Publications

Find at Harvard

22 Sep 2009
First Look

First Look: September 22

Justifying and Rationalizing Questionable Preferences Authors:Zoë Chance and Michael I. Norton An abstract is unavailable at this time. Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/10-018.pdf The Financing of R&D and Innovation... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

August 2019 (Revised April 2020)
Case

BlueVine Capital: Growth Factors

By: Marco Di Maggio and Nathaniel Schwalb

The start-up, BlueVine Capital Inc. (BlueVine), used data and technology to help finance small businesses via factoring and lines of credit. The case explains the small business financing market in mid-2010s, how CEO Eyal Lifshitz identified the opportunity for... View Details

Keywords: Fintech; Business Startups; Small Business; Financing and Loans; Innovation Leadership; Strategy; Financial Services Industry; Technology Industry

Article

Lone Inventors as Sources of Technological Breakthroughs: Myth or Reality?

Are lone inventors more or less likely to invent breakthroughs? Recent research has attempted to resolve this question by considering the variance of creative outcome distributions. It has implicitly assumed a symmetric thickening or thinning of both tails, i.e., that... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Independent Innovation and Invention; Patents; Groups and Teams; Creativity

Find at Harvard

29 Mar 2011
First Look

First Look: March 29

An abstract is unavailable at this time. Read the paper: http://www.europeanbusinessreview.com/?p=3588 Working PapersInnovation and the Challenge of Novelty: The Novelty-Confirmation-Transformation Cycle in Software and Science Authors:Paul R. Carlile and Karim R.... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

11 Jun 2024
In Practice

The Harvard Business School Faculty Summer Reader 2024

As the vacation season looms, Harvard Business School faculty members share recommendations for a little light reading. Spoiler alert: Lessons in Chemistry tops two of their beach-read lists. For those whose brains can’t—or won’t—turn off, HBS faculty also suggest some... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

September 2002 (Revised January 2013)
Case

Siebel Systems: Organizing for the Customer

By: Robert Simons and Antonio Davila

Siebel Systems is one of the fastest growing companies in America. Tom Siebel, the company's founder, has organized the business to accommodate growth and focus on the customer. Innovative information technology systems and clear accountability prove to be essential to... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Structure; Applications and Software; Business Growth and Maturation; Information Technology; Performance Evaluation; Performance Expectations; Innovation and Management; Technological Innovation; Customer Focus and Relationships; Management Teams; Information Technology Industry; North and Central America

April 2019 (Revised June 2019)
Case

Ariadne Labs: Building Impactful Partnerships

By: Ariel D. Stern and Sarah Mehta

In September 2018, the executive team at Ariadne Labs (Ariadne), a Boston-based organization dedicated to improving health systems through the discovery and implementation of simple tools, faced a number of strategic decisions. Chief among them, the seven-year-old... View Details

Keywords: Health; Health Care and Treatment; Innovation and Invention; Social Enterprise; Nonprofit Organizations; Partners and Partnerships; Health Industry; Boston

25 Oct 2011
First Look

First Look: October 25

thresholds, targets, or benchmarks are set, and defining the pay-performance relation and how the relation changes over time. Download the paper: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1935654 Performance Tradeoffs in Team Knowledge Sourcing... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

30 Aug 2011
First Look

First Look: August 30

rather than the level of joy impact viewer retention most. The effect of joy is asymmetric, with higher gains for increases than losses for decreases. Based on these findings, the authors develop representative emotion trajectories to support ad design and testing. ... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

12 Mar 2024
Research & Ideas

Publish or Perish: What the Research Says About Productivity in Academia

candidate; Rachel Mural, a doctoral candidate at the Harvard Kennedy School; Jerry Thursby and Marie Thursby, visiting scholars at the Digital Data Design Institute at Harvard’s Laboratory for Innovation Science; HBS data science research... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand; Education

February 2022
Case

Leading The UK Vaccine Task Force

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Claudia Pienica

This case describes the first six months of the UK Vaccine Taskforce, under the leadership of Kate Bingham. With a career spent in the private sector as a biotech investor, Bingham’s appointment within the government was considered unusual. The overarching brief given... View Details

26 Apr 2023
In Practice

Is AI Coming for Your Job?

generation. All of this should increase productivity. However, AI models do make mistakes, whether in logic, efficiency, or inference. The skills to test, edit, and innovate or otherwise improve on AI outputs are likely to become more... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Technology

November 2024 (Revised May 2025)
Case

Indonesia Education Reform: Merdeka Belajar ('Emancipated Learning')

By: John Jong-Hyun Kim, Adina Wong, Nancy Hua Dai and Mary C. Sauer

This case is set in 2024 in Indonesia, as Nadiem Makarim, Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology, reflects on his tenure as Minister shortly before stepping down. With the ambition to lift Indonesia out of the middle-income gap by raising K12 to... View Details

Keywords: Education; Change Management; Knowledge Dissemination; Government Administration; Leading Change; Innovation Strategy; Development Economics; Education Industry; Asia; Indonesia

26 Mar 2024
Research & Ideas

How Humans Outshine AI in Adapting to Change

the (Proverbial) Fireworks Can Autonomous Vehicles Drive with Common Sense? Feedback or ideas to share? Email the Working Knowledge team at hbswk@hbs.edu. Designer's note: Image created uses elements from AdobeStock/scharfsinn86,... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Technology; Information Technology

29 Jan 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, January 29, 2019

and Competitor Response: Evidence from Medical Device Firms By: Ball, George P., Jeffrey T. Macher, and Ariel Dora Stern Abstract— Innovation and new product development are the lifeblood of firms in R&D-intensive industries, yet... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

February 2009 (Revised August 2021)
Supplement

Jieliang Phone Home! (B)

By: Willy Shih, Ethan Bernstein and Nina Bilimoria

At Precision Electro-Tek's mobile phone manufacturing facility in southern China, thousands of operators—bright and capable young men and (mostly) women like Jieliang Hao—are motivated to improve line productivity through small innovations for faster assembly and have... View Details

Keywords: Managing People; Motivation and Incentives; Behavior; Production; Innovation and Invention; Performance Productivity; Groups and Teams; Management Practices and Processes; Compensation and Benefits; Labor; Surveys; Decisions; Manufacturing Industry; China

February 2009 (Revised July 2012)
Supplement

Jieliang Phone Home! (C)

By: Willy Shih, Ethan Bernstein and Nina Bilimoria

At Precision Electro-Tek's mobile phone manufacturing facility in southern China, thousands of operators - bright and capable young men and (mostly) women like Jieliang Hao are motivated to improve line productivity through small innovations for faster assembly and... View Details

Keywords: Globalization; Compensation and Benefits; Surveys; Innovation and Invention; Management Practices and Processes; Production; Performance Productivity; Groups and Teams; Labor and Management Relations; Behavior; Motivation and Incentives; Manufacturing Industry; Telecommunications Industry; China

October 2009
Case

Digital Chocolate

By: Linda A. Hill and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld

Trip Hawkins founded Digital Chocolate in Silicon Valley in 2003 to develop outstanding games for mobile devices. By 2008, the company had expanded its operations into four countries, and Digital Chocolate was one of the top developers of soloplayer games for standard... View Details

Keywords: Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Innovation and Management; Leading Change; Product Development; Groups and Teams; Creativity; Telecommunications Industry; Video Game Industry