Publications

Scaling Minority Businesses (SMB) is an MBA elective that focuses on the unique challenges that Black and Latinx business owners face as they scale. The course was created by Professor Bussgang and his colleagues Professors Archie Jones and Henry McGee. View Details

18 Aug 2010
Working Paper Summaries

The Role of Organizational Scope and Governance in Strengthening Private Monitoring

Keywords: by Lamar Pierce & Michael W. Toffel

November 2014 (Revised January 2017)
Case

Micromax: Scaling the Largest Indian Mobile Handset Company

By: Ranjay Gulati, Rachna Tahilyani and Alicia DeSantola

It is January 2014 and Rahul Sharma, cofounder of Micromax Informatics (Micromax), the largest Indian mobile handset company, is preparing for an emergency conference call with his private equity investors. In the last six years, Micromax had grown its annual product... View Details

Keywords: Mobile; Scaling; Indian Software Development; Consumer Behavior; Management Turnover; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Management; E-commerce; Technology Industry; Telecommunications Industry; India

November 2021
Article

Corporate Strategy and the Theory of the Firm in the Digital Age

By: Markus Menz, Sven Kunisch, Julian Birkinshaw, David J. Collis, Nicolai J. Foss, Robert E. Hoskisson and John Prescott

The purpose of this article is to reinvigorate research in the intersection of corporate strategy and the theory of the firm in light of the rapid advancement of digital technologies. Using the theory of the firm as an interpretive lens, we focus our analysis on the... View Details

Keywords: Digitalization; Multi-business Firm; Scale And Scope; Theory Of The Firm; Corporate Strategy; Technological Innovation; Competitive Advantage; Organizational Design; Theory; Research; Digital Transformation

February 2017 (Revised February 2022)
Background Note

Creating and Sustaining Competitive Advantage

By: Eric Van den Steen

This note gives students a systematic and comprehensive framework for analyzing and developing competitive advantage. It pays explicit attention to both creating and sustaining advantage and considers both alignment and assets as sources of advantage. View Details

Keywords: Scope; Scale; Competitive Dynamics; Value Proposition; Bargaining Power; Competitive Advantage; Assets; Alignment; Business Strategy; Design

October 2024
Case

Parexel: Scaling Up and Industry Dynamics

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Ben Creo

Through the lens of biopharmaceutical contract research organization (CRO) PAREXEL, this case traces the evolution of the firm as it reinvents itself in response to the transformation of the CRO sector from a small, secondary cluster of firms into a major player with... View Details

Keywords: Research; Innovation and Invention; Business Model; Transformation; Globalization; Information Technology; Competitive Advantage; Pharmaceutical Industry

In the past decade, online controlled experimentation, or A/B testing, at scale has proved to be a significant driver of business innovation. The practice was first pioneered by the technology sector and, more recently, has been adopted by traditional companies... View Details

Teaching Interest

Scaling Technology Ventures

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport

This course is designed for students who plan to launch or join a hypergrowth technology venture, or who plan to invest in growth-stage tech companies. The course addresses key challenges founders and their teams face after achieving product-market fit – and how... View Details

March 1998
Article

The Dynamics of Learning Alliances: Competition, Cooperation, and Relative Scope

By: Ranjay Gulati, Tarun Khanna and Nitin Nohria

Keywords: Alliances; Learning; Cooperation

Article

The Scope of Open Source Licensing

By: Josh Lerner and Jean Tirole

Keywords: Technology

Article

Online Experimentation: Benefits, Operational and Methodological Challenges, and Scaling Guide

By: Iavor Bojinov and Somit Gupta

In the past decade, online controlled experimentation, or A/B testing, at scale has proved to be a significant driver of business innovation. The practice was first pioneered by the technology sector and, more recently, has been adopted by traditional companies... View Details

Keywords: A/B Testing; Experimentation; Data-driven Culture; Product Development; Innovation and Invention; Digital Transformation

30 Jun 2022
News

Scaling Hope

Photos by Benjamin Norman In 2014, Stephen D’Antonio (MBA 1986) was living the life he had always envisioned. He’d been a partner at Morgan Stanley for nearly two decades. He sat on the Firm Management Committee and was the COO of the... View Details

March 2024 (Revised August 2024)
Supplement

Darktrace: Scaling Cybersecurity and AI (B)

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport and Alexis Lefort

Article

Scaling Up Analogical Innovation with Crowds and AI

By: Aniket Kittur, Lisa Yu, Tom Hope, Joel Chan, Hila Lifshitz - Assaf, Karni Gilon, Felicia Ng, Robert Kraut and Dafna Shachaf

Analogy—the ability to find and apply deep structural patterns across domains—has been fundamental to human innovation in science and technology. Today there is a growing opportunity to accelerate innovation by moving analogy out of a single person’s mind and... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Artificial Intelligence; Crowdsourcing; Analogy; Innovation and Invention; Technology; Science

Spring 2019
Article

Fluid Teams and Knowledge Retrieval: Scaling Service Operations

By: Melissa A. Valentine, Tom Fangyun Tan, Bradley R. Staats and Amy C. Edmondson

To scale service operations requires retrieving knowledge across the organization. However, prior work highlights that individuals on the periphery of organizational knowledge networks may struggle to access useful knowledge at work. A knowledge repository has the... View Details

Keywords: Teaming; Teams; Groups and Teams; Knowledge Management; Service Delivery; Knowledge Use and Leverage

09 Mar 2021
Cold Call Podcast

A Family Business at a Crossroads: Scaling and Succession

Keywords: Re: Christina R. Wing; Real Estate

November 2022
Case

Wendy Estrella: Scaling Multiple Businesses

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Sarah Mehta

Entrepreneur Wendy Estrella, a self-made, Latina millionaire based in Lawrence, Massachusetts, is attempting to simultaneously scale her law practice as well as her property management and development company. What path should she take for each and can she do it all,... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Change; Competency and Skills; Decision Making; Demographics; Entrepreneurship; Personal Development and Career; Legal Services Industry; Real Estate Industry; Massachusetts

30 Sep 2022
News

Scaling Hope

In 2014, Stephen D’Antonio (MBA 1986) was living the life he had always envisioned. He’d been a partner at Morgan Stanley for two decades and he now sat on the Firm Management Committee and was the COO of... View Details

September–October 2013
Article

The Role of Organizational Scope and Governance in Strengthening Private Monitoring

By: Lamar Pierce and Michael W. Toffel

Governments and other organizations often outsource activities to achieve cost savings from market competition. Yet such benefits are often accompanied by poor quality resulting from moral hazard, which can be particularly onerous when outsourcing the monitoring and... View Details