Publications

April 2001 (Revised March 2003)
Background Note

Web and IT Hosting Facilities: Technology Note

Introduces students to the data centers where IT infrastructure is increasingly physically housed. These centralized hosting facilities represent in the information age the equivalent of power utilities in the industrial age. Students are introduced to issues of... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Information Technology; Infrastructure; Web Services Industry

July 1990 (Revised August 1994)
Case

U.S. Auto Industry: Scenarios and Choices for the 1990s

By: Malcolm S. Salter

Asks students to prepare a capacity utilization scenario for the U.S. auto industry in 1992 and to propose proper courses of action for Ford and General Motors in the face of globalizing competition. The subject is "corporate strategy in an overcapacitized world."... View Details

Keywords: Globalization; Business or Company Management; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Auto Industry; United States

2022
Working Paper

Machine Learning Models for Prediction of Scope 3 Carbon Emissions

By: George Serafeim and Gladys Vélez Caicedo

For most organizations, the vast amount of carbon emissions occur in their supply chain and in the post-sale processing, usage, and end of life treatment of a product, collectively labelled scope 3 emissions. In this paper, we train machine learning algorithms on 15... View Details

Keywords: Carbon Emissions; Climate Change; Environment; Carbon Accounting; Machine Learning; Artificial Intelligence; Digital; Data Science; Environmental Sustainability; Environmental Management; Environmental Accounting

SSRN

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Research Summary

Sustainable Operations

Professor Lee studies how operational synergies between different supply chains can be used to create economic value and improve environmental sustainability. She uses an operational lens to approach sustainability problems, focusing on the management of material flow... View Details

Keywords: Environment; Environmental Operations; Sustainability; Operations Management; Operational Disruptions; Supply Chain; Supply Chain Management; Food Security

February 2008 (Revised May 2011)
Case

The Travails of Rubber: Goodyear or Badyear?

By: Tom Nicholas and Andrew Ferguson

Explores the reason why Charles Goodyear, inventor of rubber vulcanization, was unable to profit from his discovery despite securing international property rights over his invention through a patent in 1844. Considers the utility of patents as an incentive for... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Entrepreneurship; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Innovation and Invention; Patents; Motivation and Incentives; Commercialization

Research Summary

Environmental Policy and Competitiveness

By: Michael E. Porter

Michael E. Porter has been exploring (with Claas van der Linde of St. Gallen University, Switzerland) the relationship between environmental regulation, industry competition, and international competitiveness. He finds that many forms of environmental pollution... View Details

August 2012 (Revised September 2013)
Case

EnerNOC: DemandSMART

By: Michael W. Toffel, Kira Fabrizio and Stephanie van Sice

EnerNOC is an energy company with an innovative business model: it serves as an intermediary between electric utilities and electricity users. It contracts with electricity users willing to reduce demand during periods of peak energy demand, and sells this as excess... View Details

Keywords: Production Planning; Productivity; Environmental Protection; Energy; Environment; Business Government Relations; Laws And Regulation; Business Model; Environmental Sustainability; Innovation and Invention; Opportunities; Risk and Uncertainty; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Supply Chain Management; Production; Energy Conservation; Energy Industry

May 2016 (Revised April 2019)
Case

Olivia Lum: Wanting to Save the World

By: Geoffrey Jones and Essie Alamsyah

This case considers the entrepreneurial career of Olivia Lum, who founded the Singaporean water company Hyflux in 1989. An orphan born in Malaysia, Lum provides a rare case of an entrepreneurial success in a country whose economic success has primarily rested on... View Details

October 2023 (Revised April 2024)
Case

TetraScience: Unlocking the Power of Scientific Data

By: Satish Tadikonda and William Marks

After pivoting from a focus on hardware to a focus on scientific data, TetraScience, led by veteran SaaS executive, Patrick Grady and Founder Spin Wang, has embarked on a journey from nearly cash-out to a player in the scientific data management space. This case... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Change Management; Entrepreneurship; Information Management; Business Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Information Technology Industry

March 2004 (Revised June 2004)
Case

Blackout: August 14, 2003

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Ryland Matthew Willis

On August 14, 2003, an electricity blackout cascaded throughout the northeastern United States and Canada. Describes the structure, technology, and economics of the electric utility industry and how gradual deregulation beginning in the 1970s placed unprecedented, and... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Performance Improvement; Infrastructure; Energy Sources; Business and Government Relations; Networks; Emerging Markets; Failure; Economics; Utilities Industry; Canada; Northeastern United States

December 2015
Article

What Is Disruptive Innovation?

By: Clayton M. Christensen, Michael Raynor and Rory McDonald

For the past 20 years, the theory of disruptive innovation has been enormously influential in business circles and a powerful tool for predicting which industry entrants will succeed. Unfortunately, the theory has also been widely misunderstood, and the "disruptive"... View Details

Keywords: Disruptive Innovation; Theory

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May 2009 (Revised January 2011)
Case

Enel: Power, Russia, and Global Markets

By: Rawi E. Abdelal, Richard H.K. Vietor and Sogomon Tarontsi

Although the global trend toward liberalization of electric utilities forced Enel, the largest power company in Italy, to give up some of its assets in its home base, it also opened up many opportunities abroad, including in Russia, one of the largest electricity... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Energy Generation; Foreign Direct Investment; Global Strategy; Globalized Firms and Management; Globalized Markets and Industries; Business and Government Relations; Utilities Industry; Russia; Italy

April 2001 (Revised February 2002)
Case

Level (3) Communications in 2001: The 'Pivotal Year'

Level (3) is one of the most distinctive of the new "fiber backbone" start-ups in the year 2001. Unlike its competitors, Level (3) has built its fiber network--and organization--in such a way that it should be able to utilize future generations of technologically... View Details

Keywords: Communication Technology; Risk Management; Industry Growth; Competitive Advantage; Telecommunications Industry; United States

August 2019
Case

Subscription Lines Dilemma

By: Victoria Ivashina and Terrence Shu

This case follows a fictional managing partner of a private equity firm, as she contemplates whether to utilize subscription lines of credit in her firm’s funds. Subscription lines are revolving lines of credit secured by commitments from a fund’s investors. Private... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Credit; Strategy

Research Summary

Dynamic Demand Estimation in Platform and Two-Sided Markets

This paper develops techniques to structurally estimate consumer demand in general platform-intermediated and two-sided markets. By estimating both sides of the market simultaneously, the methodology presented here is able to (1) endogenize the utility of a platform as... View Details

July 2024
Technical Note

Intellectual Property in Tough Tech Ventures

By: Joshua Lev Krieger, Jim Matheson, Russ Wilcox and Mel Martin

This note explains the crucial role of intellectual property rights (IPR), particularly patents, in the success of tough tech ventures (TTVs). It outlines the patent system's mechanics, emphasizing utility patents and their requirements for novelty, non-obviousness,... View Details

Keywords: Intellectual Property