, thereby calling into question... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

18 Apr 2005
Research & Ideas

Selling Luxury to Everyone

Business Administration at HBS, called luxury goods "a changing space, a space with extraordinary zip and excitement…Things are kicking along vigorously." "Simultaneous with that, there's all kinds of change," Koehn said, noting "the... View Details

Keywords: by Julie Jette; Consumer Products

16 Jun 2003
Research & Ideas

Peeling Back the Global Brand

idea has been dampened by the preponderance of outsourcing. Citizenship—Transnationals ride a see-saw on citizenship in the eyes of consumers. Transnationals may be either admired or derided for their perceived power as social forces.... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Consumer Products; Retail

05 Oct 2009
Research & Ideas

The Vanguard Corporation

communities like leeches. The time is ripe for a new corporate model, driven by a new type of business leader, where creating business value also means creating value for society. Surprisingly, Kanter finds models for these so-called... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

10 Jan 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research: January 10, 2017

forthcoming HarperCollins Kissinger the Negotiator: Lessons from Dealmaking at the Highest Level By: Sebenius, James K., R. Nicholas Burns, and Robert H. Mnookin (with a forward by Henry A. Kissinger) Abstract—As professors and... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

01 Nov 2016
First Look

First Look - November 1, 2016

target items are mismatched. This effect is shown to depend on perceived similarity, such that increasing display-target similarity increases purchase intent towards the target. Furthermore, contrary to the predictions made by previous... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

02 Oct 2013
What Do You Think?

Is Leadership an Increasingly Difficult Balancing Act?

Summing Up What's the Future of the Authority Figure In Leadership? Leadership involves the effective management of tensions characteristic of all organizations. Are such tensions exacerbated by today's need for increasing speed and... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

15 Jul 2014
First Look

First Look: July 15

performance to provide quantitative insight into the link between a firm's business model choices and its profit consequences. The method is applied to Walmart by building a qualitative representation of its business model and mapping... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

23 Sep 2014
First Look

First Look: September 23

http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/Kiatpongsan%20Norton%20PPS_31f17547-5033-401c-8ed2-ccc9b6a2b433.pdf Working Papers Bitcoin By: Böhme, Rainer, Nicolas Christin, Benjamin Edelman, and Tyler Moore Abstract—Bitcoin is an online communication protocol that... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

June 2016 (Revised November 2021)
Case

chotuKool: 'Little Cool,' Big Opportunity

By: Rory McDonald, Derek van Bever and Efosa Ojomo

In 2013, a team led by Gopalan Sunderraman, vice president of corporate development at Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd.—one of the companies owned by Godrej Group, a large Indian conglomerate—was preparing to launch an innovative low-cost refrigerator. Developed expressly... View Details

Keywords: Disruptive Innovation; Emerging Markets; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Consumer Products Industry; India

Educators

December 2015
Article

What Is Disruptive Innovation?

By: Clayton M. Christensen, Michael Raynor and Rory McDonald

For the past 20 years, the theory of disruptive innovation has been enormously influential in business circles and a powerful tool for predicting which industry entrants will succeed. Unfortunately, the theory has also been widely misunderstood, and the "disruptive"... View Details

Keywords: Disruptive Innovation; Theory

March 2022
Module Note

Navigating Nascent Industries and Product Categories

By: Rory McDonald

This Note introduces a module of cases used at Harvard Business School to teach fundamental concepts about navigating nascent industries and product categories. It elaborates a set of ‘innovation tensions’ that managers must address in these domains. In connecting the... View Details

Keywords: Nascent Industries; Product; Innovation and Management; Strategy

December 2022
Article

Shaping Nascent Industries: Innovation Strategy and Regulatory Uncertainty in Personal Genomics

By: Cheng Gao and Rory McDonald

In nascent industries—whose new technologies are often poorly understood by regulators—contending with regulatory uncertainty can be crucial to organizational survival and growth. Prior research on nonmarket strategy has largely focused on established firms in mature... View Details

Keywords: Technological Change; Innovation; Qualitative Methods; New Categories; Entrepreneurship; Technological Innovation; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Risk and Uncertainty; Strategy

January 2018
Case

Under Armour

By: Rory McDonald, Clayton M. Christensen, Daniel West and Jonathan E. Palmer

After 20 years of growth unprecedented in the sports apparel industry, Under Armour finds itself with a new record to beat: making the leap from $5 to $10 billion in sales—a feat only accomplished to date by competitors Nike and Adidas. At the heart of this challenge... View Details

Educators

September 2022
Article

A Spanner in the Works: Category-Spanning Entrants and Audience Valuation of Incumbents

By: Rory M. McDonald and Ryan T. Allen

Previous work has examined how audiences evaluate category-spanning organizations, but little is known about how their entrance affects evaluations of other, proximate organizations. We posit that the emergence of category-spanning entrants signals the advent of an... View Details

Keywords: Emerging Industries; Industry Dynamics; Organization And Management Theory; Technology Strategy; Technology And Innovation Management; Entrepreneurship; Information Technology; Strategy; Management; Theory; Innovation and Management

February 2015 (Revised May 2015)
Case

Boeing 787: Manufacturing a Dream

By: Rory McDonald and Suresh Kotha

This case traces the design and development of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Emphasis is on executive leadership and firm strategy in coordinating across a global network of partners in the production of a new aircraft. View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Operations Strategy; Project Management; Coordination; Product Development; Operations; Production; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Aerospace Industry; United States

Educators

Winter 2021
Article

How Would-Be Category Kings Become Commoners

By: Rory McDonald and Keith Krach

Category creation is the holy grail in business, but more often than not, the very companies that establish lucrative new markets don’t end up being the category kings. Why? Many executives undermine their own ventures’ standing by misinterpreting and misfiring on... View Details

Keywords: New Markets; Innovation and Invention; Innovation Strategy; Business Model

December 2018
Article

Ideological Misfit? Political Affiliation and Employee Departure in the Private-Equity Industry

By: Y. Sekou Bermiss and Rory McDonald

Though organizations are increasingly active participants in the political realm, little research has investigated how an organization’s heightened focus on political ideology impacts employees. We address this gap by exploring how an individual’s political ideological... View Details

Keywords: Values and Beliefs; Employees; Organizational Culture; Resignation and Termination; Financial Services Industry; United States