Publications

December 1998 (Revised March 1999)
Case

Disruptive Technology a Heartbeat Away: Ecton, Inc.

By: Clayton M. Christensen and Edward G Cape

Describes an innovating start-up company with a disruptive technology to the large, expensive echocardiography machines that leading cardiologists use to create images of heart functions for diagnostic purposes. Ecton's machine is small, cheap, portable, and can't... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Disruption; Machinery and Machining; Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Invention; Marketing; Product; Commercialization; Technology; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

30 Oct 2018
News

Global talent fosters innovation and collaborative patents

July–August 2024
Article

The Middle Path to Innovation

By: Regina E. Herzlinger, Duke Rohlen, Ben Creo and Will Kynes

Too many companies are failing to innovate. One reason, say the authors, is the polarized approach companies take to innovation. At one end of the spectrum, corporate R&D efforts tend to focus on product refreshes and incremental line upgrades that generate modest... View Details

Keywords: Innovation Strategy; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

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27 Oct 2022
News

4 Types of Innovators Every Organization Needs

01 Mar 2018
HBS Seminar

Ajay Agrawal, University of Toronto Rotman School of Management

2019
Book

The Wise Company: How Companies Create Continuous Innovation

By: Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi

High-velocity change is the fundamental challenge facing companies today. Few companies, however, are prepared to continuously innovate—because they focus on the short-term and do not emphasize the wisdom needed to make sure that their interests are aligned with those... View Details

Keywords: Knowledge; Wise Leadership; Leaders; Innovation; Knowledge Management; Leadership; Innovation and Invention; Organizational Change and Adaptation

2011
Other Unpublished Work

Innovation and Regulative Ambiguities in the U.S. Geothermal Power Sector

By: Shon R. Hiatt

While prior institutional research has focused on institutional ambiguity as an exogenous condition under which organizations exercise agency, this study examines the state's exercise of agency in making legal institutions more or less ambiguous and its impact on... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Policy; Energy Sources; Innovation and Invention; Energy Industry; United States

November 2007
Article

Innovation and Incentives: Evidence from Corporate R&D

By: Josh Lerner and Julie Wulf

Beginning in the late 1980s, American corporations began increasingly linking the compensation of central research personnel to the economic objectives of the corporation. This paper examines the impact of the shifting compensation of the heads of corporate research... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Motivation and Incentives; Goals and Objectives; Research and Development; Patents; Employee Stock Ownership Plan

March–April 2025
Article

Getting Value from Digital Technologies

By: Frank Cespedes and Georg Krentzel

Companies need digital technologies in an omni-channel buying world where online and in-person interactions are complements, not either/or substitutes. Multi-channel hybrid sales solutions are required, but what are the key requirements for using the available... View Details

Keywords: Sales; Technology Adoption; Competitive Advantage

2012
Working Paper

When Do User Innovators Start Firms? A Theory of User Entrepreneurship

A rich and distinguished body of research has documented the importance of user innovations. For the most part, this literature has found that users innovate but do not commercialize their innovations. Instead, users benefit from using their innovations and allow... View Details

Keywords: Customers; Commercialization; Emerging Markets; Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Invention

August 2018
Case

MISHA: Modernizing the World of Shisha

By: William R. Kerr and Gamze Yucaoglu

The case opens in 2017 with two of the five co-founders of MISHA telling the company’s CEO Michal Portz that they believe it is time for the global venture to shut down its operations and cease investments. Portz and another co-founder believe MISHA can still... View Details

Keywords: Innovation And Management; Entrepreneurship; Private Sector; For-profit Firms; Business Strategy; Decision; Business Startups; Emerging Markets; Business Model; Marketing Strategy; Distribution Channels; Market Entry and Exit; Growth and Development Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Value Creation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Technology Industry; Qatar; United States

17 Apr 2008
Working Paper Summaries

Diffusing Management Practices within the Firm: The Role of Information Provision

Keywords: by Michael J. Lenox & Michael W. Toffel; Technology

30 Nov 2017
News

Law, Management, and Strategy: Collapsing Boundaries and Managing the Interstices

Working Paper

Diversification as an Adaptive Learning Process: An Empirical Study of General-Purpose and Market-Specific Technological Know-How in New Market Entry

By: Dominika Kinga Randle and Gary P. Pisano

An enduring trait of modern corporations is their propensity to diversify into multiple lines of business. Penrosian theories conceptualize diversification as a strategy to exploit a firm’s fungible, yet “untradeable,” resources and point to redeployment of... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Technology Adoption; Diversification; Market Entry and Exit; Transformation

14 Dec 2010
News

A Career Focused on Innovation and Manufacturing

Keywords: Transportation Equipment Manufacturing; Manufacturing

June 2009 (Revised March 2011)
Module Note

The Creative Industries: Managing and Marketing Talent

By: Anita Elberse

This module note examines issues concerning the management and marketing of talent in the creative industries. It describes the characteristics of the market for creative talent, discusses how individual talent creates and captures value, and explores how professional... View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Entertainment; Innovation and Management; Marketing; Creativity; Value

August 1995 (Revised November 2000)
Background Note

Designing and Managing the Information Age Organization

By: Lynda M. Applegate

Managers and management theorists spent the majority of this century building and perfecting the hierarchy; however, if we believe the press, they now appear to be engaged in destroying it. While many proclaim the dawning of the "Information Age" organization and the... View Details

Keywords: Design; Management; Organizations; Information Technology

2 Dec 2021
Interview

How To Make Healthcare Innovation Happen

By: Regina E. Herzlinger

Regina Herzlinger has been called “the godmother of consumer-driven healthcare” because of her groundbreaking scholarly articles and books on the subject. As a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School for nearly 50 years, her focus has supported... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Innovation and Invention

May 2011
Article

Incentives and Problem Uncertainty in Innovation Contests: An Empirical Analysis

By: Kevin J. Boudreau, Nicola Lacetera and Karim R. Lakhani

Contests are a historically important and increasingly popular mechanism for encouraging innovation. A central concern in designing innovation contests is how many competitors to admit. Using a unique data set of 9,661 software contests, we provide evidence of two... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Problems and Challenges; Risk and Uncertainty; Innovation and Invention; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Value; Applications and Software; Competition; Performance; Theory; Practice