Publications

11 Aug 2003
Research & Ideas

Cheap, Fast, and In Control: How Tech Aids Innovation

Innovation and experimentation are vital to the longevity of any organization, says Stefan H. Thomke in his new book Experimentation Matters: Unlocking the Potential of New Technologies for Innovation. In... View Details

Keywords: by Wendy Guild

24 Apr 2014
News

Investing in new technologies to accelerate change

Girish Nadkami (MBA 1988), a venture capitalist in Switzerland, talks about the impact of investing in new technologies for communications, robotics, and environmental start-ups. (Published April 2014) View Details

01 Dec 2000
News

Global Leadership Initiative's Director Focuses on Technology

legacy of leadership beyond the scope of the School's MBA and Executive Education Programs. "The idea is to reach out to alumni and to the world at large, deploying innovative technology to leverage... View Details

Keywords: Nancy O. Perry; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Educational Services

23 Mar 2020
News

Product Disasters Can Be Fertile Ground for Innovation

June 2010 (Revised August 2011)
Case

Tennant Company: Innovating Within and Beyond the Core

By: Lynda M. Applegate, Toby E. Stuart and James Weber

Tennant, a leading producer of floor cleaning equipment, must determine the business model to use for its new chemical-free cleaning technology. In 2005, Tennant Company had developed an innovative, environmentally friendly cleaning technology that could potentially... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Business Startups; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Disruptive Innovation; Organizational Structure; Business Strategy; Value Creation; Consumer Products Industry; Industrial Products Industry

Web

Technology & Operations Management Curriculum - Faculty & Research

Technology & Operations Management Overview Faculty Curriculum Seminars & Conferences Awards & Honors Doctoral Students MBA Required Curriculum (FIRST YEAR) Technology and Operations Management (TOM) This... View Details

March 2013 (Revised April 2014)
Case

Barnes & Noble: Managing the E-Book Revolution

By: Alan MacCormack, Brian Kimball Dunn and Chris F. Kemerer

The case describes competition in the market for E-Books, and Barnes & Noble's Strategy in this industry. As a traditional retailer, B&N was challenged by the introduction of digital technologies that allow books to be published, distributed and sold to consumers... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Technology Strategy; Platform Competition; Innovation Strategy; Information Technology; Product Development; Digital Platforms; Standards; Disruptive Innovation; Retail Industry; Publishing Industry; North America

The need has emerged for a better understanding of design research and design innovation and how they are linked. In our discussion, we consider design as the process of “making sense of things.” Hence, our questions turn more precisely into the following ones: What... View Details

Building the Future: Big Teaming for Audacious Innovation

Machiavelli famously wrote, "There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things." That's what this book is about—innovation far more audacious... View Details

13 Oct 2020
Working Paper Summaries

Fencing Off Silicon Valley: Cross-Border Venture Capital and Technology Spillovers

Keywords: by Ufuk Akcigit, Sina T. Ates, Josh Lerner, Richard Townsend, and Yulia Zhestkova; Financial Services

October 2018
Case

Innovation at the Utility: Consolidated Edison's Experience

By: Martha Crawford, Andrew Serpa and Jon Wofsy

In 2014, regulators in New York State released a bold vision for the future of the electric utility industry to try and stay ahead of larger trends of rising customer expectations, stagnant load growth, and climate change. In response, Con Edison created a Utility of... View Details

Keywords: Blockchain; Utilities; Consolidated Edison; Regulated Monopolies; Electricity Distribution; Innovation Strategy; Organizational Design; Energy; Energy Generation; Utilities Industry; Energy Industry

October 2023
Article

Innovation on Wings: When Do Nonstop Flights Matter for Global Innovation?

By: Dany Bahar, Prithwiraj Choudhury, Do Yoon Kim and Wesley Koo

We study whether, when, and how better connectivity through nonstop flights leads to positive innovation outcomes for firms in the global context. Using unique data of all flights emanating from 5,015 airports around the globe from 2005 to 2015 and exploiting a... View Details

Keywords: Nonstop Flights; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Patents; Research and Development; Air Transportation Industry

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Read Now

February 2022 (Revised September 2022)
Case

InstaDeep: AI Innovation Born in Africa (A)

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Esel Çekin

Karim Beguir and Zohra Slim were the co-founders of InstaDeep, a deep tech startup focusing on artificial intelligence (AI) solutions. Instadeep was one of the few companies globally that were partnering with DeepMind, an AI subsidiary of Google [Alphabet Inc.].... View Details

Keywords: AI; Artificial Intelligence; Entrepreneurship; Operations; Business Subsidiaries; Brands and Branding; Innovation and Invention; Growth and Development Strategy; AI and Machine Learning; Technology Industry; Africa

24 Apr 2014
News

Outside-the-box innovation for off-the-grid energy

Andreas Jaegle (MBA 2014) and his Harvard University colleagues use the Harvard Innovation Lab as a co-development hub for their startup, elementa energy solutions, which brings low-cost electricity to the most underserved communities in... View Details

2015
Chapter

Information Technology and the Distribution of Inventive Activity

By: Chris Forman, Avi Goldfarb and Shane Greenstein

We examine the relationship between the diffusion of advanced Internet technology and the geographic concentration of invention, as measured by patents. First, we show that patenting became more concentrated from the early 1990s to the early 2000s and, similarly, that... View Details

Keywords: Patents; Geographic Location; Internet and the Web; Innovation and Invention

Find at Harvard

2003
Class Lecture

The Opportunity and Threat of Disruptive Technologies

By: Clayton M. Christensen

Keywords: Disruptive Innovation; Risk and Uncertainty; Opportunities

19 Jul 2004
Research & Ideas

Why Innovations Sit on the Shelf

Continued success in diagnostic systems relies heavily on product innovation and software engineering. But Ludwig found that the DIS division had lost its edge—a key competitor had improved its own products so that they outperformed DIS's... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Beer, Russell Eisenstat & Derek Schrader

2024
Working Paper

Igniting Innovation: Evidence from PyTorch on Technology Control in Open Collaboration

By: Daniel Yue and Frank Nagle

Many companies offer free access to their technology to encourage outside addon innovation, hoping to later profit by raising prices or harnessing the power of the crowd while continuing to steer the direction of innovation. They can achieve this balance by opening... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Power and Influence; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Corporate Governance