Publications

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Digital Innovation - Alumni

Giving Digital Innovation Giving Digital Innovation Expand Impact Fuel HBS’s digital transformation to enable innovation in research and outreach... View Details

March 2008 (Revised April 2008)
Case

Corning: 156 Years of Innovation

By: H. Kent Bowen and Courtney Purrington

The executive team at Corning has committed to double the rate of new business creation per decade, while at the same time growing the company's current businesses, including glass substrates for LCD displays. Their strategy, built on more than 150 years of successful... View Details

Keywords: Innovation Leadership; Resource Allocation; Product Development; Research and Development; Science-Based Business; Industrial Products Industry

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

Web

Technology & Operations Management - Doctoral

Technology & Operations Management The doctoral program in Technology & Operations Management prepares students to conduct important research on a broad range of issues in operations View Details

Using the Crowd as an Innovation Partner

From Apple to Merck to Wikipedia, more and more organizations are turning to crowds for help in solving their most vexing innovation and research questions, but managers remain understandably cautious. It seems risky and even unnatural to push problems out to vast... View Details

June 2015 (Revised August 2016)
Case

Apple's Future: Apple Watch, Apple TV, and/or Apple Car?

By: David B. Yoffie and Eric Baldwin

In 2015, Apple CEO Tim Cook knew that Apple, despite its phenomenal success, needed to continue to innovate in new product areas in order to continue its momentum into the future. This case explores three new (actual or potential) product offerings from Apple: the... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Electronics; Innovation; Technology; Technological Innovation; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Emerging Markets; Growth and Development Strategy; Computer Industry; Retail Industry; Electronics Industry

March 2010
Article

The Role of Independent Invention in U.S. Technological Development, 1880-1930

By: Tom Nicholas

Why did independent inventors account for over half of US patents by 1930 and more than three times the number granted to R&D firms? Using new data on patents and historical patent citations, I show that independents supplied high quality innovations to a... View Details

Keywords: History; Technological Innovation; Patents; Urban Scope; Independent Innovation and Invention; Research and Development; United States

Find at Harvard

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29 May 2018
News

A Study of NASA Scientists Shows How to Overcome Barriers to Open Innovation

05 Jul 2017
What Do You Think?

Can Innovation Save Us From Ourselves?

Summing Up Do We Need to Give More Attention to the Dark Side of Innovation? Innovation may be able to help us deal with problems such as famine, pollution, and even global warming. But unless it can prove... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Technology

08 Mar 2013
News

The Accidental Innovator

bandwidth are a relatively small cost—and every year it’s getting exponentially cheaper. In America’s public discourse, ignorance is often seen as a badge of authenticity. There’s skepticism about the scientific method, View Details

November 2004
Case

Technology Commercialization at the Massachusetts General Hospital

The Department of Corporate Sponsored Research & Licensing (CSRL) at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) serves as the primary interface between the hospital and the private sector. Examines the range of issues related to the commercialization of MGH's... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Conflict of Interests; Commercialization; Higher Education; Health Care and Treatment; Education Industry; Health Industry; Massachusetts

July 2025
Case

Elon Musk, 2025: The Master of Big Bets?

By: David B. Yoffie

This case explores Elon Musk’s influence across business and politics in 2025, as he navigates the challenges of simultaneously leading multiple companies, such as Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI, while briefly serving in the U.S. government. It examines Musk’s high-stakes bets... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Strategy And Leadership; Technological Innovation; Politics; Auto Industry