Publications

November 2024
Supplement

AlphaGo (C): Birth of a New Intelligence

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Shweta Bagai

This case, the final of a three-part series, explores DeepMind's pivotal transition from mastering games to solving real-world scientific challenges. In December 2020, DeepMind's AI system AlphaFold 2 achieved a breakthrough by solving protein folding—a 50-year-old... View Details

Keywords: Autonomy; Deep Learning; Drug Discovery; Healthcare Innovation; Neural Networks; Scientific Research; Technology Startup; AI and Machine Learning; Technological Innovation; Research and Development; Business Model; Business Strategy; Open Source Distribution; Technology Industry; United States

Article

What Really Motivates Workers

By: Teresa M. Amabile and Steve J. Kramer

This essay appears in "The HBR List: Breakthrough Ideas for 2010," which is compiled by this journal in collaboration with the World Economic Forum. The ten problems and the innovative solutions are discussed in each essay. This particular essay describes research... View Details

Keywords: Problems and Challenges; Innovation and Invention; Research; Performance Improvement; Managerial Roles; Motivation and Incentives; Creativity

Find at Harvard

November 1991 (Revised April 1994)
Case

Taco Bell Corp.

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger and Roger H. Hallowell

John Martin, Taco Bell CEO, brings the company into line with its competitors through incremental change during the 1980s. In the early 1990s, he adopts breakthrough approaches to improve service levels while reducing prices, providing a distinct competitive advantage.... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Food; Competitive Advantage; Innovation and Management; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

12 Jun 2018
Research & Ideas

In a Landscape of 'Me Too' Drug Development, What Spurs Radical Innovation?

ubingruo New research finds that large pharmaceutical companies, typically conservative in their pursuit of novel drug development, are more willing to undertake radical innovation after receiving an unexpected cash windfall. The... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Health; Pharmaceutical

June 1994 (Revised March 1995)
Background Note

New Product Commercialization: Common Mistakes

By: V. Kasturi Rangan

Addresses the common mistakes made in new product development and launch. Many times customers' and suppliers' perceptions of the degree of product/market innovation do not match. One of them may view the innovations as a "breakthrough," but the other may view it only... View Details

Keywords: Product Development; Product Launch; Problems and Challenges

11 May 2010
First Look

First Look: May 11

PublicationsBlock-by-Blockbuster Innovation Author:Rosabeth Moss Kanter Publication:Harvard Business Review 88, no. 5 (May 2010) An abstract is unavailable at this time. Preview the Article:... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

2024
Working Paper

Gastrointestinal Endoscopy--Without Cutting In: Case Histories of Transformational Advances

By: Amar Bhidé, Srikant M. Datar and Katherine Stebbins

This case history describes how endoscopy transformed the diagnosis of ulcers, cancerous polyps, and other alimentary canal diseases and enabled “minimally invasive” surgeries to treat such diseases. Specifically, we chronicle how: 1) flexible glass fiber endoscopes... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Technological Innovation; Innovation Strategy; Technology Adoption; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Invention; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms

SSRN

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30 Jan 2024
Research & Ideas

‘Intrinsic Joy’ Sparks Ideas Better than Cash

Users typically share their innovations so that others may benefit. In the fast-moving world of machine learning, many breakthroughs rely on open source tools, including Python libraries, the authors write.... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Technology

10 Jun 2002
Research & Ideas

Disruption: The Art of Framing

When we perceive a competitor's groundbreaking innovation as a threat, we may act defensively and hastily. But if we see that same event as an opportunity, our response might be more deliberate and unhurried. As a leader, how you frame... View Details

Keywords: by Clark Gilbert & Joseph L. Bower

Teaching Interest

Executive Education - Owner/President Management Program

By: Martin A. Sinozich

Delivered in three units that span 24 months over three calendar years, the Owner/President Management (OPM) program is a transformative learning experience that boosts leadership skills and the value of participants’ enterprises. Sinozich teaches the Finance... View Details

