Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(5,533)
- Faculty Publications (1,464)
- May 2013 (Revised April 2015)
- Case
Ron Johnson: Retail at Target, Apple, and J.C. Penney
By: Das Narayandas, Kerry Herman and Lisa Mazzanti
In April 2013, Ron Johnson (HBS '84) stepped down after just 18 months as CEO of J.C. Penney. In his brief tenure, Johnson, an acclaimed retailer respected for his innovation and success in shaping the retail image at Target and Apple, introduced dramatic departures... View Details
- May 2013
- Article
The Performance Frontier: Innovating for a Sustainable Strategy
By: Robert G. Eccles and George Serafeim
By now most companies have sustainability programs. They're cutting carbon emissions, reducing waste, and otherwise enhancing operational efficiency. But a mishmash of sustainability tactics does not add up to a sustainable strategy. To endure, a strategy must address... View Details
- 2017
- Working Paper
Innovation, Reallocation and Growth
By: Daron Acemoglu, Ufuk Akcigit, Harun Alp, Nicholas Bloom and William R. Kerr
We build a model of firm-level innovation, productivity growth, and reallocation featuring endogenous entry and exit. A new and central economic force is the selection between high- and low-type firms, which differ in terms of their innovative capacity. We estimate the... View Details
- April 2013
- Article
In Search of a Second Act: Riding the Popularity of a Great First Product Is Easy; Finding the Next One Is Hard
By: Elie Ofek and Jill Avery
The article presents a fictional case study on new product development and improvement after the successful launch of a first breakthrough product. Topics include business planning for brand name products, finance and investment for the development of educational toys,... View Details
Keywords: Innovation; Growth Strategy; Consumer Marketing; Marketing; Brand Management; Market Research; New Product Development; Marketing Management; Technology Commercialization; Technology; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Product Marketing; Consumer Products Industry; Electronics Industry; Technology Industry; North and Central America; United States
- April 2013 (Revised October 2013)
- Case
National Instruments
By: Lynda M. Applegate, Keri Pearlson and Natalie Kindred
This case explores the use of social media to support product design, customer support, marketing and HR activities at National Instruments (NI). Based in Austin, Texas, with over $1 billion in 2011 sales, NI designs, produces, and sells software and hardware platforms... View Details
- April 2013
- Article
Using the Crowd as an Innovation Partner
By: Kevin J. Boudreau and Karim R. Lakhani
More and more organizations are turning to crowds for help in solving their most vexing innovation and research questions, but managers remain understandably cautious. It seems risky and even unnatural to push problems out to vast groups of strangers distributed around... View Details
- March 27, 2013
- Article
Downton Abbey: Real Life Lessons for Trust & Estate Advisors
By: Josh Baron and Devin Bird
The article discusses how the TV series "Downton Abbey" reflects challenges and opportunities faced by business families. The show's storyline, centered around the aristocratic Crawley family and their estate, parallels real-world situations where business families... View Details
- 2013
- Working Paper
How Does Risk Management Influence Production Decisions? Evidence from a Field Experiment
By: Shawn Cole, Xavier Gine and James Vickery
Weather is a key source of income risk, particularly in emerging market economies. This paper uses a randomized controlled trial involving a sample of Indian farmers to study how an innovative rainfall insurance product affects production decisions. We find that... View Details
- 2013
- Working Paper
Entrepreneurs, Firms and Global Wealth since 1850
By: G. Jones
This working paper integrates the role of entrepreneurship and firms into debates on why Asia, Latin America and Africa were slow to catch up with the West following the Industrial Revolution and the advent of modern economic growth. It argues that the currently... View Details
Keywords: Institutional Change; Political Economy; Emerging Economies; Developing Countries; Industrial Development; Culture; Human Capital; Economic History; History; Wealth and Poverty; Business History; Emerging Markets; Globalization; Developing Countries and Economies; Manufacturing Industry; Mining Industry; Service Industry; Latin America; Asia; North and Central America; Africa; South America; Europe
- March 2013 (Revised May 2013)
- Case
Building Innovation at Terrapin Bright Green
By: Amy C. Edmondson, Sydney Ribot and Mary Saunders
Describes Terrapin Bright Green, an environmental consulting and strategic planning firm, and its approach for creating integrative, systematic solutions to green-building conundrums through consulting, research, and policy-related activities. Emphasis is placed on the... View Details
