Publications

December 2018 (Revised June 2020)
Case

Creating the French Behavioral Insights Team

By: Michael Luca, Ariella Kristal and Emilie Billaud

This case explores how neuroscientist Mariam Chammat helped set up the first behavioral insights team at the center of the French government, and encouraged French administrations to innovate and create policy initiatives based on psychological theories of influence... View Details

Keywords: Choice Architecture; Behavioral Economics; Experiments; Negotiation; Decision Making; Economics; Taxation; Entrepreneurship; Consumer Behavior; Public Administration Industry; Europe; France; Paris

Research Summary

Overview

The research activity of Stefano Denicolai regards the management of innovation and technology. His recent works investigate if and how the investment in intangible assets (IA) - especially knowledge assets, such as patents or copyright - impacts on the firm... View Details

Keywords: Innovation Management; International Entrepreneurship; Intangible Assets; Open Innovation; Innovation and Management; Entrepreneurship; Competitive Strategy; Technology Industry; Biotechnology Industry; Web Services Industry; Tourism Industry

August 2012 (Revised August 2013)
Background Note

Competency-Destroying Technology Transitions: Why the Transition to Digital Is Particularly Challenging

By: Willy Shih

Some technology transitions are exceedingly difficult for incumbent firms to execute. The bankruptcy filing by the Eastman Kodak Company highlighted the difficulty companies faced when their core business transitioned from an analog to a digital world. Kodak's business... View Details

19 Sep 2012
Research & Ideas

Funding Innovation: Is Your Firm Doing it Wrong?

urgent needs of the future. Start-ups, on the other hand, are intensely focused on innovation but are also beholden to the impatience and boom-and-bust cycles of the venture capital industry. In his new book, The View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

October 2018 (Revised August 2023)
Case

Safecast: Bootstrapping Human Capital to Big Data

By: Ethan Bernstein and Stephanie Marton

On March 11, 2011, at 2:46pm, a 9.1-on-the-Richter-scale, six-minute long earthquake unleashed a tsunami that ravaged the Tohoku region of Japan, damaging the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power facility and releasing sufficient radioactive material into the air and ocean... View Details

April 1999
Case

Inktomi: Scaling the Internet

By: Marco Iansiti, Myra M. Hart and Richard Bergin

Presents the early months of Inktomi, a company that invented the world's first truly scalable architecture for the Internet. This core technology provides a platform for a variety of innovative applications. The company must decide the direction it wants to take. View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Leadership; Corporate Strategy; Internet

27 Mar 2008
Working Paper Summaries

Exploring the Duality between Product and Organizational Architectures: A Test of the Mirroring Hypothesis

Keywords: by Alan D. MacCormack, John Rusnak & Carliss Y. Baldwin

December 1994 (Revised June 1995)
Case

State Street Boston Corporation: Leading with Information Technology

A financial institution, State Street Boston Corp., is transformed from regional bank to global custodian and money manager. The corresponding evolution of the company's information systems is illustrated, focusing on the role attributed to information technology in a... View Details

Keywords: Expansion; Information Technology; Business Strategy; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry; United States

12 Sep 2006
First Look

First Look: September 12, 2006

human capital are also important for the effect of FDI on economic growth. Download working paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/07-013.pdf Architectural Innovation and Dynamic Competition: The Smaller... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

August 1995
Background Note

Managing in an Information Age: IT Challenges and Opportunities

By: Lynda M. Applegate

The co-evolution of technology, work, and the workforce over the past 30 years has dramatically influenced our concept of organizations and the industries within which they compete. No longer simply a tool to support "back-office" transactions, IT has become a... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Information Management; Restructuring; Technological Innovation; Corporate Strategy; Organizational Design; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Information Technology Industry

February 2009 (Revised April 2011)
Supplement

Mistry Architects (B)

