Publications

2009
Article

Feeling the Heat: The Effects of Performance Pressure on Teams' Knowledge Use and Performance

By: Heidi K. Gardner

Why do some teams fail to use their members' knowledge effectively, even after having correctly identified each other's expertise? This paper identifies performance pressure as a critical barrier to effective knowledge utilization in teams. I theorize that performance... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Performance Effectiveness; Performance Expectations; Groups and Teams

Research Summary

The Strategic Management of Technology

Clayton M. Christensen's research on the management of technological innovation suggests that for leading firms in a wide variety of industries, developing advanced technologies per se is rarely the constraining challenge in technological innovation. Rather, the... View Details

08 Jun 2009
Research & Ideas

The Return of the Salesman

products with new inventions. But a strong sales force could also create a barrier to entry as in the case of IBM. Tom Watson himself noted that even though IBM did not always... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail

March 2021
Teaching Plan

The Black New Venture Competition

By: Karen G. Mills, Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Martin A. Sinozich and Gabriella Elanbeck

Black entrepreneurs encounter many unique obstacles when raising capital to start and grow a business, some stemming from deep systemic discrimination. During their second year at Harvard Business School (HBS), MBA students Kimberly Foster and Tyler Simpson decided to... View Details

28 Apr 2010
Research & Ideas

Earth Day Reflections

also examine the strategic and organizational barriers that corporations face in making more efficient use of natural resources or deciding to invest in sustainable technologies. There are four major... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

November 2012 (Revised September 2013)
Case

Learning Resources: A Hands-On Toy Company Deals with New Challenges and Opportunities

By: Boris Groysberg and Anahita Hashemi

Learning Resources is a family-owned educational toy company that, by late 2011, was facing a myriad of challenges, including increased competition, entry into new markets, new distribution methods, rising costs of production in China, and changing customer behavior.... View Details

Keywords: Leading Teams; Strategy Formulation; Strategy And Execution; Innovation; Corporate Culture; Industry Analysis; Organizational Alignment; Entrepreneurs; Sales Channels; Leadership; Strategy; Change Management; Innovation Leadership; Family Business; Entrepreneurship; Product Design; Sales; Retail Industry; United States

Educators

January 2020
Case

Celata Bioinnovations

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In December 2019, Jon Hu (HBS ‘19) and Dr. Samantha Dale Strasser, co-founders of Celata Bioinnovations, were raising $1 million to launch their company. They had founded Celata less than six months earlier with the aim of redefining the drug discovery process.... View Details

Educators

January–February 2025
Article

Why People Resist Embracing AI

By: Julian De Freitas

The success of AI depends not only on its capabilities, which are becoming more advanced each day, but on people’s willingness to harness them. Unfortunately, many people view AI negatively, fearing it will cause job losses, increase the likelihood that their personal... View Details

Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Technology Adoption; Perception

September 1995 (Revised October 1995)
Case

Transcape Systems: Creating a Market

Entrepreneurial companies must overcome substantial barriers to create markets for innovative products in industries reluctant to embrace change. Transcape Systems faces this callenge as it attempts to create a market for interactive multimedia software in the... View Details

Keywords: Market Entry and Exit; Applications and Software; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Product Marketing; Information Technology Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Health Industry

March 2011 (Revised May 2011)
Case

China Construction America (A): The Road Ahead

How did a Chinese state-owned construction company strike one deal after another in South Carolina despite political backlash and in New York where well-established competitors dominate? The case examines the U.S. market entry strategy of the CSCEC, China's leading... View Details

Keywords: Foreign Direct Investment; Global Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Negotiation Deal; State Ownership; Construction Industry; China; United States

Educators

16 May 2012
Research & Ideas

Can Decades of Military Overspending be Fixed?

Fox, the Tiampo Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus, analyzes efforts since the Kennedy administration to reform defense spending on aircraft, ships, submarines, tanks, missiles, satellites and other major weapons systems. The... View Details

Keywords: by J. Ronald Fox; Service

01 May 2018
HBS Seminar

Davidson Heath, University of Utah

28 Mar 2023
HBS Seminar

Isabel Fernandez-Mateo, London Business School

15 Sep 2016
News

US political system risks economic competitiveness, study finds

July 2014
Article

Convergence of Position Auctions under Myopic Best-Response Dynamics

By: Matthew Cary, Aparna Das, Benjamin Edelman, Ioannis Giotis, Kurtis Heimerl, Anna Karlin, Scott Duke Kominers, Claire Mathieu and Michael Schwarz

We study the dynamics of multi-round position auctions, considering both the case of exogenous click-through rates and the case in which click-through rates are determined by an endogenous consumer search process. In both contexts, we demonstrate that the dynamic... View Details

Keywords: Sponsored Search; Advertising; Google; Equilibrium Selection; Online Advertising; Advertising Industry

May 2017
Article

When Discounts Raise Costs: The Effect of Copay Coupons on Generic Utilization

By: Leemore S. Dafny, Christopher Ody and Matt Schmitt

Branded pharmaceutical manufacturers frequently offer “copay coupons” that insulate consumers from cost sharing, thereby undermining insurers’ ability to influence drug utilization. We study the impact of copay coupons on branded drugs first facing generic entry... View Details

Keywords: Brands and Branding; Insurance Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

Branded pharmaceutical manufacturers frequently offer “copay coupons” that insulate consumers from cost-sharing, thereby undermining insurers’ ability to influence drug utilization. We study the impact of copay coupons on branded drugs first facing generic entry... View Details

2016
Article

Peer-to-Peer Markets

By: Liran Einav, Chiara Farronato and Jonathan Levin

Peer-to-peer markets such as eBay, Uber, and Airbnb allow small suppliers to compete with traditional providers of goods or services. We view the primary function of these markets as making it easy for buyers to find sellers and engage in convenient, trustworthy... View Details

Keywords: Peer-to-peer; Online Platforms; Matching; Innovation; Digital Platforms; Marketplace Matching; Market Design; Internet and the Web; Technology Adoption; Network Effects; Market Entry and Exit