Publications

November 2018
Article

Disruptive Innovation: An Intellectual History and Directions for Future Research

By: Clayton M. Christensen, Rory McDonald, Elizabeth J. Altman and Jonathan E. Palmer

The concept of disruptive innovation has gained considerable currency among practitioners despite widespread misunderstanding of its core principles. Similarly, foundational research on disruption has elicited frequent citation and vibrant debate in academic circles,... View Details

Keywords: Innovation Metrics; Systemic Industries; Technology Trajectories; Disruptive Innovation; Theory; History; Competitive Strategy; Research

2022
Case

Can Salesforce Compete in the Carbon Accounting Market?

By: Andrew J. Hoffman

This case describes Salesforce's development of Sustainability Cloud, a suite of software tools built to help companies measure, track, and report carbon emissions and other sustainability metrics. The goal of this case is to provide students with a background and... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Accounting; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Corporate Accountability; Applications and Software

July 2020
Article

Recovering the Logic of Double Effect for Business: Intentions, Proportionality, and Impermissible Harms

By: Rosemarie Monge and Nien-hê Hsieh

Business actors often act in ways that may harm other parties. While the law aims to restrict harmful behavior and to provide remedies, legal systems do not anticipate all contingencies and legal regulations are not always well enforced. This article argues that the... View Details

Keywords: Double Effect; Intention; Exploitation; Risk; Practical Ethics; Competition; Risk and Uncertainty; Ethics

September 2019
Case

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: Shaping the Vaccine Manufacturing Ecosystem

By: Willy C. Shih

Vaccines for children has been a long-standing focus for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and its critical role in public health made its production an important economic and political issue. This case describes the Foundation's investment in a breakthrough vaccine... View Details

Keywords: Vaccine; Production; Supply Chain; Product; Biotechnology Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Belgium

February 2010 (Revised March 2016)
Background Note

Marketing Analysis Toolkit: Break-even Analysis

By: Thomas J. Steenburgh and Jill Avery

Marketing managers are often called upon to make recommendations for or against programs that cost money to implement. Before expenditures are made, managers want to be sure that they will be getting a return on their investment. One way of assessing this is by... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Investment Return; Spending; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Marketing Strategy; Strategic Planning; Mathematical Methods

April 2011 (Revised July 2011)
Case

Renewing GE: The Africa Project (A)

By: David A. Thomas and Stephanie J. Creary

This case profiles the evolution of General Electric's African American Form (AAF), an employee affinity group, and its efforts to increase the company's involvement in Africa. The AAF formed in 1991 to help advance GE's recruitment, retention and development of black... View Details

Keywords: Diversity; Global Strategy; Multinational Firms and Management; Employees; Employee Relationship Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Africa; United States

April 2011
Article

The Origins of Japanese Technological Modernization

By: Tom Nicholas

Explanations of Japanese technological modernization from the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century have increasingly focused on domestic capabilities as opposed to the traditional emphasis on knowledge transfers from the West. Yet, the literature is mostly... View Details

Keywords: Knowledge Sharing; Body of Literature; Innovation and Invention; Technological Innovation; Patents; Measurement and Metrics; Expansion; Growth and Development Strategy; Economic Growth; Developing Countries and Economies; Information Technology; Technology Industry; Japan; Germany; Great Britain; United States

05 May 2021
News

Forget To-Do Lists. You Really Need a 'Got Done' List

Web

Initiatives & Projects - Faculty & Research

that drives investor and managerial decision making. In 2022 the International Foundation for Valuing Impacts (IFVI) grew out of IWA. The research conducted at IWA, and the former IWA team, are now part of IFVI. The Valuation Technical... View Details

Web

Finance Faculty - Faculty & Research

Associate Professor of Business Administration W. Carl Kester Baker Foundation Professor George Fisher Baker Jr. Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus Josh Lerner Jacob H. Schiff Professor of Investment Banking John D. Macomber... View Details

08 Mar 2020
News

The Reflective Leader

Web

Lifelong Learning - Alumni

F. Soltes (McLean Family Professor of Business Administration Unit Head, Accounting and Management); By: Jen McFarland Flint 19 Feb 2024 HBR How Companies Should Weigh In on a Controversy A better approach to stakeholder management Re: Peter Tufano (Baker View Details

Web

Program Requirements - Doctoral

selections. Pre-approval by the TOM faculty coordinator is required if a student wishes to fulfill these requirements with alternative courses. Foundational Courses (2 courses) Innovation Track requirements : A comprehensive two semester... View Details

August 2021
Article

Business Education as If People and the Planet Really Matter

By: Andrew J. Hoffman

Mounting concern over capitalism’s inability to address systemic challenges in our natural world (i.e. climate change) and social world (i.e. income inequality) is prompting reexamination of capitalism within business groups. This article argues that a concurrent... View Details

Keywords: Climate Change; Equality and Inequality; Corporate Governance; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Social Issues; Business Education; Transformation

2023
Working Paper

How Wicked Problems Drive Business Performance: A Review of the Academic Literature

By: Caroline Adelson, Charlotte Kuller, Cate Tompkins, Ellora Sarkar, Samantha Price and Marco Iansiti

Recent years have seen a rise in the number of businesses engaged in the pursuit of “purposeful” activities – that is, activities that engage with the broader community in ways that expand beyond the pursuit of shareholder value. Many of these activities involve... View Details

Keywords: Wicked Problems; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Social Issues; Performance

March 2021 (Revised November 2022)
Case

Blue Meridian Partners (A): Scaling for Impact

By: V. Kasturi Rangan

In 2018, Edna McConnell Clark Foundation in a bold move transferred all its assets to a fund pooled with other General Partners and Limited Partners, called Blue Meridian Partners, to focus substantial long range investments in a few carefully chosen nonprofits.The... View Details

Keywords: Venture Philanthropy; Scaling; COVID-19 Pandemic; Social Justice; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Venture Capital; Business Model; Social Issues; Poverty; Values and Beliefs; Decisions; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Nonprofit Organizations; Investment Portfolio

2015
Chapter

Consumer Neuroscience: Revealing Meaningful Relationships Between Brain and Consumer Behavior

By: Hilke Plassmann and Uma R. Karmarkar

The goal of this chapter is to give an overview of the nascent field of consumer neuroscience and discuss when and how it is useful to integrate the "black box" of the consumer's brain into consumer psychology. To reach this goal, we first briefly outline several... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Behavior; Cognition and Thinking