Publications

Article

The Impact of the 'Open' Workspace on Human Collaboration

By: Ethan Bernstein and Stephen Turban

Organizations’ pursuit of increased workplace collaboration has led managers to transform traditional office spaces into “open,” transparency-enhancing architectures with fewer walls, doors, and other spatial boundaries, yet there is scant direct empirical research on... View Details

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07 Nov 2013
HBS Seminar

Shawn Cole, Harvard Business School

June 2023
Teaching Note

Komatsu and Smart Construction

By: David J. Collis

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 521-042. The case describes the introduction by Komatsu, the Japanese earth moving equipment manufacturer, of a new business model—Smart Construction. This replaces the one-time sale of a capital good with a software platform that... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Technology Adoption; Construction Industry

16 Jul 2024
Research & Ideas

Weighing Digital Tradeoffs in Private Equity

road,” he says. “At this time, PE firms are finding that there’s a lot of low-hanging fruit in terms of digital value creation, especially in smaller and mid-sized companies. PE firms bring in digitally savvy operating partners who can help their portfolio companies... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

December 2024
Case

5G Networks

By: Andy Wu, Levi Stroud and Ruth Page

This case, featuring Ajit Pai, Former Chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, explores the potential of 5G wireless networks. It illustrates how 5G works by examining its infrastructure and technological advancements. The case considers the specific... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Technology Adoption; Technological Innovation; Infrastructure; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; United States

2017
Chapter

Entrepreneurship, Policy, and the Geography of Wind Energy

By: Geoffrey Jones

This study examines the geography of the global wind energy industry before 2000. Between 1980 and 2000, the global generating capacity of wind power grew from 13 megawatts to 17,400 megawatts, but two-thirds of that capacity was in Denmark, Germany, Spain, and the... View Details

Keywords: Wind Power; Business And Government; Renewable Energy; Entrepreneurship; Geography; Business and Government Relations; Policy; Business History; Green Technology Industry; Green Technology Industry; Asia; Europe; United States

April 2008 (Revised May 2010)
Case

Visions of Web 3.0

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and David Andrew Vivero

Explores the Semantic Web, a vision for the next generation of the World Wide Web in which information is stored in machine-readable formats. While the Semantic Web would make information more easily accessible, barriers to its adoption are very high because website... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Strategy; Technology Adoption; Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web

November 2005 (Revised April 2009)
Case

RFID at the METRO Group

Introduces radio frequency identification (RFID) as the next generation of automatic identification technologies that is expected to improve the performance of retail supply chains through reduced shrink, increased product availability, and improved labor productivity.... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Supply Chain Management; Performance Improvement; Performance Productivity; Technology Adoption

March 2025
Case

Stagwell: AI and the Future of Marketing

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Radhika Kak

In early 2025, Mark Penn, Founder, CEO and Chairman of Stagwell, a global marketing company with a network of over 70+ agencies that served over 4000 blue-chip customers across 40 countries, was looking at ways that marketers should navigate the disruption emanating... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Innovation Strategy; Change Management; AI and Machine Learning; Digital Transformation; Technology Adoption; Marketing Strategy; Service Delivery; Creativity; Business Model; Technology Industry; Technology Industry

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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Web

HBS Working Knowledge – Harvard Business School Faculty Research

in ChatGPT’s Second Year by Rachel Layne 09 JAN 2024 | In Practice Companies across industries rushed to adopt ChatGPT last year, seeing its potential to streamline tasks formerly handled by people and vendors at much higher cost. As... View Details

January–February 2025
Article

Why People Resist Embracing AI

By: Julian De Freitas

The success of AI depends not only on its capabilities, which are becoming more advanced each day, but on people’s willingness to harness them. Unfortunately, many people view AI negatively, fearing it will cause job losses, increase the likelihood that their personal... View Details

Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Technology Adoption; Perception

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September 1993 (Revised January 2007)
Case

British Satellite Broadcasting versus Sky Television

Describes the rivalry between two competitors who have attempted to become the dominant force in the emerging British satellite television industry. Can be used to examine issues of competitive positioning, technology adoption, and scenario analysis. Helps students... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Technology Adoption; Telecommunications Industry; Great Britain

14 Jun 2011
First Look

First Look: June 14

PublicationsThe Paradox of Excellence Authors:Thomas J. DeLong and Sara DeLong Publication:Harvard Business Review 89, no. 6 (June 2011) Abstract Why is it that so many smart, ambitious professionals are less productive and satisfied than they could be? We argue that... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

John T. Gourville

John Gourville is the Albert J. Weatherhead, Jr. Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. He joined the HBS Marketing Unit in 1995 after receiving his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago in marketing and behavioral research. His most... View Details

Keywords: high technology; high technology; high technology; high technology; high technology; high technology; high technology; high technology

March 2022 (Revised May 2022)
Case

Reclaiming the Land of Purple: Purpl’s Mission to Unlock Finance in Lebanon

By: Lauren Cohen and Grace Headinger

Karl Naim, Co-Founder and CEO of Purpl, embarked on a venture to lower remittance costs for his native Lebanon. Since October 2019, the Lebanese economy had entered a free fall as its banking sector collapsed and large swathes of its population were plunged into... View Details

Keywords: Business Startup; Fintech; Inflation; Deflation; Cross-border Frictions; Remittances; Business Startups; Diasporas; Financial Crisis; Money; Entrepreneurship; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Poverty; Financial Institutions; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Lebanon

03 Dec 2020
News

Use Remote Work to Revitalize the Cities That Need It Most

13 Dec 2016
First Look

December 13, 2016

railroad track in the U.S. South to standard gauge between May 31 and June 1, 1886 as a large-scale natural experiment in technology standards adoption that instantly integrated the South into the national... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

December 1999
Case

Sun Microsystems, Inc. (A3): Network Computer: Robert Gianni on Answering the Skeptics

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Jane Roessner

The concept behind the network computer (NC) at Sun Microsystems, Inc. was simple: bringing workstation performance to the desktop. Recent technological breakthroughs and changes in the marketplace made the NC project timely. But internal and external skeptics wondered... View Details

Keywords: Information Infrastructure; Technology Adoption; Fluctuation; Risk and Uncertainty; Technology Industry; Technology Industry