Sustaining Innovation - Publications - Faculty & Research

19 Jun 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, June 19, 2018

organizations as well as customer pressure from individual investors are critical in mitigating free-rider problems among asset managers and sustaining engagement practices. Finally, I explore the limits and anticompetitive concerns to... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

June 2008 (Revised May 2017)
Case

Cook Composites and Polymers Co.

By: Deishin Lee, Michael W. Toffel and Rachel Gordon

This case describes how a company improves resource efficiency and process quality in its manufacturing process by developing a waste by-product into a new product. The case describes how CCP cleans production equipment between batches using styrene, which becomes a... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Product Development; Business Processes; Performance Efficiency; Natural Environment; Wastes and Waste Processing; Pollutants; Environmental Sustainability; Chemical Industry; Manufacturing Industry

Citation

Educators

Purchase

22 Jul 2019
Book

How to Be a Digital Platform Leader

was focused on what we call today innovation platforms. With the emergence of Amazon, eBay, and other firms in the late 1990s and early 2000s, it was clear that a very different kind of technology platform was emerging, which we call... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

10 Nov 2003
Research & Ideas

Globalization: The Strategy of Differences

of price differentials. But the world is not so homogeneous as to have removed arbitrage from a company's strategic tool kit. In fact, many forms of arbitrage offer relatively sustainable sources of competitive advantage, and as some... View Details

Keywords: by Pankaj Ghemawat

10 Sep 2020
Research & Ideas

The COVID Two-Step for Leaders: Protect and Pivot

According to Danaher, the DBS engine “drives the company through a never-ending cycle of change and improvement: exceptional people develop outstanding plans and execute them using world-class tools to construct sustainable processes,... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Katherine Connolly Baden

26 Apr 2011
Op-Ed

HBS Faculty Comment on Environmental Issues for Earth Day

Earth Day focuses the world's attention on the both the dangers and opportunities facing the planet. But sustainability and the intersection between business and the environment are issues that need to be addressed all the time, as cities... View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Energy; Utilities

September 2020 (Revised June 2021)
Case

Algramo

By: Michael Chu, Monica Silva and Mariana Cal

Founded in 2013 by José Manuel Moller in Chile, Algramo first became known for addressing the “poverty tax” (the surcharge paid by lower income families for staples sold in smaller sizes) through specially-designed dispensers in low-income neighborhood grocery stores... View Details

Keywords: Packaging-as-a-wallet; Plastic Waste; Business At The Base Of The Pyramid; Reusable Packaging; Alliances With FMCGs To Meet ESG Goals; Social Entrepreneurship; Environmental Sustainability; Strategy; Value Creation; Goals and Objectives; Business Model; Consumer Products Industry; Latin America; South America; Chile

Citation

Educators

Purchase

Research Summary

Mastering Strategy Execution

By: Robert Simons

Professor Robert Simons’ research encompasses three areas of management accountability that are the foundation for successful strategy execution: organization design, performance measurement and control, and risk management. In addition, Simons is interested in the... View Details

26 Aug 2024
Research & Ideas

Can AI Match Human Ingenuity in Creative Problem-Solving?

When ChatGPT and other large language models began entering the mainstream two years ago, it quickly became apparent the technology could excel at certain business functions, yet it was less clear how well artificial intelligence could handle more creative tasks. Sure,... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Information Technology; Information; Technology

20 Aug 2024
Book

Why Competing With Tech Giants Requires Finding Your Own Edge

The following is an excerpt that was adapted and lightly edited from chapter nine of Smart Rivals: How Innovative Companies Play Games That Tech Giants Can't Win, written by Feng Zhu and Bonnie Yining Cao and published August 20, 2024. In... View Details

Keywords: by Feng Zhu; Technology; Information Technology

06 Nov 2019
Op-Ed

Torched Planet: The Business Case to Reinvent Almost Everything

The world is. on. fire. The Earth is burning. We only have a little time to arrest climate change, and if we fail to do so the consequences will be both dire and irreversible. We have the technology and the resources to fix things, if we want to. We even have a... View Details

Keywords: by Rebecca Henderson; Energy

14 Nov 2012
Research & Ideas

New Agenda for Corporate Accountability Reporting

change." There is enormous potential for innovation in this area, he continues. "If we were to put an accounting lens on corporate accountability reporting, there is potential for innovation both... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Accounting; Energy; Utilities

04 Mar 2013
Lessons from the Classroom

Lessons from Running GM’s OnStar

Among the most popular elective courses at Harvard Business School is Building and Sustaining a Successful Enterprise (BSSE). Developed by Professor Clayton M. Christensen, the course teaches future leaders how to use well-researched... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Auto

18 Apr 2012
Research & Ideas

HBS Cases: Who Controls Water?

Business Administration at Harvard Business School. Reinhardt led a discussion of the case recently in the MBA field study seminar Innovation in Business, Energy, and Environment, held in Harvard's View Details

Keywords: by Maggie Starvish; Agriculture & Agribusiness

25 Feb 2015
Lessons from the Classroom

Scholars and Students Unpack the Digital Business Revolution

transformation to digital is being driven by two primary factors, according to Iansiti: the explosion of connected devices and expanded computing capacity in the cloud. The study of innovation and business is still in its infancy.... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Education; Technology

08 Mar 2012
Research & Ideas

Unplugged: What Happened to the Smart Grid?

run? “It's a question of who will make money and which business models are effective” "There's a huge opportunity to make money here," Henderson, codirector of the Business & Environment Initiative at HBS, told students who attended a recent field study... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Energy; Utilities

07 Jan 2009
What Do You Think?

Is the World Really Flat?

policies that encourage the provision of venture capital? Or is the world really flat? Do the "techno-nationalists" have it right? What do you think? To read more: Amar Bhidé, The Venturesome Economy: How Innovation View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

10 Jul 2009
Research Event

Business Summit: The Coming World Oil Crisis

world's energy future uncertain. "Peak oil" may be the 21st century's defining issue. In addition to the economic arguments for renewable energy, there is also a strong sustainability story. The severity of the situation... View Details

Keywords: Re: Richard H.K. Vietor; Energy; Utilities

03 Feb 2018
Op-Ed

How to Heed BlackRock's Call for Corporate Social Responsibility

do so, investment funds will need to collect new data. The good news is that over the past decades, many initiatives have contributed to developing standards to assess companies’ social performance. The Sustainability Accounting Standards... View Details

Keywords: by Julie Battilana

09 Sep 2013
Lessons from the Classroom

Teaching Climate Change to Skeptics

A few years ago, Joseph B. Lassiter traveled to San Francisco, Houston, and New York to hold discussions with Harvard alumni on the topic of business and the environment. Each time, he surveyed the audience about the touchy subject of climate change and how society... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

Publications