Publications

December 1994 (Revised October 2009)
Case

AES Honeycomb (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Sarah C. Mavrinac

Senior managers of the AES Corp., an independent power producer, must decide whether to drop the company's emphasis on corporate values and revamp organizational controls as advised by investment analysts and outside counsel. The company is recovering from an incident... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Energy Generation; Values and Beliefs; Corporate Governance; Governance Controls; Crisis Management; Organizational Structure; Environmental Sustainability; Energy Industry; United States

October 2017 (Revised August 2018)
Case

HTC and Virtual Reality

By: David B. Yoffie, Andy Wu and Allison M. Ciechanover

In fall 2017, HTC CEO and Chairperson Cher Wang was driving the company to focus on virtual reality (VR). HTC's first VR product, VIVE, released in spring 2016, was applauded for its superior immersive room-scale capabilities. However, early adoption of VR beyond... View Details

Keywords: Virtual Reality; Strategy; Competition; Information Technology; Innovation and Management; Consumer Behavior; Customer Relationship Management; Technology Industry

October 2023 (Revised January 2024)
Case

SEK: Reimagining Spanish Higher Education at Universidad Camilo José Cela (UCJC)

By: John J-H Kim, Mary C. Sauer and Emilie Billaud

In 2023, Nieves Segovia, President of the SEK Education Group in Spain, contemplates the future of her family's for-profit education company, which includes K-12 schools and the newly established UCJC university. Renowned for its innovation in education, SEK faces... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Curriculum and Courses; Higher Education; Teaching; Digital Strategy; Disruptive Innovation; Knowledge Dissemination; Leading Change; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Succession; Resource Allocation; Organizational Structure; Education Industry; Europe; Spain

13 Sep 2021
Research & Ideas

Science: The Unlikely Frontier for New Business Ideas

opportunity for the investment pendulum to swing from fast-money ventures to slower, potentially more rewarding endeavors. “If you are willing dive into the frontier of scientific journal articles, the rewards of science-based View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

15 May 2019
News

Small Business Lending Soars at Banks; Technology Is A Big Reason Why

2010
Working Paper

Accelerating Energy Innovation: Insights from Multiple Sectors

By: Rebecca Henderson and Richard G. Newell

A combination of concerns about climate change and energy security has recently led to significant increases in public funding for energy R&D. Some commentators are suggesting that these increases need to be sustained, and are advocating for increases of as much as... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Management; Technological Innovation; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Research and Development; Pollutants; Climate Change; Energy Industry

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October 2009
Case

Low-k Dielectrics at IBM

By: Willy C. Shih and Giovanni Carraro

Innovations at the frontiers of technology carry enormous risk of making wrong choices. This case examines a decision made by IBM in its semiconductor process technology strategy: a material to use as a dielectric insulator in its leading edge silicon chip technology.... View Details

Keywords: Competency and Skills; Decision Choices and Conditions; Technological Innovation; Product Development; Science; Creativity; Semiconductor Industry; United States

Find at Harvard

20 Apr 2021
Book

A Simple Question That Can Guide Companies to Epic Success

Oberholzer-Gee, the Andreas Andresen Professor of Business Administration. “No wonder these businesses end up receiving rave reviews and loyal customers.” "If a US company that ranked 50th today jumped to 40th next year, its return on View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

December 2024
Case

Tencent Games

By: Rebecca Karp, Billy Chan and Nancy Hua Dai

For years, Tencent Games, a division of China’s largest internet company, had taken the lion’s share of revenue in the global gaming market with blockbuster titles such as “League of Legends” and “PUBG: Battlegrounds.” These games defined the game genres that they... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Product Development; Organizational Culture; Business Strategy; Investment; Competitive Strategy; Video Game Industry; Europe; China

23 Jul 2001
Research & Ideas

Sam Walton: Great From the Start

contained no renewal clause. Options to renew were standard features of leases such as the one Walton had originally entered into. L. S. Robson, Walton's father-in-law, was reportedly shocked by Walton's mistake. Not only had Walton built a successful business in... View Details

Keywords: by Richard S. Tedlow; Retail

March 2010 (Revised March 2010)
Case

Looking for Opportunity in Adversity: Iqbal Quadir and Grameenphone (A)

By: Bhaskar Chakravorti and David Lane

Iqbal Quadir, a former New York investment banker, set about to bring universal telecommunications to his native Bangladesh. He was convinced that, GSM, the same advanced wireless technology that penetrated developed countries in Europe was also the right solution for... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Personal Development and Career; Entrepreneurship; Problems and Challenges; Wireless Technology; Telecommunications Industry; Bangladesh

Research Summary

Overview

The focus of Professor Gross’ research agenda is U.S. technological innovation, innovation policy, and the effects of technological change on economic activity. He is also interested in learning about what drives individual creative behavior. Methodologically, he is... View Details

24 Oct 2019
Blog Post

Harvard’s JD/MBA: Viroopa Volla (JD/MBA 2021) Answers Your Questions

intersection of law and business creates a unique mindset, which allows for students to pioneer innovative research. What was the HBS interview like? The HBS interview is 30 minutes and in many interviews there will be two members of the... View Details

2021
Working Paper

Accounting for Workforce Impact at Scale

By: Adel Fadhel, Katie Panella, Ethan Rouen and George Serafeim

Using new data on workforce composition and wages, we systematically measure the employment impact at U.S. firms from 2008 to 2020, including 2,682 unique firms and 22,322 firm-year observations. We document significant variation across industries and firms within each... View Details

Keywords: Impact Accounting; ESG; Employee Turnover; Wages; Employment; Measurement and Metrics; Human Capital; Diversity; United States

SSRN

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February 2018
Case

Health Savings Accounts: Enabling Consumer Participation

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and James Wallace

Health savings accounts (HSAs), a creation of the 2003 Medicare Modernization Act, had become an integral part of the drive toward consumer-driven health care. Coupled with high-deductible health plans, HSAs allowed consumers to directly control a significant part of... View Details

Keywords: Health Care; Healthcare Costs; Health Insurance; Health Care and Treatment; Cost; Insurance; Innovation and Invention; Health Industry; United States

25 Sep 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, September 25, 2018

Taxation and Innovation in the 20th Century By: Akcigit, Ufuk, John Grigsby, Tom Nicholas, and Stefanie Stantcheva Abstract—This paper studies the effect of corporate and personal taxes on innovation in the... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

July 2021
Case

Y Combinator

By: John R. Wells

Y Combinator (YC) was a business startup accelerator based in Mountain View, California. Originally founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 2005, by 2021, YC listed 2,830 companies amongst its alumni. More than 80% of these companies were still active, had been... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Growth and Development; Business Startups; Decisions; Strategy