Publications

July 2013 (Revised November 2021)
Module Note

Exploration vs. Exploitation

By: Willy Shih

This module note introduces James March's concept of exploration and exploitation, and the management challenge of balancing the allocation of resources to the two activities in the firm. The note also touches on the O'Reilly and Tushman paper on the ambidextrous... View Details

November 2011 (Revised February 2012)
Case

China Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research: Building a Sustainable, Globally Integrated Research Enterprise

By: Vicki Sato, Christoph Jaeker and Pooja Mehta Solanki

As the head of the Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research in China, En Li was shepherding a $1 billion R&D investment in China. So far he had been able to attract a large number of Chinese-born but US-trained scientists to play a critical role in establishing the... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Firms and Management; Research; Corporate Strategy; Pharmaceutical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; China

01 Sep 2014
News

All For One

“collective genius” to describe the kind of leadership she saw at Pixar and assembled her own collective to research it. The team included her then–research associate Emily Truelove and Pixar executive Brandeau, who contributed his own... View Details

Keywords: Michael Blanding; faculty; research; Market Research, Photo, Translation, Veterinary and Other Services; Professional Services

20 Feb 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, February 20, 2018

priors/worldviews, or relevant features of a problem not being top of mind. Most research studying such losses does not empirically distinguish between these mechanisms. Instead, we show that most highly cited papers in this area presume... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

1996
Chapter

The Determinants of Research Productivity in Ethical Drug Discovery

By: Rebecca M. Henderson and Ian Cockburn

Keywords: Ethics; Health Testing and Trials; Research and Development; Performance Productivity; Pharmaceutical Industry

January 2020
Case

Celata Bioinnovations

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In December 2019, Jon Hu (HBS ‘19) and Dr. Samantha Dale Strasser, co-founders of Celata Bioinnovations, were raising $1 million to launch their company. They had founded Celata less than six months earlier with the aim of redefining the drug discovery process.... View Details

2010
Working Paper

Boundary Spanning in a For-profit Research Lab: An Exploration of the Interface Between Commerce and Academe

By: Christopher C. Liu and Toby E. Stuart

In innovative industries, private-sector companies increasingly are participants in open communities of science and technology. To participate in the system of exchange in such communities, firms often publicly disclose what would otherwise remain private discoveries.... View Details

Keywords: For-Profit Firms; Higher Education; Information Publishing; Innovation and Invention; Science-Based Business; Social and Collaborative Networks; Boundaries; Pharmaceutical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

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10 Jan 2005
Research & Ideas

Motivation and the Cross-Sector Alliance

that represents the area of lowest sustainability for the partnership. Our research suggests that as the collaboration progresses, motivations gain intensity (represented with arrow #1 in Figure 2 below) and become more blended... View Details

Keywords: by James Austin, Ezequiel Reficco & SEKN research team

Article

What to Know About Locating in a Cluster

By: Willy C. Shih and Sen Chai

As a study of two industry clusters in Denmark shows, factors that can make clusters attractive—easy people movement and knowledge spillovers—can also make it harder for individual companies to retain proprietary knowledge. View Details

Keywords: Clusters; Clustering; Competitiveness; Life Sciences; Telecommunications; Science-based; Research And Development; Industry Clusters; Research; Innovation Strategy; Innovation and Management; Geographic Location; Pharmaceutical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Denmark

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01 Mar 2007
News

Daniel Vasella

sales of $37 billion. The company’s aggressive investment in research has made it an industry leader in new drug approvals. And when opportunity knocks, Vasella doesn’t hesitate to broaden Novartis’s business mix through acquisitions. He... View Details

Keywords: Roger Thompson; multinational pharmaceutical company; prescription drugs; vaccines; Medicare; generics business; Health, Social Assistance

September 2024
Case

Myeloma Investment Fund

By: Kyle Myers and Scott Sawaya

This case explores a critical decision facing the Myeloma Investment Fund (MIF) as it evaluates two investment opportunities aimed at accelerating a cure for multiple myeloma.

The MIF, a venture philanthropy fund, must choose between two distinct paths. One... View Details

Keywords: Venture Philanthropy; Biomedical Research; Investing For Impact; Innovation ＆ Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Science-Based Business; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Decision Making; Health Care and Treatment; Pharmaceutical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

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... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Pharmaceutical; Pharmaceutical

14 Dec 2020
Research & Ideas

What Does December's Drug-Approval Dash Mean for COVID-19 Vaccines?

Pharmaceutical regulators around the world tend to speed through drug applications in December and before major national holidays, according to new research that might raise questions about COVID-19 vaccines... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Pharmaceutical; Pharmaceutical

20 Mar 2015
News

Big Pharma Needs to Get Busy in the Lab

May 2005 (Revised April 2010)
Case

GlaxoSmithKline: Reorganizing Drug Discovery (A)

By: Robert S. Huckman and Eli Strick

Describes the reorganization of drug discovery at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) following the formation of GSK from the merger of Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham. This reorganization placed nearly 2,000 research scientists into six centers of excellence in drug discovery... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Decision Choices and Conditions; Operations; Organizational Structure; Performance Improvement; Research and Development; Pharmaceutical Industry

22 Feb 2021
Working Paper Summaries

Private and Social Returns to R&D: Drug Development and Demographics

Keywords: by Efraim Benmelech, Janice Eberly, Dimitris Papanikolaou, and Joshua Krieger; Pharmaceutical

Olivia Zhao

Olivia Zhao is a doctoral student in Health Policy (Management). Her current research interests center on the pharmaceutical industry, prescription drug policy, and hospital markets. Previous work has examined medical labor supply and patient outcome responses to... View Details

March 1994 (Revised March 1995)
Case

Astra/Merck Group

By: Frank V. Cespedes and Marie Bell

Astra/Merck (A/M), originally a joint venture of AB Astra and Merck & Co., is preparing to be an independent company in 1993. Since the company does not engage in basic research and development of drugs, it is essentially a distribution organization. Fundamental to... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Marketing Strategy; Distribution; Performance Evaluation; Research and Development; Risk and Uncertainty; Sales; Competitive Strategy; Pharmaceutical Industry

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June 2004
Case

Aventis SA (A): Planning for a Merger

By: Joshua D. Margolis and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Eight executives at Hoechst and Rhone-Poulenc must make four crucial decisions on the eve of merging their companies to become Aventis--what would become the world's third largest pharmaceutical firm. In addition to formulating a vision and strategy, the two firms must... View Details

Keywords: Problems and Challenges; Mergers and Acquisitions; Horizontal Integration; Organizational Design; Organizational Culture; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States