Publications

April 2010 (Revised December 2010)
Case

Shanzhai! MediaTek and the "White Box" Handset Market

By: Willy C. Shih, Chen-Fu Chien and Jyun-Cheng Wang

The term "white box" is often used to describe products without a brand name. Such products are assembled from standardized parts, and they became a very popular category of desktop PCs. Hsinchu, Taiwan based MediaTek is a fabless semiconductor company that unleashed a... View Details

Keywords: Disruptive Innovation; Growth and Development Strategy; Emerging Markets; Competitive Advantage; Wireless Technology; Semiconductor Industry; Taiwan

04 Jan 2010
Research & Ideas

Best of HBS Working Knowledge 2009

disruptive social innovations intrinsic to the CSE approach amplify this zone of discomfort. Fortunately, the experiences of innovative companies such as Timberland and Starbucks show how these challenges may be overcome. Key concepts... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

07 Feb 2012
First Look

First Look: February 7

new question for the research community: How should proposed enhancements to TFM be evaluated in a CDM environment? A sequential evaluation procedure, developed in this paper, addresses this question. The procedure includes airline View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

08 May 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, May 8, 2018

long-term growth with disruptive potential, Summa invested in four thematic areas that were mapped to megatrends outlined in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals—trends Summa believed presented long-term growth opportunities... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

03 Apr 2006
What Do You Think?

Has Globalization Reached Its Peak?

that globalization has led corporations to outsource too much of their work and, more important, their intellectual capital. This has created a worldwide level of interdependency that increasingly threatens to disrupt supply lines and... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

07 Dec 2016
HBS Case

Why Millennials Flock to Fintech for Personal Investing

Millennials are disruptive bunch. The first generation to grow up with the internet, consumers born after 1980 are used to relying on technology and engineering to do almost everything—including shopping (Amazon), listening to music... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

19 Apr 2016
First Look

April 19, 2016

individuals, response to disruptive technological changes, and regulatory design in competitive environments. Purchase this case: https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/product/616055-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School Case 716-070 Keystone XL... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

20 Dec 2010
Research & Ideas

New Dean Sets Five Priorities for HBS

strategy, the balanced scorecard, venture capital, entrepreneurship, and disruptive innovation, among others. "Now is the time for us to make sure that we do not lose our intellectual ambition," said Nohria. "I can't tell... View Details

Keywords: by Roger Thompson; Education

January 2025
Case

Shifting Winds: DEI in Corporate America

By: Clayton S. Rose, Maisie Wiltshire-Gordon and David Lane

In the 2020s, intense and conflicting social and political pressures challenged organizational leaders around the world. Prominent among these were powerful competing views on workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion programs (DEI) in the United States. Public... View Details

October 2023
Case

CornerUp: Digitizing the Corner Store

By: Álvaro Rodríguez Arregui, Stacy Straaberg and Diego Zainos De La Sota Riva

In July 2023, Jason Diaz, co-founder and CEO of CornerUp, assessed the progress of his business-to-business e-procurement software application (app) startup, founded in January 2022. CornerUp began as a fast-moving consumer packaged goods (FMCG) distributor in New York... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Business Startups; Small Business; Transition; Decisions; Social Entrepreneurship; Geographic Location; Disruptive Innovation; Market Participation; Digital Platforms; Trust; Business Strategy; Expansion; Information Infrastructure; Internet and the Web; Technology Adoption; Value Creation; Technology Industry; United States

February 2003
Teaching Note

Bush Boake Allen (TN)

By: Stefan H. Thomke

Teaching Note for (9-601-061). View Details

Keywords: Integration; Marketing Reference Programs; Disruptive Innovation; Management Teams; Internet and the Web; Business Model; Customer Relationship Management; Management Practices and Processes; Consumer Products Industry

May 2018
Teaching Note

AT&T: Managing Technological Change and the Future of Telephone Operators in the 20th Century

By: Daniel P. Gross and William R. Kerr

Teaching Note for HBS No. 718-486. View Details

Keywords: AT＆T; Bell Telephone; Phone Lines; Phone Operators; Mechanical Switching; Layoffs; Technological Change; Transition; History; Innovation and Invention; Technological Innovation; Information Technology; Disruption; Change Management; Communications Industry; Telecommunications Industry; United States

April 2024 (Revised November 2024)
Case

Moderna: Pioneering a People Platform to Accelerate Science Innovation

By: Tatiana Sandino, Emil Dy and Samuel Grad

Moderna was founded in 2010 to explore how messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) could be used to create breakthrough medicines by encoding instructions for the body to create antibodies. When Stéphane Bancel (HBS 2000) took over in 2011, he bet on the potential of this... View Details

Keywords: Disruptive Innovation; Talent and Talent Management; Selection and Staffing; AI and Machine Learning; Digital Strategy; Innovation and Management; Leadership Development; Management Practices and Processes; Management Systems; Organizational Culture; Performance Evaluation; Alignment; Employee Relationship Management; Science-Based Business; Expansion; Pharmaceutical Industry; Biotechnology Industry; United States

March 2019 (Revised May 2019)
Case

Fetchr: A New Way of Last Mile Delivery

By: V.G. Narayanan and Eren Kuzucu

By mid-2016, five years of aggressive growth had transformed Fetchr from a small logistics startup to a 1,000-employee, full-fledged last-mile delivery company operating across four countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Already beneficiaries of the... View Details