Disruption - Publications - Faculty & Research

01 Mar 2018
News

Every Trick in the Book

Borders is gone. So are B. Dalton, Waldenbooks, and Crown Books. Barnes & Noble, headed by CEO Demos Parneros (AMP 178, 2010), now has about 630 physical bookstores—down from more than 700 in 2011. But the number of independent bookstores, a breed declared endangered... View Details

Keywords: April White

28 May 2020
Research & Ideas

Coronavirus Could Create a 'Bankruptcy Pandemic'

vendors could disrupt supply chains, further hurting the business and destroying value. This potential problem is troubling to a number of bankruptcy scholars, including my colleague Mark Roe at Harvard Law School. So, is this bleak... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Financial Services; Banking

September 2021 (Revised December 2023)
Case

On the Bubble: Startup Bootstrapping

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Tom Quinn and Annelena Lobb

Bubble was a software company in the low-code/no-code market, making tools that allowed users without traditional programming backgrounds or technical skills to build software. The case covers cofounder Joshua Haas’s engineering background, as he experienced a high... View Details

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Entrepreneurial Management Awards & Honors - Faculty & Research

2015-2016. Jeffrey J. Bussgang : Named one of Boston Magazine 's The 30 Most Disruptive People in Boston Tech. Lauren H. Cohen : Set the All-Time World Record in the Squat in the 165 lb. drug-tested division of the United States... View Details

18 Jul 2019
Lessons from the Classroom

The Internet of Things Needs a Business Model. Here It Is

to 10 years. Michael Blanding is a writer based in the Boston area. [Image: metamorworks] Related Reading Distance Still Matters in Business, Despite the Internet Are You a Digital Manager? What’s Really Disrupting Business? It’s Not... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Computer

21 Apr 2021
Research & Ideas

The Pandemic Conversations That Leaders Need to Have Now

is far cheaper, better informed, and more trustworthy than outreach from a representative less attached to the company. Pay attention to, develop, and reward internal expertise. Such talent will naturally begin to surface as a result of the processes outlined here and... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg, Robin Abrahams, and Katherine Connolly Baden

30 Jan 2020
Research & Ideas

The Upside of Highlighting a Product's Downsides

the positive effects of transparency—highlighting a possible tension between promotion-based strategies designed to influence and transparency-based strategies designed to inform. Competitive advantage through transparency Putting it all out there has long helped View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

13 Apr 2021
Book

How Inclusive Managers Create Glass-Shattering Organizations

most influence on group deliberation, even when white women or people of color in the group have more expertise. Making a proactive effort to tap into the knowledge of others, as these managers did, can disrupt that pattern and help you... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

14 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Restarting Under Uncertainty: Managerial Experiences from Around the World

other countries outside China such as Germany and Sweden before local contagion even started, allowing precious time to acquire personal protective equipment before it became scarce. Second, since the company was able to foresee large View Details

Keywords: by Raffaella Sadun, Andrea Bertoni, Alexia Delfino, Giovanni Fassio, and Mariapaola Testa

20 Jan 2023
News

Free Spirits

attention-begging designs give away its second disruptive innovation, which is to fully embrace its NA-ness, according to Annie Wilson (PhDBA 2020). A behavioral scientist and lecturer of marketing at the Wharton School who wrote a case... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; Food Services and Drinking Places; Hospitality

Research Summary

Overview

By: Ashley V. Whillans

Engaged with field work in East Africa, South Asia, and in several large hybrid organizations in the United States, Professor Whillans places a focus on exploring questions with strong theoretical motivation in the social psychological literature and relevant... View Details

26 Jan 2020
Research & Ideas

Clayton M. Christensen, Acclaimed Author and Teacher, Dies At 67

BOSTON, MA—Clayton M. Christensen, Harvard Business School’s Kim B. Clark Professor of Business Administration, acclaimed author and teacher, and the world’s foremost authority on disruptive innovation, died on January 23, 2020,... View Details

03 Jan 2019
Research & Ideas

Everyone Knows Innovation is Essential to Business Success—Except Board Directors

Open the Wall Street Journal on any given day, and you are likely to find at least one story about how technology is disrupting yet another industry, and the pressures companies face to innovate. And yet, for board members of companies... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

05 Apr 2010
Research & Ideas

HBS Cases: iPads, Kindles, and the Close of a Chapter in Book Publishing

If they go, nobody but the textbook publishers will cry." Disruption Happens The Random House-Kindle case, recently taught in the first-year Strategy course at HBS, prompted some interesting conversations in the classroom, Olson... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Information; Publishing; Entertainment & Recreation

27 Feb 2020
Sharpening Your Skills

How Following Best Business Practices Can Improve Health Care

accounting have to do with improving patient outcomes in Haiti? HBS faculty members discuss their research and what it means for patients, providers, and industries. A Good Place to Start Clayton Christensen on Disrupting Health CareIn a... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Health; Medical Devices & Supplies

02 Feb 2015
Research & Ideas

Disruptors Sell What Customers Want and Let Competitors Sell What They Don’t

Over the past two decades, entire industries have been disrupted by Internet competitors who "unbundled" their content and delivered it to consumers in new ways. Newspapers lost out to Google and Craigslist, record companies to iTunes and... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding