Publications

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Article

Extending the Role of Headquarters Beyond the Firm Boundary: Entrepreneurial Alliance Innovation

By: Jaeho Kim and Andy Wu

Prior research on corporate headquarters (CHQ) characteristics identifies the impact of CHQ location and composition on the innovation outcomes of internal subsidiaries. However, given that external strategic alliances with high-tech entrepreneurial firms represent a... View Details

Keywords: Alliance; Innovation; Corporate Headquarters; Geographic Proximity; Entrepreneurship; Corporate Strategy; Alliances; Joint Ventures; Innovation and Invention; Business Headquarters; Geographic Location

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March 2005 (Revised April 2007)
Case

Comergent Technologies Inc.: Enterprise E-Commerce

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Marie Bell

Coming out of the 2001 high-tech industry recession, this venture capital start-up has to come up with a marketing plan to break even and grow. Its innovative e-commerce software provides unique customer relationship management solutions, but it has to convince... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Customer Relationship Management; Financial Crisis; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Business or Company Management; Marketing Strategy; Problems and Challenges; Software; Information Technology Industry

March 2020
Case

Voi Technology

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport and Olivia Hull

Voi Technology, a fast-growing start-up out of Sweden, is competing in the highly contested European e-scooter sharing market. With a presence in nearly 40 cities in Europe by February 2020, the firm is working hard to improve its unit economics to reach profitability.... View Details

February 1990
Background Note

Information Technology in Organizations: Emerging Issues in Ethics and Policy

Introduces a framework for identifying and analyzing the ethical and policy issues triggered by the various capabilities of information technology (IT). Ten IT capabilities are defined (access, capture, speed, permanence/storage. duplication, tracking, monitoring, data... View Details

Keywords: Rights; Information Technology; Ethics; Organizations; Policy

15 May 2017
Working Paper Summaries

Flexing the Frame: TMT Framing and the Adoption of Non-Incremental Innovations in Incumbent Firms

Keywords: by Ryan Raffaelli, Mary Ann Glynn, and Michael Tushman

July 2012
Case

LEGO

By: Jan W. Rivkin, Stefan Thomke and Daniela Beyersdorfer

LEGO has emerged as one of the most successful companies in the toy industry. The case describes LEGO's gradual rise, rapid decline, and recent revitalization as it is keeping up with a changing market place. Central to LEGO's management model is the ability to find... View Details

Keywords: Innovation Management; Innovation; Operations Management; Organizational Change And Transformation; Operations; Competitive Strategy; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

Research Summary

Innovation and Performance Improvement in Health Care

By: Robert S. Huckman

This stream of Professor Huckman's work examines how organizations delivering health care can structure and manage their activities to improve operational performance. It addresses issues including the impact of various forms of familiarity on performance, the impact... View Details

November 2004 (Revised May 2010)
Case

RightNow Technologies

By: William A. Sahlman and Dan Heath

The founder and CEO of a CRM software start-up must decide between an attractive acquisition offer and the opportunity to go public. Discusses the growth of the company--including a lengthy discussion of entrepreneurial bootstrapping--as well as an aborted IPO attempt... View Details

Keywords: Business Exit or Shutdown; Applications and Software; Going Public; Management Teams; Finance; Strategy; Value Creation; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Acquisition; Computer Industry

10 Jan 2024
Research & Ideas

Technology and COVID Upended Tipping Norms. Will Consumers Keep Paying?

brought along by the pandemic have ushered in changes to the informal customs around who gets tips and how much, according to Jill Avery, senior lecturer of business administration and the Christensen... View Details

Keywords: by Anna Lamb, Harvard Gazette

Article

What Managers Need to Know About Social Tools: Avoid the Common Pitfalls So That Your Organization Can Collaborate, Learn, and Innovate

By: Paul Leonardi and Tsedal Neeley

Workplaces have adopted internal social tools—think stand-alone technologies such as Slack, Yammer, and Chatter, or embedded applications such as Microsoft Teams and JIRA—at a staggering rate. In an ambitious study of 4,200 companies, conducted by the McKinsey Global... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Social Tools; Social and Collaborative Networks; Knowledge Sharing; Performance Improvement; Management

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June 1977 (Revised May 1995)
Case

Railroads and the Beginnings of Modern Management

Consists of three selections by the most innovative of the early American railroad managers which describe the organizational structures and control systems they created. Questions to be asked are: why and how such managerial techniques were created, how well they... View Details

Keywords: Rail Transportation; Organizational Structure; Management Systems; Rail Industry; United States

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

2025
Working Paper

Better Keep the Twenty Dollars: Incentivizing Innovation in Open Source

By: Annamaria Conti, Vansh Gupta, Jorge Guzman and Maria P. Roche

Open source is key to innovation yet is assumed to be done largely through intrinsic motivation. How can we incentivize it? In this paper, we examine the impact of a program providing monetary incentives to motivate innovators to contribute to open source. The Sponsors... View Details

Keywords: Open Source; Innovation; Incentives; Financial Rewards; Crowding Out; Open Source Distribution; Innovation and Invention; Motivation and Incentives; Technology Industry

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26 Aug 2001 - 30 Aug 2001
Conference Presentation

Developing Products on Internet Time: Managing Innovation in Turbulent Environments

By: Alan MacCormack

Keywords: Product Development; Internet and the Web; Innovation and Invention; Management

November 2002 (Revised March 2006)
Case

ApproTEC Kenya: Technologies to Fight Poverty and Create Wealth

By: V. Kasturi Rangan

ApproTEC markets a range of technologies to improve the income of subsistence farmers and other small-scale entrepreneurs in East Africa. Having achieved considerable success in its first eight years, the two founders/entrepreneurs are seeking ways to scale the impact... View Details

Keywords: Social Enterprise; Development Economics; Poverty; Information Technology; Entrepreneurship; Nonprofit Organizations; Growth and Development Strategy; Kenya; Africa

Every major company is grappling with the meaning and application of sustainability in relation to its geographic location, industry and business model. Similarly, more and more institutional investors are incorporating sustainability into their... View Details

OYO: Creating Effective Spaces

Twenty-four-year old Ritesh Agarwal, founder and CEO of India-based online hotel branding network OYO Rooms, has tackled the issue of unreliability in India's highly fragmented budget hotel industry. In 2018, OYO branded 8,500 properties across 200 cities and... View Details

June 2018
Case

Relax (Boston): Innovating and Growing an Entrepreneurial Business

By: Paul Marshall and Carole Carlson

The Relax case traces the history of a massage services company from its founding in 2007 to mid-2017, when it is considering the best strategy for growth and an acquisition. The company's owner and top managers wonder how the firm should reorganize to cope with the... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Acquisition; Brands and Branding; Entrepreneurship; Organizational Design