Publications

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1996
Chapter

The Determinants of Research Productivity in Ethical Drug Discovery

By: Rebecca M. Henderson and Ian Cockburn

Keywords: Ethics; Health Testing and Trials; Research and Development; Performance Productivity; Pharmaceutical Industry

06 Aug 2024
Cold Call Podcast

How EdTech Firm Coursera Is Incorporating GenAI into Its Products and Services

Keywords: Re: Suraj Srinivasan; Education; Technology

Research Summary

The Toyota Production System: Rules for Activity, Connection, and Pathway Design and Improvement

Researchers have established that Toyota enjoys advantages in cost, quality, lead time, and flexibility when compared to its competitors in automobile assembly. Differences in generating value have been attributed to differences between the Toyota Production System... View Details

September 2008 (Revised July 2012)
Case

Khosla Ventures: Biofuels Strategy

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III, William A. Sahlman and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld

By 2008, a number of the firm's early cleantech investments were showing promise, and the companies were starting to need significantly more money to create the massive scale required in the energy sector. As Khosla thought about the hundreds of millions of dollars... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Marketing; Entrepreneurial Finance; New Product Development; Partnerships; Entrepreneurial Management; Venture Capital; Strategy; Partners and Partnerships; Renewable Energy; Entrepreneurship; Investment Funds; Environmental Sustainability; Product Development; Biotechnology Industry; Financial Services Industry

October 2015 (Revised October 2016)
Case

Building Watson: Not So Elementary, My Dear! (Abridged)

By: Willy C. Shih

This case is set inside IBM Research's efforts to build a computer that can successfully take on human challengers playing the game show Jeopardy! It opens with the machine named Watson offering the incorrect answer "Toronto" to a seemingly simple question during the... View Details

Keywords: Analytics; Big Data; Business Analytics; Product Development Strategy; Machine Learning; Machine Intelligence; Artificial Intelligence; Product Development; AI and Machine Learning; Information Technology; Analytics and Data Science; Information Technology Industry; United States

2001
Chapter

Publicly Funded Science and the Productivity of the Pharmaceutical Industry

By: Rebecca Henderson and Ian Cockburn

U.S. taxpayers funded $14.8 billion of health related research last year, four times the amount that was spent in 1970 in real terms. In this paper we evaluate the impact of these huge expenditures on the technological performance of the pharmaceutical industry. While... View Details

Keywords: Public Sector; Science-Based Business; Research and Development; Sovereign Finance; Pharmaceutical Industry

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November 2009 (Revised December 2009)
Case

GTC Biotherapeutics: Developing Medicines in the Milk of Goats

By: Ray A. Goldberg and Sarah Morton

GTC is the first company in the animal world to receive FDA approval of a transgenic pharmaceutical. What are the implications for other firms in plants and animals and their opportunities to produce new medicines in an economical and safe fashion? View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Animal-Based Agribusiness; Plant-Based Agribusiness; Science-Based Business; Medical Specialties; Product; Technological Innovation; Health Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

09 Dec 2015
Research Event

How Do You Predict Demand and Set Prices For Products Never Sold Before?

predict demand and set prices to maximize revenue of products that have no historical sales data? To that end, they set out to develop a pricing decision support tool that would use existing data to maximize... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Retail; Apparel & Accessories

December 1999
Case

Sun Microsystems, Inc. (A2): Network Visions: Mike Clary on the Product that Hid in HR

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Jane Roessner

Chief scientist Bill Joy of Sun Microsystems, Inc. had a vision for a new product called "Jini": a network computing piece of infrastructure that would reinforce Sun's leadership role in the industry for helping define how the Internet and networking technology... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Information Technology; Information Infrastructure; Internet and the Web; Media; Product Development; Communication; Innovation and Management; Technology Industry; Computer Industry

November 2018 (Revised April 2019)
Case

Zespri Grows

By: David E. Bell and Natalie Kindred

Controlling about a third of global kiwifruit exports by volume and nearly half by value in 2018, Zespri was a grower-owned “corporatized cooperative” with the exclusive right to export New Zealand-grown kiwifruit (except to Australia). Zespri did not grow fruit but... View Details

August 2022
Article

Regulatory Considerations to Keep Pace with Innovation in Digital Health Products

By: John Torous, Ariel Dora Stern and Florence T. Bourgeois

Rapid innovation and proliferation of software as a medical device have accelerated the clinical use of digital technologies across a wide array of medical conditions. Current regulatory pathways were developed for traditional (hardware) medical devices and offer a... View Details

Keywords: Emerging Technologies; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Innovation and Invention; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

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07 Sep 2012
Working Paper Summaries

IP Modularity: Profiting from Innovation by Aligning Product Architecture with Intellectual Property

Keywords: by Joachim Henkel, Carliss Y. Baldwin & Willy C. Shih

August 1988 (Revised September 1988)
Case

Productivity and Performance Systems: A Comparative Analysis of Northern Telecom and United Parcel Service

Explores the issue of measuring and improving service quality and productivity by examining the radically different approaches of Northern Telecom and United Parcel Service. View Details

Keywords: Management Practices and Processes; Performance Productivity; Performance Improvement; Performance Evaluation; Service Industry; United States

01 Feb 2000
News

Better Mousetraps: At Product Design Fair, Student Ideas Get Real

Actually, we like to see them fail as often and as early as possible," Assistant Professor Stefan H. Thomke said with a wink as he watched students in his elective MBA course Managing Product Development... View Details

Keywords: Margie Kelley

Web

Economic Development in Inner Cities - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

HBS ISC Competitiveness & Economic Development CED Competitiveness & Economic Development Frameworks & Key Concepts Research & Applications Research & Applications Research & Applications National... View Details

2015
Case

Advanced Leadership Pathways: Robert Meaney and Technology for Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Renee Vuillaume

Two Valmont Industries (an international leader in infrastructure products and services) colleagues, Robert (Bob) Meaney and Richard Berkland hoped to improve the lives of small and medium-sized farmers in the developing world through modern irrigation technology. In... View Details

February 2015 (Revised June 2016)
Case

AltSchool: School Reimagined

By: John J-H Kim, Kyla Wilkes and Christine S. An

Max Ventilla and his team launches in 2013 AltSchool, a new network of tech-savvy independent K-8 "micro-schools." AltSchool is born out of Ventilla's frustration with the education options available for his young daughter. During his search, Ventilla comes to the... View Details

Keywords: Education Technology; School Models; Product Development; Entrepreneurship; Talent Development And Retention; Social Impact Investment; Information Technology; Business Model; Education; Business Startups; Customization and Personalization; Growth and Development Strategy; Education Industry; United States

21 Nov 2023
Op-Ed

The Beauty Industry: Products for a Healthy Glow or a Compact for Harm?

In my recently published book Deeply Responsible Business, I write about business leaders since the 19th century who have acted responsibly, often by putting the welfare of their communities above the idea of maximizing profits. I make a sharp distinction between... View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones; Beauty & Cosmetics

February 2018
Article

Development and Feasibility of Bundled Payments for the Multidisciplinary Treatment of Head and Neck Cancer: A Pilot Program

By: Tracy Spinks, Alexis Guzman, Beth M. Beadle, Seohyun Lee, Ron Walters, Jim Incalcaterra, Ehab Hanna, Amy Hessel, Randal Weber, Sandra Denney, Lee Newcomer and Thomas W. Feeley

Purpose: Despite growing interest in bundled payments to reduce the costs of care, this payment method remains largely untested in cancer. This 3-year pilot tested the feasibility of a 1-year bundled payment for the multidisciplinary treatment of head and neck... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Cost Management