By: Amy C. Edmondson, Robert G. Eccles and Mona Sinha

This case is a follow-up of Mistry Architects: Innovating for Sustainability (A) (Case 609-044). In Case (A) Sharukh and Renu Mistry found and run an architectural firm dedicated to being both client-oriented and environmentally responsible. The case uses a difficult... View Details

Keywords: Problems and Challenges; Emerging Markets; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Natural Disasters; Environmental Sustainability; Product Design; Innovation and Invention; Construction Industry

February 2009 (Revised April 2011)
Supplement

Mistry Architects (C)

By: Amy C. Edmondson, Robert G. Eccles and Mona Sinha

This case is a follow-up to "Mistry Architects: Innovating for Sustainability (A)" (Case 609-044) and (B) (Case 609-064). In Case (A) Sharukh and Renu Mistry founded and run an architectural firm dedicated to being both client-oriented and environmentally responsible.... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Succession; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Community Relations; Nonprofit Organizations; Environmental Sustainability

02 Nov 2010
First Look

First Look: November 2, 2010

http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTPREMNET/Resources/EP31.pdf Working PapersWhen Open Architecture Beats Closed: The Entrepreneurial Use of Architectural Knowledge Authors:Carliss Y. Baldwin Abstract... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

14 Aug 2012
First Look

First Look: August 14

http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/13-010.pdf IP Modularity: Profiting from Innovation by Aligning Product Architecture with Intellectual Property Authors:Joachim Henkel, Carliss Y. Baldwin, and Willy C. Shih... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

October 2016 (Revised April 2018)
Case

ASICS: Chasing a 2020 Vision

By: Elie Ofek, Nobuo Sato and Akiko Kanno

In early 2016, Motoi Oyama, president and CEO of ASICS, a major sports apparel and footwear manufacturer based in Japan, lays out his company’s growth plan for the upcoming 5 years. The new plan set ambitious goals in terms of revenue and profit increases. At the heart... View Details

Keywords: Brand Management; Sports Apparel; Competitive Positioning; Direct To Consumer Marketing; Retail Formats; Lifestyle Brands; Information Technology; Competition; Brands and Branding; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Digital Platforms; Product Positioning; Marketing Channels; Sports; Retail Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Sports Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

Other Article

Introduction

By: Stefano Brusoni, Joachim Henkel, Michael G Jacobides, Samina Karim, Alan MacCormack, Phanish Puranam and Melissa Schilling

In 2000, Carliss Baldwin and Kim Clark published Design Rules: The Power of Modularity, a book that introduced new ways of understanding and explaining the architecture of complex systems. This Special Issue of Industrial and Corporate Change celebrates... View Details

Keywords: Complex Systems; Industry Structure; Systems Design; Complexity; Organizational Design; Competitive Strategy; Innovation and Management

Read Now

May 2000
Case

Intel 64 Fund

By: G. Felda Hardymon and Ann Leamon

Laila Partridge of Intel's Corporate Business Development group has been charged to create a special investment fund to speed the adoption of a new chip architecture. The last architecture upgrade, from 16 to 32 bits, had needed almost a decade to become fully adopted.... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Investment; Technology Adoption; Innovation and Management; Computer Industry

2012
Working Paper

'Power from Sunshine': A Business History of Solar Energy

By: Geoffrey Jones and Loubna Bouamane

This working paper provides a longitudinal perspective on the business history of solar energy between the nineteenth century and the present day. It covers early attempts to develop solar energy, the use of passive solar in architecture before World War 2, and the... View Details

Keywords: Renewable Energy; Business History; Policy; Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Invention; Business Model; Energy Industry

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December 2008
Article

Which Kind of Collaboration Is Right for You?

By: Roberto Verganti and Gary P. Pisano

Nowadays, virtually no companies innovate alone. Firms team up with a variety of partners, in a wide number of ways, to create new technologies, products, and services. But what is the best way to leverage the power of outsiders? To help executives answer that... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Framework; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Partners and Partnerships; Social and Collaborative Networks; Strategy