Publications

May 1996 (Revised March 2005)
Case

Bombardier TEG (A)

By: Stephen P. Bradley and Takia Mahmood

Bombardier, a Canadian manufacturer of passenger railcars and market leader in the United States, faces aggressive competition from a new entrant, U.S.-owned Morrison Knudsen, that has come into the industry with closely related capabilities in engineering and... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Goals and Objectives; Strategy; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Rail Transportation; Manufacturing Industry; Rail Industry; Canada; United States

06 Jan 2010
What Do You Think?

Is a Stringent Climate Change Agreement a Pot of Gold?

Summing Up Do we even need a stringent climate change agreement? Judging from this month's comments, a question can be raised about the necessity of a climate change agreement, stringent or not, as a catalyst to foster innovation and the... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett; Energy; Utilities

International Differences in Entrepreneurship (National Bureau of Economic Research Conference Report)

Often considered one of the major forces behind economic growth and development, the entrepreneurial firm can accelerate the speed of innovation and dissemination of new technologies, thus increasing a country's competitive edge in the... View Details

Strategy - Doctoral

Strategy The doctoral program in Strategy encourages students to pursue multi-disciplinary research that utilizes multiple methodologies—quantitative, as well as qualitative—to study how companies and industries around the world develop and sustain View Details

12 Oct 2017
Blog Post

Why I Spent this Summer Coding

The summer between RC and EC year represents a great opportunity for risk-free exploration. Encouraged by our outcome at the New Venture Competition and the funding I would receive as a Rock Summer Fellow, I forwent a business internship... View Details

October 1993 (Revised September 1994)
Case

Becton Dickinson: Worldwide Blood Collection Team

By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Kathleen Scharf

Describes Becton Dickinson's evolving attempt to develop products and strategies to meet worldwide competitive and market needs. Traces the evolution of a classic parent company-led product-market strategy to truly transnational product and strategy development.... View Details

Keywords: Global Strategy; Product Development; Innovation and Management; Competitive Advantage; Multinational Firms and Management

Video

Dr. Raghunath Mashelkar

Dr. Raghunath Mashelkar, former Director General of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), speaks on competition between India and China as it relates to innovation, arguing that investment from industry should be increased to bolster India’s global... View Details

06 Oct 2010
Research & Ideas

John Kotter: Four Ways to Kill a Good Idea

inside a firm. With effort, some people did develop an innovative vision of what changes would be needed and a smart strategy of how to make those changes. Then, in trying to explain this to others and achieve sufficient buy-in, the... View Details

Keywords: by John Kotter & Lorne A. Whitehead

2010
Book

International Differences in Entrepreneurship

By: Josh Lerner and Antoinette Schoar

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Economic Growth; Entrepreneurship; Globalized Economies and Regions; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Supply and Industry; Business and Government Relations

Find at Harvard

Eliminate Strategic Overload

As companies respond to intensifying competitive pressures and challenges, they ask more and more of their employees. But organizations often have very little to show for the efforts of their talented and engaged workers. By selecting fewer initiatives with... View Details

10 Apr 2014
Research & Ideas

Book Excerpt--‘Accelerate: Building Strategic Agility for a Faster-Moving World’

supports the opposite conclusion. As long as the world is not changing much, the competition is not too fierce, and the strategic challenges are limited, you can survive with this reality. Performance measures may look very good. But: A... View Details

Keywords: Re: John P. Kotter

June 1998 (Revised January 2001)
Case

Browser Wars, 1994-1998, The

By: David B. Yoffie and Mary Kwak

Analyzes the competition between Netscape and Microsoft in the market for Web browsers and related products. Despite its first mover advantage, Netscape sees its market share fall once Microsoft becomes "hard-core" about the Internet. By the spring of 1998, the future... View Details

Keywords: Applications and Software; Internet and the Web; Innovation and Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Competition; Supply and Industry; Information Technology Industry

16 Dec 2014
First Look

First Look: December 16

rungs to catch up with dirty technology and because this gap discourages research effort directed towards clean technologies. Carbon taxes and research subsidies may nonetheless encourage production and innovation in clean technologies,... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Program

Risk Management for Corporate Leaders—Virtual

innovative strategies by better identification and mitigation of the attendant risks. This program is eligible for the Certificate of Management Excellence. Learn More Key Benefits In this live online course, you will examine the latest... View Details

March 2002 (Revised May 2003)
Case

Supply Chain Close-Up: The Video Vault

By: V.G. Narayanan and Lisa Brem

The owners of the Video Vault struggle to determine the optimal stocking levels of home videos in an industry fraught with new technology, new pricing paradigms, and stiff competitive pressure from large national chains. Teaching Purpose: To demonstrate the role of... View Details

Keywords: Supply Chain Management; Competition; Motivation and Incentives; Price; Technological Innovation; Service Delivery; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

Entrepreneurship

main pathways HBS Entrepreneurial Insights Hear directly from HBS Entrepreneurs 2025 New Venture Competition Learn more about this year's event. 2025 Rock Accelerator Press Release Learn more about the Entrepreneurship Journey at HBS HBS... View Details

March 2021
Case

VideaHealth: Building the AI Factory

By: Karim R. Lakhani and Amy Klopfenstein

Florian Hillen, co-founder and CEO of VideaHealth, a startup that used artificial intelligence (AI) to detect dental conditions on x-rays, spent the early years of his company laying the groundwork for an AI factory. A process for quickly building and iterating on new... View Details

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence; Innovation and Invention; Disruptive Innovation; Technological Innovation; Information Technology; Applications and Software; Technology Adoption; Digital Platforms; Entrepreneurship; AI and Machine Learning; Technology Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; North and Central America; United States; Massachusetts; Cambridge

January 1996
Case

Outrage in Cyberspace: CompuServe and the GIF Patent

By: Josh Lerner and Benjamin Conway

CompuServe, an online services vendor, informs its software developers that they must enter into a licensing agreement to use the popular GIF compression. CompuServe claims that it is forced to do so because Unisys is enforcing its patent rights in this area. Others... View Details

Keywords: Patents; Technological Innovation; Internet and the Web; Information Technology; Competitive Strategy; Internet and the Web; Web Services Industry