Publications

January 2019 (Revised February 2020)
Case

Jay Gould, 'The Most Hated Man in America'

By: Tom Nicholas, John Masko and Matthew G. Preble

Railroad magnate Jay Gould, a controversial figure in the history of U.S. capitalism, was a disruptive influence on an industry that had previously relied on formal and informal agreements to move traffic long distances across lines operated by different companies.... View Details

Keywords: Railroads; Gould; Vanderbilt; Rail Transportation; History; Consolidation; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Competition; Strategy; Rail Industry; United States

05 Jun 2019
Research & Ideas

If Your Customers Don't Care What You Charge, What Should You Charge?

An estimated 60 percent of retail gasoline customers return to the same gas station to refuel, without comparison shopping, according to a recent study. Driven by factors such as habit, brand loyalty, switching costs, and search (which... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Energy

18 Apr 2019
Research & Ideas

Open Innovation Contestants Build AI-Based Cancer Tool

article, “Use of Crowd Innovation to Develop an Artificial Intelligence-Based Solution for Radiation Therapy Targeting,” is co-authored by Harvard Business School Professor Karim R. Lakhani and seven colleagues with expertise in radiation... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Health; Medical Devices & Supplies

07 Nov 2011
Research & Ideas

The Forgotten Book that Helped Shape the Modern Economy

affairs, could create national wealth based on manufacturing. This production would be fueled by an imperialistic British Empire, which through its expansion would provide the needed raw materials. The book proved extremely persuasive at... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

19 Sep 2012
Research & Ideas

Funding Innovation: Is Your Firm Doing it Wrong?

labs and venture capital-backed firms, you see that there are both very real strengths and some serious limitations," Lerner says. "Much of the motivation for writing this book was to bridge the gap between the two models." The View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

09 Apr 2008
Research & Ideas

The Matchmaker of the Modern Economy

Boston has always been fueled by an Enlightenment belief in scientific progress and human perfectibility. It is home to America's first public school, Boston Latin School (1635), and college, Harvard College (1636). After the American... View Details

Keywords: by Spencer E. Ante

05 Jul 2006
Working Paper Summaries

Bankers, Industrialists, and Their Cliques: Elite Networks in Mexico and Brazil During Early Industrialization

Keywords: by Aldo Musacchio & Ian Read; Banking

15 Apr 2002
Research & Ideas

In the Virtual Dressing Room Returns Are A Real Problem

decision-making process—color, feel, and fit—are difficult, if not impossible, to communicate "virtually." Moreover, unlike books, music, and consumer electronics, the difficulty in describing the product cannot be offset easily with customer reviews, reviews... View Details

Keywords: by Jan Hammond & Kristin Kohler; Apparel & Accessories; Fashion; Consumer Products; Manufacturing; Retail

May 2014 (Revised July 2016)
Case

RCA: Color Television and the Department of Justice (A)

By: Willy C. Shih and Gregory Dieterich

This case examines the early history of the color television receiver market and the global consequences of an historic 1958 consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice that opened RCA's patents to licensing by domestic competitors royalty-free. This externality... View Details

Keywords: Intellectual Property; Patents; Rights; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Business History; Information Technology; Information Infrastructure; Communications Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Electronics Industry; United States; Japan

April 2003
Case

Energis (A)

By: John R. Wells

Describes the history of Energis, one of the United Kingdom's major alternative telecommunications network service providers (altnets). Tracks the company from its birth as a diversification move by the National Grid, the U.K.'s leading electricity distributor, through... View Details

Keywords: History; Change Management; Business Exit or Shutdown; Business Growth and Maturation; Organizational Structure; Industry Structures; Telecommunications Industry; United Kingdom

2023
Working Paper

Black-box Training Data Identification in GANs via Detector Networks

By: Lukman Olagoke, Salil Vadhan and Seth Neel

Since their inception Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) have been popular generative models across images, audio, video, and tabular data. In this paper we study whether given access to a trained GAN, as well as fresh samples from the underlying distribution, if... View Details

Keywords: Cybersecurity; Copyright; AI and Machine Learning; Analytics and Data Science

Read Now

08 May 2017
News

Americans’ Bizarre Relationship With the Color of Their Food

20 May 2013
Op-Ed

Making America an Industrial Powerhouse Again

Critics have denounced this proposal as yet another government intrusion into the market and a futile attempt to "pick winners." What these critics ignore is that the US government has a long history of investing in research... View Details

Keywords: by Gary Pisano; Manufacturing

07 Jul 2003
Research & Ideas

The Organizational Model for Open Source

for managers who do not have intimate knowledge of the content of their work. This emphasis on demonstration of capabilities is even more critical in the open source community. One earns the respect of peers by demonstrating skills and... View Details

Keywords: by Mallory Stark

March 2004 (Revised April 2006)
Case

St. Louis: Inner-City Economic Development

By: Michael E. Porter, Anne S. Habiby and Joanne Lasala

Describes the history and challenges of the economically distressed inner city areas of St. Louis, a major U.S. metropolitan area. Profiles regional and inner city economics and describes a new effort by community leaders to develop and implement a strategy to... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Leading Change; Urban Development; Problems and Challenges; Public Administration Industry; Saint Louis