March 5, 2022
Article

Hospital Capacity Shortages: An SEC-Backed Transparency “PULL” Will Open Beds Faster Than a “PUSH” by HHS

By: Regina E. Herzlinger

In the new normal of ongoing pandemics, hospital bed shortages will continue. Healthcare innovation expert and author of the upcoming book Innovating in Healthcare: Creating Breakthrough Services, Products, and Business Models (Wiley, 2023, 978-1119543008), HBS... View Details

Keywords: Hospital Capacity; Access To Care; Health Pandemics; Health Care and Treatment; Performance Capacity; Planning

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2017
Chapter

Entrepreneurship in Larger Companies

By: William R. Kerr

Entrepreneurship in large and established companies is vital for their long-term success. Incumbent firms face many challenges ranging from global competition to digitization. In times past, being caught flat-footed might have set a company back several years, but it... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship

September 2020 (Revised May 2024)
Case

Hot Wheels: Launching The Mixed Play Experience

By: Elie Ofek, Andres Terech and Nicole Tempest Keller

Chris Down, Global Brand General Manager for Hot Wheels, and his team from the Advanced Play Group within Mattel, Inc., had developed an entirely new “mixed play” product experience that blended familiar Hot Wheels play in the physical world with breakthrough play in... View Details

Keywords: Toys; Go-to-market Strategy; Product Development; Technological Innovation; Product Launch; Product Positioning; Decision Making; Marketing; Strategy; Los Angeles

April 2023 (Revised February 2024)
Case

AI Wars

By: Andy Wu, Matt Higgins, Miaomiao Zhang and Hang Jiang

In February 2024, the world was looking to Google to see what the search giant and long-time putative technical leader in artificial intelligence (AI) would do to compete in the massively hyped technology of generative AI. Over a year ago, OpenAI released ChatGPT, a... View Details

Keywords: AI; Artificial Intelligence; AI and Machine Learning; Technology Adoption; Competitive Strategy; Technological Innovation

23 Oct 2007
First Look

First Look: October 23, 2007

diffusion of over 20 specific technologies in the UK. Section 6 presents a simple model of endogenous technological change and diffusion that is consistent with the evidence presented before. Breakthroughs and the "Long Tail" of... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

April 1999
Teaching Note

Dimensions of Technology Strategy: Managing Innovation: Overview Teaching Note for Module 5

By: Clayton M. Christensen

Provides instructors with an overview teaching note for the technology strategy module of the course. The cases in the module give students insights about several issues in technology strategy. These include: 1) Whether to be a technological leader or follower; 2)... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Investment Return; Innovation and Management; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Managerial Roles; Performance Improvement; Problems and Challenges; Research; Strategy; Technology

March 2012 (Revised December 2012)
Case

Foro Energy (A)

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III, William A. Sahlman and James McQuade

Foro Energy developed proprietary and patent-pending fiber-laser technologies that could disrupt existing processes and services for the exploration and production of oil and natural gas. These breakthrough laser technologies were protected by a strong intellectual... View Details

Keywords: Disruptive Innovation; Growth and Development Strategy; Entrepreneurship; United States

November 2001 (Revised August 2002)
Case

Audio Spotlight, The

By: Youngme E. Moon

Joe Pompei, a graduate student at the MIT Media Lab, has invented a breakthrough audio invention. The invention is an "Audio Spotlight" that projects a narrow beam of sound in the same way a laser beam projects a narrow beam of light. He must now decide how to... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Independent Innovation and Invention; Marketing; Demand and Consumers; Value Creation

Article

Lone Inventors as Sources of Technological Breakthroughs: Myth or Reality?

Are lone inventors more or less likely to invent breakthroughs? Recent research has attempted to resolve this question by considering the variance of creative outcome distributions. It has implicitly assumed a symmetric thickening or thinning of both tails, i.e., that... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Independent Innovation and Invention; Patents; Groups and Teams; Creativity