Publications

13 Apr 2016
Research & Ideas

Why Your Company Wants to be a 'Cognitive Referent' (Hint: SpaceX)

Technology and Operations Management Unit at Harvard Business School. After all, 2007 was the year that Twitter was founded; Airbnb formed the following year. For startups jockeying for position in nascent markets, pressure is intense to... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Aerospace; Food & Beverage; Retail

26 Nov 2001
Research & Ideas

How Toyota Turns Workers Into Problem Solvers

American Big Three and many other auto companies had done major benchmarking studies, and they and other companies had tried to implement their own forms of the Toyota Production System. There is the Ford... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Johnston; Manufacturing; Transportation; Auto

August 2011 (Revised July 2012)
Case

Sealed Air Corporation: Deciding the Fate of VTID

By: Elie Ofek

In mid 2010 the Sealed Air Corporation has to decide on next steps for its novel video tracking technology (called VTID) after unsuccessful attempts to market it in three different industry settings. The company must determine whether its most recent target market, the... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decision Choices and Conditions; Technological Innovation; Marketing Strategy; Problems and Challenges; Commercialization; Service Industry

February 12, 2021
Article

The Commercial Space Age Is Here

By: Matt Weinzierl and Mehak Sarang

In May of 2020, SpaceX made history as the first private company to send humans into space. This marks not only a tremendous technological achievement, but also the first indication that an entirely new “space-for-space” industry—that is, goods and services designed to... View Details

Keywords: Space Economy; New Markets; Emerging Markets; Opportunities; Entrepreneurship; Commercialization; Aerospace Industry

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15 Jan 2008
First Look

First Look: January 15, 2008

controlling for other known effects on citation rate, such as outlet, discipline, length, number of citations and methodology. Our findings suggest that multidisciplinary fields can enhance their knowledge sharing by attending to the... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

October 2019 (Revised January 2020)
Case

NewView Capital and Venture Capital Secondaries

By: Shai Bernstein, Ramana Nanda and Allison Ciechanover

While still a general partner at Silicon Valley–based New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Ravi Viswanathan considered the challenges presented by evolving market dynamics in the venture capital space. Startups were staying private longer, which led to limited partners... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Capital Markets; Private Equity; Strategy

October 2017 (Revised April 2019)
Case

Data Breach at Equifax

By: Suraj Srinivasan, Quinn Pitcher and Jonah S. Goldberg

The case discusses the events leading up to the massive data breach at Equifax, one of the three U.S. credit reporting companies, the organizational and governance issues that contributed to the breach, and the consequences of the breach. The case supplement provides... View Details

Keywords: Safety; Information Management; Cybersecurity; Technology Industry; United States

10 Jul 2000
Research & Ideas

The State of the Markets

Stock Exchange (NYSE); and Robert C. Gasser, managing director and head of U.S. equities at J. P. Morgan & Co. Financial exchanges today, Seifert began, must have the business systems of a technology company, with the requisite speed... View Details

Keywords: by James E. Aisner

October 2020 (Revised February 2025)
Technical Note

Reinvention

By: Ryan Raffaelli

This note is designed to introduce students to the fundamental concepts of leading innovation in established organizations. Reinvention is a process whereby organizations respond to changes in the environment that threaten their core business model, technologies,... View Details

Keywords: Innovation And Strategy; Leadership And Change Management; Organizational Ambidexterity; Exploration And Exploitation; Innovation and Management; Innovation Leadership; Leading Change; Technology Adoption; Change Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation

September 2018
Case

Sealed Air Corporation: Deciding the Fate of VTID (Abridged)

By: Elie Ofek

In mid-2010 the Sealed Air Corporation has to decide on next steps for its novel video tracking technology (called VTID) after unsuccessful attempts to market it in three different industry settings. The company must determine whether its most recent target market, the... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decision Choices and Conditions; Technological Innovation; Marketing Strategy; Problems and Challenges; Commercialization; Service Industry

2024
Working Paper

Appropriate Entrepreneurship? The Rise of China and the Developing World

By: Josh Lerner, Junxi Liu, Jacob Moscona and David Yang

Global innovation and entrepreneurship has traditionally been dominated by a handful of high-income countries, especially the US. This paper investigates the international consequences of the rise of a new hub for innovation, focusing on the dramatic growth of... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Emerging Markets; Economic Growth; China

Keywords: information technology industry; information technology industry; information technology industry; information technology industry; information technology industry; information technology industry; information technology industry; information technology industry; information technology industry; information technology industry; information technology industry; information technology industry; information technology industry

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12 Oct 2022
Video

Elizabeth M. Adams: Civic Tech as Advocacy Work

David B. Yoffie

Professor David B. Yoffie is the Max and Doris Starr Professor of International Business Administration at Harvard Business School. A member of the HBS faculty since 1981, Professor Yoffie received his Bachelor's degree summa cum laude and Phi Beta... View Details

31 Jan 2023
Cold Call Podcast

Addressing Racial Discrimination on Airbnb

Keywords: Web Services

January – February 2011
Article

How to Design a Winning Business Model

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Joan E. Ricart

Most executives believe that competing through business models is critical for success, but few have come to grips with how best to do so. One common mistake is enterprises' unwavering focus on creating innovative models and evaluating their efficacy in standalone... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Design; Strength and Weakness; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage

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2010
Working Paper

Being a Leader and the Effective Exercise of Leadership: An Ontological Model (PDF File of PowerPoint Slides)

By: Werner Erhard, Michael C. Jensen and Kari Granger

This presentation is based on our research program over the last seven years in which our objective has been to rigorously distinguish leader and leadership and to create a technology for providing access to being a leader and exercising leadership effectively (in... View Details

Keywords: Curriculum and Courses; Innovation and Invention; Leadership Development; Goals and Objectives; Research and Development; Attitudes; Perception; Technology; United States

SSRN

04 Feb 2010
What Do You Think?

What’s the Best Way to Make Careful Decisions?

the nature of the problem, match solution techniques with problems, seek diversity in our feedback, and use technology where possible. Among other things, he argues, we ignore the subtle and ignored biases... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

November 2000
Case

WARDA: Leading a Rice Revolution in West Africa

By: Ray A. Goldberg, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Cate Reavis

The West Africa Rice Development Association, along with various national and international partners, was developing and transferring new rice technologies to farmers throughout West and Central Africa. While production in West Africa was growing faster than any other... View Details

Keywords: Private Sector; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Policy; Government and Politics; Technological Innovation; Leadership; Performance Effectiveness; Problems and Challenges; Research and Development; Nonprofit Organizations; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Africa

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August 2011 (Revised August 2013)
Case

Career at a Crossroad: Roopa Rao

By: Noam Wasserman and Lisa Brem

Akhil Patel is passionate about his business idea: an innovative green technology fuel cell. He wants to dive in and commit to his startup, but Roopa Rao, his fiancée, is much more risk averse, his parents don't approve of the startup, and Akhil has an enticing... View Details

Keywords: Personal Development and Career; Business Startups; Business Growth and Maturation; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Work-Life Balance; Family and Family Relationships