- March 2013 (Revised April 2014)
- Case
Barnes & Noble: Managing the E-Book Revolution
By: Alan MacCormack, Brian Kimball Dunn and Chris F. Kemerer
The case describes competition in the market for E-Books, and Barnes & Noble's Strategy in this industry. As a traditional retailer, B&N was challenged by the introduction of digital technologies that allow books to be published, distributed and sold to consumers... View Details
- March–April 2013
- Article
Unlocking Innovation Through Business Experimentation
By: Stefan Thomke
There is a downside to businesses that focus heavily on standardization, optimization, and driving out variability: Such organizations leave themselves vulnerable to underinvesting in experimentation and variation, which are the lifeblood of innovation. Good... View Details
- February 2013 (Revised March 2013)
- Case
Agero: Enhancing Capabilities for Customers
By: Robert Simons and Natalie Kindred
This case illustrates the importance of choosing a primary customer as the basis for organization design. Cross Country Group managers adjusted resource allocation, organization design and performance measures over time to transform Cross Country Group from an... View Details
Keywords: Entrepreneurial Management; Entrepreneurial Gap; Entrepreneurship; Auto Industry; Insurance; Performance Management; Performance Measurement; Performance Measures; Performance Pressure; Decisions; Family Business; Resource Allocation; Organizational Design; Customer Focus and Relationships; Performance Evaluation; Growth and Development Strategy; Service Industry
- February 2013
- Supplement
Innovating into Active ETFs: Factor Funds Capital Management LLC (CW)
By: Lauren Cohen
- February 2013
- Case
18 Months in a Startup: Zaggora.com
By: Tom Nicholas
The founders of Zaggora reflected back on a tumultuous year-and-a-half in which they had generated, from just $40,000 in personal savings, a multi-million dollar sportswear enterprise selling Hotpants to women. These were hotpants not of the 1960s hipster variety, but... View Details
- February 2013
- Article
Digitization, Innovation, and Copyright: What Is the Agenda?
By: Shane Greenstein, Josh Lerner and Scott Stern
This essay discusses the need for research on the consequences of digitization, as well as the impact of alternative policies governing the creation and use of digital information. This agenda focuses on the development of research to investigate the economics of... View Details
- 2013
- Dictionary Entry
Technology and Innovation Management
By: Elizabeth J. Altman, Frank Nagle and Michael L. Tushman
The goal of this annotated bibliography on technology and innovation is to organize and present the most important literature relevant to a scholar seeking to understand and advance the field. It includes articles that are highly-cited and foundational pieces, as well... View Details
- Article
The Business of Business Schools: Restoring a Focus on Competing to Win
By: Robert Simons
As business leaders worry about the decline of American competitiveness, business schools are responding by changing their curriculums. But are the topics and approaches taught in today's business schools part of the solution or part of the problem? In this paper, I... View Details
Keywords: Business Schools; Purpose Of Business Schools; Management Education; Business School Curriculum; Strategy Execution; U.S. Competitiveness; Capitalism; Management Profession; Innovation; Competing To Win; Integrated Corporate Reporting; Trends; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decision Making; Design; Business Education; Curriculum and Courses; Innovation and Management
- January 2013 (Revised April 2013)
- Case
Microsoft Server & Tools
By: Marco Iansiti and Alain Serels
In 2011, Microsoft's Server & Tools Business (STB) was large, fast growing and highly profitable on the strength of traditional packaged product lines led by the Windows Server operating system. Even as the current packaged business was performing exceptionally well,... View Details
- January 2013
- Case
Cabot Corporation: The Fuel Cell Decision (A)
By: Willy Shih and Ying Zhou
Managers at Cabot Corporation are faced with deciding the future of its fuel cell program. The (A) case recounts the view of the business manager and the technical project lead, and the (B) case describes the perspective of a senior manager who is the head of the New... View Details
Keywords: Technical Decision-making; Decision-making Process; Fuel Cells; Decision Choices and Conditions; Decisions; Judgments; Business Plan; Business Exit or Shutdown; Energy Generation; Energy Sources; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Research and Development; Science-Based Business; Commercialization; Technology Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Massachusetts; United States