Publications

20 Jul 2009
Research & Ideas

Markets or Communities? The Best Ways to Manage Outside Innovation

nature of the innovation problem at hand, the motivation of the external developers, and the firm's platform business model. Depending on these factors, the outside innovation might be fed and managed either... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Technology

April 2008
Article

The Survey of Industrial R&D—Patent Database Link Project

By: William R. Kerr and Shihe Fu

This paper details the construction of a firm-year panel dataset combining the NBER Patent Dataset with the Survey of Industrial R&D conducted by the Census Bureau and National Science Foundation. The dataset constitutes a platform that offers an unprecedented view of... View Details

Keywords: Analytics and Data Science; Patents; Surveys; Research and Development; Innovation and Invention; Performance Productivity; Projects; Management Practices and Processes; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques

Read Now

Zhongming Jiang is a first-year Ph.D. student in Marketing (Quantitative) at Harvard Business School. His research focuses on developing methodologies for Customer Relationship Management (CRM) that enable personalized interventions, dynamic customer... View Details

November 2023 (Revised May 2024)
Case

Kickstarter: Crowdfunding for the Arts

By: Rohit Deshpandé and Alexis Lefort

Kickstarter was a virtual crowdfunding platform and community that allowed creators of all kinds to raise funding for creative projects. The executive team was wrestling with a tension in its business model: the organization earned the majority of its revenue from... View Details

Keywords: Fundraising; Mission; Crowdfunding; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Arts; Web Services Industry; United States

April 2013 (Revised October 2013)
Case

National Instruments

By: Lynda M. Applegate, Keri Pearlson and Natalie Kindred

This case explores the use of social media to support product design, customer support, marketing and HR activities at National Instruments (NI). Based in Austin, Texas, with over $1 billion in 2011 sales, NI designs, produces, and sells software and hardware platforms... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Structure; Applications and Software; Organizational Culture; Technological Innovation; Digital Platforms; Innovation and Management; Media; Management Systems; Social and Collaborative Networks; Information Technology Industry; Service Industry; Texas

05 May 2017
Working Paper Summaries

Survival of the Fittest: The Impact of the Minimum Wage on Firm Exit

Keywords: by Dara Lee Luca and Michael Luca; Food & Beverage

September 2019
Case

Shell: A Company of Opportunity?

By: Joseph B. Fuller and Emer Moloney

The Opportunity Hub was a cloud-based platform that enabled managers to market projects they were working on and associated resourcing needs as “Opportunity Owners” and employees, or “Opportunity Seekers,” to browse these statements of need and engage when they had... View Details

Keywords: Business Divisions; Change Management; Competency and Skills; Experience and Expertise; Talent and Talent Management; Energy; Energy Sources; Non-Renewable Energy; Renewable Energy; Human Resources; Employees; Retention; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Jobs and Positions; Job Design and Levels; Knowledge Sharing; Knowledge; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Labor; Human Capital; Labor Unions; Leading Change; Resource Allocation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance Evaluation; Performance Productivity; Strategic Planning; Projects; Motivation and Incentives; Business Strategy; Social and Collaborative Networks; Technology Platform; Chemical Industry; Energy Industry; Information Technology Industry; Technology Industry; United Kingdom; Netherlands

19 Dec 2023
Research & Ideas

The 10 Most Popular Articles of 2023

Soon after ChatGPT debuted in late 2022, business leaders began taking their first steps into generative artificial intelligence, approaching this powerful technology with a mix of awe and trepidation. It’s no surprise that one of the... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

01 Apr 2008
First Look

First Look: April 1, 2008

build it and you're done. But that does not work for IT anymore. Taking that approach results in rigid, costly systems that are outdated from the day they are turned on. What's needed for today's businesses is IT that serves not only as a... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

January 2014 (Revised May 2015)
Case

Open English

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Lisa Mazzanti

Open English, a Miami-based startup offering online English language learning services, had more than 30,000 active students across Latin America in 2012. The company had just closed a $43 million financing round in order to rapidly scale its service to the next level.... View Details

Keywords: Technology Strategy; Product Management; Startup; Online Learning; Digital Platforms; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Technology Industry; Miami; Venezuela

August 2017 (Revised June 2018)
Case

Enpara.com: Digital Bank at a Crossroad

By: Sunil Gupta and Eren Kuzucu

In March 2017, Elsa Pekmez Atan (MBA 2004), was wondering about the future of Enpara.com, a digital-only banking platform of QNB Finansbank. Since its launch in October 2012, Enpara had been successful in attracting over 600,000 customers by appealing to digital savvy,... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Competition; Banks and Banking; Business Model; Product Launch; Competitive Strategy; Integration; Innovation and Invention; Decision Making; Strategy; Emerging Markets; Digital Transformation; Banking Industry; Turkey

18 Aug 2008
Research & Ideas

How Disruptive Innovation Changes Education

emergence of stage 2 will have fallen into place. The first will be robust platforms that facilitate the creation of user-generated content. The second will be the emergence of a user network, whose analogues in other industries include... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Education

Deborah M. Winshel

Deborah Winshel is a Senior Lecturer in the General Management Unit of Harvard Business School. She teaches several MBA required courses: Leadership and Organizational Behavior (LEAD), Leadership and Corporate Accountability and the Field Immersion course (2025 in... View Details

March 1996 (Revised August 2000)
Case

Wildfire Communications, Inc. (A)

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport and Mary Connor

Founder and CEO Bill Warner is faced with critical decisions regarding the product lines, target markets, and technology platforms that his start-up, Wildfire Communications, Inc., will pursue. In addition to the question of strategic focus across these lines of... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Resource Allocation; Organizational Culture; Business Startups; Business Strategy; Communications Industry; Technology Industry

January 2008 (Revised May 2011)
Case

Cognizant Technology Solutions

By: Robert G. Eccles, David Lane and Prabakar 'PK' Kothandaraman

In the highly competitive information technology outsourcing industry, Cognizant Technology Solutions has developed a strategy to differentiate itself by emphasizing building very close client relationships through its "Two-in-a-box" (TIB) model. This model is based on... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Knowledge Sharing; Resource Allocation; Competitive Advantage; Information Technology; Information Technology Industry

July 2021
Case

Kevin D. Johnson: To Be a Venture Capitalist or an Operator?

By: Jo Tango and Alys Ferragamo

In May of 2021, Kevin D. Johnson had just graduated from a rigorous Executive MBA program, and he quickly needed to decide on his next career move. Johnson was the founder and CEO of a successful media company, Johnson Media Inc., but his career goals had shifted while... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Goals and Objectives; Race; Wealth; Decisions; Venture Capital; Personal Development and Career; United States