Publications

03 Feb 2015
First Look

First Look: February 3

solution in combination with property rights can be used to capture a stream of rents. The tools a firm can use to manage bottlenecks are, first, an understanding of the technical architecture of the system and, second, an understanding... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

2015
Chapter

Deep Smarts as the Underpinnings of Dynamic Capabilities

By: Dorothy A. Leonard and Michelle Barton

Both ordinary and dynamic capabilities depend upon the deep smarts, i.e., business-critical, experience-based knowledge, held in the heads of an organization’s top talent. This chapter examines the links between individual and organizational capabilities and presents... View Details

Keywords: Management Skills; Experience and Expertise; Innovation and Invention

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June 2020 (Revised January 2024)
Case

TraceTogether

By: Mitchell B. Weiss and Sarah Mehta

By April 7, 2020, over 1.4 million people worldwide had contracted the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Governments raced to curb the spread of COVID-19 by scaling up testing, quarantining those infected, and tracing their possible contacts. It had taken Singapore’s... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19; Contact Tracing; Government Administration; Crisis Management; Health; Health Pandemics; Innovation and Invention; Innovation Leadership; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Social Issues; Information Technology; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Applications and Software; Technology Adoption; Health Industry; Public Administration Industry; Singapore

08 Aug 2022
HBS Case

Building an 'ARMY' of Fans: Marketing Lessons from K-Pop Sensation BTS

the product of heavy government investment to create a unique cultural export. Music agencies built acts using an idol system that managed all aspects of stars’ lives and trained them in singing, dance, and even foreign languages.... View Details

Keywords: by Shalene Gupta; Media & Broadcasting; Music

December 2023 (Revised January 2025)
Case

Research In Motion: Launching and Scaling the World's First Smartphone Empire (A)

By: Tatiana Sandino and Samuel Grad

In 2005, Research In Motion’s (RIM) BlackBerry smartphone was a sensation. After its launch in 1999, the groundbreaking BlackBerry had captured the hearts and minds of corporate America through its secure wireless email service. The device was so addictive and... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Innovation and Management; Technological Innovation; Business or Company Management; Management Style; Product Development; Managerial Roles; Growth and Development Strategy; Technology Industry; United States; Canada

2013
Article

Industry Equilibrium with Open-Source and Proprietary Firms

By: Gaston Llanes and Ramiro de Elejalde

We present a model of industry equilibrium to study the coexistence of open-source and proprietary firms. Two novel aspects of the model are (i) participation in open source arises as the optimal decision of profit-maximizing firms, and (ii) open-source and proprietary... View Details

Keywords: Open Source Distribution; Balance and Stability; Software; Knowledge Management; Supply and Industry; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Research and Development; Cooperation

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30 Nov 2021
In Practice

What's the Role of Business in Confronting Climate Change?

The 26th annual United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties, also known as COP26, ended with a hard-fought pact that called on businesses and governments to meet their climate change goals faster. The event followed an August report by the Intergovernmental... View Details

Keywords: by Lynn Schenk and Dina Gerdeman

June 2004 (Revised June 2006)
Case

Scientific-Atlanta, Inc.

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann

Scientific-Atlantia (S-A), a leading manufacturer of cable TV equipment, is confronting strategic challenges in mid-2004. For decades, cable operators have faced high switching costs that have locked them into exclusive supply relationships with either S-A or its... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Competition; Industry Structures; Television Entertainment; Duopoly and Oligopoly; Manufacturing Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry

02 Oct 2007
First Look

First Look: October 2, 2007

innovation. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, we show that more IP protection and building stronger barriers around innovation are not always the best path to capturing value. Paradoxically, innovators can... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

21 Aug 2000
Research & Ideas

Inside the OR: Disrupted Routines and New Technologies

Why did a group of Harvard Business School professors become interested in an innovative new heart surgery technique? It turns out that a hospital's operating room provides an excellent controlled arena from which to explore the role that... View Details

Keywords: by Hilah Geer

11 Apr 2023
Research & Ideas

Is Amazon a Retailer, a Tech Firm, or a Media Company? How AI Can Help Investors Decide

is a good alternative, it's hard to drop something. It gets embedded in models, it gets embedded in contracts. You might have a measurement system that says this fund manager will be paid based on how much the return beats the GICS... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Consumer Products; Real Estate; Financial Services; Retail

18 Mar 2024
Research & Ideas

When It Comes to Climate Regulation, Energy Companies Take a More Nuanced View

Common wisdom holds that oil and gas companies, electric utilities, and other industries known for their large carbon emissions generally oppose clean energy policies. Now, a study of corporate advocacy spanning 30 years reveals that many companies are more flexible... View Details

Keywords: by Desmond Dodd; Energy; Utilities

08 Mar 2004
Research & Ideas

Creating Value in Your Business Ecosystem

Fundamentally, they aim to improve the overall health of their ecosystems by providing a stable and predictable set of common assets—think of Wal-Mart's procurement system and Microsoft's Windows operating View Details

Keywords: by Marco Iansiti & Roy Levien

10 Jan 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research: January 10, 2017

https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/product/517016-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School Case 817-028 Innovating Beyond Ochsner The Ochsner Health System has developed a proprietary software tool designed to treat... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

30 Apr 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, April 30, 2019

platform businesses. We have five major themes in the book: 1) The world’s most valuable companies are all platforms, in part because platforms have network effects, with the potential for a winner-take-all or winner-take-most outcome. 2) Platforms come in 3 flavors:... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

23 Dec 2008
First Look

First Look: December 23, 2008

run gas and water distribution systems in diverse urban and rural locations throughout mainland China—often in the face of entrenched local interests who could have blocking power. Discussions with HKGC's negotiation teams revealed an... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

18 Jul 2023
Research & Ideas

Will Global Demand for Oil Peak This Decade?

Is the globe’s thirst for oil finally topping out? A major international energy watcher says yes, predicting last month that demand for global oil for transport will peak around 2026, plateau for all uses by 2028, and possibly hit a zenith by the end of the decade.... View Details

Keywords: by Alvin Powell, Harvard Gazette; Energy; Industrial Products; Auto; Green Technology

October 2023
Case

Fixie and Conversational AI Sidekicks

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Carin-Isabel Knoop

In March 2023, Fixie Co-Founder and Chief Architect Matt Welsh and co-founders had the kind of meeting no founders want to have. The president of leading artificial intelligence (AI) research and deployment firm OpenAI, which had catapulted into fame with its ChatGPT... View Details

Keywords: Large Language Model; Entrepreneurship; Decision Choices and Conditions; AI and Machine Learning; Technological Innovation; Competitive Strategy; Technology Industry; United States