Publications

Educators

26 Nov 2019
Blog Post

Black Excellence: AASU’s 2019 Fall Retreat in Review

The 2019-2020 African American Student's Union (AASU) family is officially the largest it has ever been in the history of Harvard Business School. The strength of this community has always been of paramount importance to AASU student... View Details

19 Jul 2019
Blog Post

Meet PRIDE, the student association for LGBTQ+ MBAs at Harvard Business School

Pride is a home for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning MBA students and their partners. We build community through dedicated social and advocacy programming for our members and allies to offer meaningful... View Details

Keywords: All Industries

23 Dec 2002
Research & Ideas

Partnering and the Balanced Scorecard

that encourages innovation, problem-solving, and improvement. Yet, words were insufficient for describing and communicating such strategies. Statements such as "Delight the customer," "Offer superior service," or... View Details

Keywords: by Robert S. Kaplan & David P. Norton

2016
Working Paper

Net Neutrality: A Fast Lane to Understanding the Trade-offs

By: Shane Greenstein, Martin Peitz and Tommaso Valletti

The “net neutrality” principle has triggered a heated debate, and advocates have proposed policy interventions. In this paper, we provide perspective by framing issues in terms of the positive economic factors at work. We stress the incentives of market participants... View Details

Keywords: Rights; Internet and the Web; Debates

19 Dec 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Innovating Without Information Constraints: Organizations, Communities, and Innovation When Information Costs Approach Zero

Keywords: by Elizabeth J. Altman, Frank Nagle & Michael L. Tushman

January 1997 (Revised November 1997)
Case

IBM and Siemens: Revitalizing the Rolm Division (A)

By: Ashish Nanda, Antonio Davila and Georgia Levenson

The case opens with a discussion of the evolution of the private branch exchange industry in the 1970s and 1980s. It follows the path of Rolm from an independent company to an IBM acquisition and its problem as an IBM division. Then describes Siemens' growing interest... View Details

Keywords: Communication Technology; Restructuring; Joint Ventures; Negotiation Participants; Business Divisions; Problems and Challenges; Acquisition; Telecommunications Industry

May 2014 (Revised July 2016)
Case

RCA: Color Television and the Department of Justice (A)

By: Willy C. Shih and Gregory Dieterich

This case examines the early history of the color television receiver market and the global consequences of an historic 1958 consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice that opened RCA's patents to licensing by domestic competitors royalty-free. This externality... View Details

Keywords: Intellectual Property; Patents; Rights; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Business History; Information Technology; Information Infrastructure; Communications Industry; Communications Industry; Communications Industry; United States; Japan

Educators

06 Aug 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Buy Local? The Geography of Successful and Unsuccessful Venture Capital Expansion

Keywords: by Henry Chen, Paul A. Gompers, Anna Kovner & Josh Lerner

November 2019
Article

Conversations and Idea Generation: Evidence from a Field Experiment

By: Sharique Hasan and Rembrand Koning

When do conversations lead people to generate better ideas? We conducted a field experiment at a startup boot camp to evaluate the impact of informal conversations on the quality of product ideas generated by participants. Specifically, we examine how the personality... View Details

Keywords: Peer Effects; Field Experiment; Interpersonal Communication; Creativity; Personal Characteristics; Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Invention

March 2025
Article

Novice Risk Work: How Juniors Coaching Seniors on Emerging Technologies Such as Generative AI Can Lead to Learning Failures

By: Katherine C. Kellogg, Hila Lifshitz-Assaf, Steven Randazzo, Ethan Mollick, Fabrizio Dell'Acqua, Edward McFowland III, François Candelon and Karim R. Lakhani

The literature on communities of practice demonstrates that a proven way for senior professionals to upskill themselves in the use of new technologies that undermine existing expertise is to learn from junior professionals. It notes that juniors may be better able... View Details

Keywords: Rank and Position; Competency and Skills; Technology Adoption; Experience and Expertise; AI and Machine Learning

2016
Chapter

User-Generated Content and Social Media

By: Michael Luca

This paper documents what economists have learned about user-generated content (UGC) and social media. A growing body of evidence suggests that UGC on platforms ranging from Yelp to Facebook has a large causal impact on economic and social outcomes ranging from... View Details

Keywords: User-generated Content; Crowdsourcing; Design Economics; Internet and the Web; Marketing; Economics; Media; Social Media

2000
Working Paper

The Drivers of National Innovative Capacity: Implications for Spain and Latin America

By: Michael E. Porter, Jeffrey L. Furman and Scott Stern

In the past decade, both academic scholars and policymakers have focused increasing attention on the central role that technological innovation plays in economic growth. There are at least two distinct reasons for this increased interest. First, though economists have... View Details

21 Oct 2019
Blog Post

Know Your Audience: Recruiting HBS Students for Consumer Products

broadly students are also interested in environmental, global, and community wellness. “There is a lot of synergy between our motivated and community minded students and the companies that are offering... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Products / Retail

January 2013 (Revised April 2015)
Case

Affinity Labs: Valuing Customer Growth

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III and Elizabeth Kind

In November 2006, Chris Michel left Military.com, which he founded in 1999, to start Affinity Labs, a global network of online communities. That month, Michel raised a Series A round of venture funding and established a partnership with Monster, which he had sold... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Demand and Consumers; Partners and Partnerships; Social and Collaborative Networks; Online Technology

Educators

November–December 2021
Article

Does Gender Matter? The Effect of Management Responses on Reviewing Behavior

By: Davide Proserpio, Isamar Troncoso and Francesca Valsesia

We study the effect of management responses on the reviewing behavior of self-identified female and male reviewers. Using data from Tripadvisor, we show that after hotels begin to respond to reviews, the probability that a negative review comes from a self-identified... View Details

Keywords: Word Of Mouth; Online Reviews; Management Responses; E-commerce; Gender; Prejudice and Bias; Digital Platforms; Customers

SSRN

July 2011
Article

Kidney Paired Donation

By: C. Bradley Wallis, Kannan P. Samy, Alvin E. Roth and Michael A. Rees

Kidney paired donation (KPD) was first suggested in 1986, but it was not until 2000 when the first paired donation transplant was performed in the U.S. In the past decade, KPD has become the fastest growing source of transplantable kidneys, overcoming the barrier faced... View Details

Keywords: Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Health Care and Treatment; Growth and Development Strategy; Success; Problems and Challenges; Programs; System; United States

May 2014
Supplement

RCA: Color Television and the Department of Justice (B)

By: Willy C. Shih and Gregory Dieterich

This case is a supplement to 614-072, which examines the early history of the color television receiver market, and the global consequences of an historic 1958 consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice that opened RCA's patents to licensing by domestic... View Details

Keywords: Intellectual Property; Patents; Rights; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Business History; Information Technology; Information Infrastructure; Communications Industry; Communications Industry; Communications Industry; United States; Japan