Publications

Research Summary

How can General Managers Contribute to IT Success?

US companies are currently spending approximately 5% of their revenue on information technology (IT) each year. Over half of this investment goes to IT intended to change business processes, either within a single enterprise or across several. Hovewer, 30-75% of... View Details

29 Oct 2018
Research & Ideas

Hunting for a Hot Job in High Tech? Try 'Digitization Economist'

HBS and other business schools add more tech-germane courses to their MBA offerings. "Tech firms 'have been snapping up economists at a remarkable scale'" Luca and co-author Susan Athey, the economics of technology professor at... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Technology; Technology

16 Jun 2014
Research & Ideas

The Unfulfilled Promise of Educational Technology

scheduling their time, the more bang they'll get for their buck. Making Edtech Profitable Investment in education technology has increased dramatically over the past decade, with venture capital firms driving investments of more than $1... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Education

2020
Working Paper

A General Theory of Identification

By: Iavor Bojinov and Guillaume Basse

What does it mean to say that a quantity is identifiable from the data? Statisticians seem to agree on a definition in the context of parametric statistical models — roughly, a parameter θ in a model P = {Pθ : θ ∈ Θ} is identifiable if the mapping θ 7→ Pθ is injective.... View Details

Keywords: Identification; Econometric Models; Analytics and Data Science; Theory

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February 2022
Case

NFX Capital and Moov Technologies

By: Scott Duke Kominers and Nicole Tempest Keller

In July 2019, James Currier, a general partner at San Francisco-based NFX Ventures, was considering a seed stage investment of $1.5 million in Moov Technologies, a B2B marketplace for used industrial equipment. NFX was a venture capital firm focused on seed-stage... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Network Effects; Marketplace Matching; Digital Platforms; Market Design; Applications and Software; Semiconductor Industry; Financial Services Industry; San Francisco

2023
Chapter

Generalized Matching: Contracts and Networks

By: John William Hatfield, Ravi Jagadeesan, Scott Duke Kominers, Alexandru Nichifor, Michael Ostrovsky, Alexander Teytelboym and Alexander Westkamp

Keywords: Matching; Matching With Contracts; Matching Markets; Matching Platform; Market Design; Digital Platforms; Economics; Networks

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05 Dec 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Heterogeneous Technology Diffusion and Ricardian Trade Patterns

Keywords: by William R. Kerr

June 19, 2023
Article

Should You Start a Generative AI Company?

By: Julian De Freitas

Many entrepreneurs are considering starting companies that leverage the latest generative AI technology, but they must ask themselves whether they have what it takes to compete on increasingly commoditized foundational models, or whether they should instead... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; AI and Machine Learning; Applications and Software

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May 2021
Case

Inclusive Innovation at Mass General Brigham

By: Katherine Baldiga Coffman and Olivia Hull

Massachusetts General Brigham (MGB) Chief Innovation Officer Christopher Coburn had overseen a period of exciting transformation and growth in healthcare innovation at MGB. In November 2019, the health system was the largest recipient of National Institutes of Health... View Details

January 2000 (Revised June 2000)
Case

Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y

By: John A. Deighton and Gil McWilliams

A profitable dot com company? Alloy.com retails clothing to teens by catalog. Alloy uses a Web site to convert prospects and build community. The result is a business with the economics of a direct marketer and the market capitalization of an Internet start-up. The... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Internet and the Web; Business and Community Relations; Partners and Partnerships; Customer Relationship Management; Decision Choices and Conditions; Business Startups; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry

04 Jun 2014
What Do You Think?

Does Internet Technology Threaten Brand Loyalty?

Summing Up Is the Potential Negative Impact of New Information Technologies on Customer Loyalties Overstated? Customers will remain loyal to brands that meet their needs, regardless of the effects of new information View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Technology; Technology; Technology

December 1996 (Revised November 2006)
Background Note

General Mills, Inc.: Appendix of Comparable Company Data

By: William J. Bruns Jr.

Financial ratios for comparable companies to be used in conjunction with an analysis of the General Mills Annual Report. View Details

Keywords: Business Conglomerates; Analytics and Data Science; Food and Beverage Industry

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31 Jan 2023
Op-Ed

Can Insurance Technology Solve the Uninsured Driver Problem?

drumming up hundreds of dollars households may not be able to afford. How technology can help Innovations in insurance technology can address the problems of high fees by... View Details

Keywords: by Ray Kluender; Insurance

2024
Working Paper

The Wade Test: Generative AI and CEO Communication

By: Prithwiraj Choudhury, Bart S. Vanneste and Amirhossein Zohrehvand

Can generative artificial intelligence (AI) transform the role of the CEO by effectively automating CEO communication? This study investigates whether AI can mimic a human CEO and whether employees’ perception of the communication’s source matter. In a field... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; AI and Machine Learning; Perception; Communication

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06 Aug 2007
Research & Ideas

High Hills, Deep Poverty: Explaining Civil War in Nepal

studies is a general phenomenon; in this sense, this approach is complementary to detailed sociological or anthropological case studies." "If people want to do something about poverty there—and it's a very poor country,"... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

July 2023
Supplement

Honeycomb (B): Jumping on The Generative AI Bandwagon?

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Kumba Sennaar

Honeycomb, an audio app enabling users to record stories and save family memories, considers pivoting to embrace generative AI. What should the co-founders business model look like if they pursued this new direction? View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Operations; Business Startups; Business Model; AI and Machine Learning; Technology Industry; United States

12 Jan 2015
Research & Ideas

Regulators Ease Up on Companies Generating Political Benefits

within a state with a closely contested election during an election year. In the latter case, high employment firms were 25 percent less likely to be sanctioned than those in the bottom tier. These results suggest that while the reason... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

November 2003 (Revised August 2005)
Case

Reinventing the Automobile: General Motors' AUTOnomy Project

By: Alan D. MacCormack and Kerry Herman

Describes the history of General Motor's attempts to develop a hydrogen fuel-cell powered car. As of 2003, GM developed several prototypes of such a vehicle to demonstrate the viability of the overall concept. Many uncertainties remained, however, with respect to the... View Details

Keywords: Problems and Challenges; Management; Information Technology; Transition; Competency and Skills; Disruptive Innovation; Machinery and Machining; Auto Industry

June 2023
Supplement

Social Media Background Screening at Fama Technologies (B)

By: Joseph Pacelli, Jillian Grennan and Alexis Lefort

Fama Technologies is an online screening company that uses AI to analyze job applicants' publicly available online content for signs of risk and culture fit. The case opens with Ben Mones, founder and CEO, looking to secure funding from venture firms. He is running... View Details

Keywords: Human Resources; Recruitment; Retention; Selection and Staffing; Organizational Culture; Talent and Talent Management; United States