Publications

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26 Nov 2007
Research & Ideas

Best Practices of Global Innovators

organizational practices. Production and innovation are different activities. While the former seeks to replicate an existing product at low cost, the latter seeks to discover something entirely new and... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

September 2008
Case

Pfizer Inc: Building an Innovation Center

By: Stefan H. Thomke and Ashok Nimgade

The case describes Pfizer's efforts to build and run an innovation center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. As the center goes through different periods of leadership and strategic models, its relationship with the corporation and other research sites is explored. The case... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Leadership; Organizational Culture; Research and Development; Pharmaceutical Industry; Cambridge

Article

Drive Innovation with Better Decision-Making

By: Linda A. Hill, Emily Tedards and Taran Swan

Despite their embrace of agile methods, many firms striving to innovate are struggling to produce breakthrough ideas. A key culprit, according to the authors, is an outdated, inefficient approach to decision-making. Today’s discovery-driven innovation processes involve... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Decision Making; Decision Choices and Conditions; Organizational Change and Adaptation

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07 Mar 2005
Research & Ideas

The Rise of Innovation in Asia

in the U.S. may soon have as much to fear about losing their jobs to overseas competitors as call center employees do today. Executives debated "The Present and Future of Innovation in Asia" during the 2005 Asia Business... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

2014
Chapter

Technology, Innovation and Economic Growth in Britain Since 1870

By: Tom Nicholas

This chapter examines technological change in Britain over the last 140 years. It analyzes the effects of patent laws and innovation prizes that were designed to promote technical progress. It explores the challenge associated with the changing organizational structure... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Organizational Change and Adaptation; History; Economic Growth; Change; Innovation and Invention; Great Britain

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05 Mar 2008
What Do You Think?

Where Will Management Innovation Take Us?

"anything that substantially alters the way in which the work of management is carried out," including organizational forms. He distinguishes it from operational, product/service, or strategic innovation. Although he maintains... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

07 Jul 2008
Research & Ideas

Innovation Corrupted: How Managers Can Avoid Another Enron

"In the end, Enron was at the center of a truly delinquent society. Once Enron's ethical drift took hold, its collapse was only a matter of time," says HBS professor emeritus Malcolm S. Salter. As he explains in this Q&A and in his new book, View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Energy; Utilities

September 9, 2024
Article

Ten Questions for a Winning Climate-transition Business Strategy

By: George Serafeim

The move to a low-carbon economy will create opportunities for innovation and growth. To make the most of them, leaders must understand the challenges they could face along the way. View Details

Keywords: Technology; Organizational Transformations; Business Model Innovation; Innovation and Invention; Climate Change; Transformation; Leadership; Business Strategy; Environmental Sustainability; Change Management; Entrepreneurship

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May 2020
Case

M-Lab: Enabling Innovation at Mitsubishi Corporation

By: Krishna Palepu and Allison M. Ciechanover

M-Lab’s founding goals were to infuse an innovation mindset into Mitsubishi Corporation; to catalyze new business opportunities; and to enable a dialogue between Japanese business and Silicon Valley. M-Lab housed representatives from each of Mitsubishi Corporation’s... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Disruption; Transformation; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Multinational Firms and Management; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Japan; United States

2012
Chapter

Technological Innovation and Organizations

By: Pierre Azoulay and Josh Lerner

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Organizational Design; Organizational Change and Adaptation

Research Summary

Overview

Prof. Altman's research interests include innovation, strategy, organizational change, platform-based businesses and their related ecosystems. Her work focuses on the impact to incumbent organizations as platform-based highly networked business models become more... View Details

Keywords: Innovation Management; Multi-sided Platforms; Business Ecosystems; Organizational Change; Paradox; Organizational Identity

June 2016
Case

Aggressive Growth Plans For Zimmer Spine

By: Kevin Schulman and Miranda Shaw

Steve Healy, the President of Zimmer Spine, has to transform his organization into a market leader. Zimmer is a major medical device firm, but the Spine division has underperformed, and its core technology did not get the expanded FDA label that had been expected. The... View Details

Keywords: Medical Device; Organizational Innovation; Organizational Growth; Organizations; Growth and Development Strategy; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

November–December 2017
Article

Innovation Streams and Executive Leadership

By: Michael Tushman

Incumbent firms face steep challenges in dealing with technological change and associated innovation streams. The firm's senior leadership team, and especially R&D leadership, plays a central role in shaping a firm's ability to both exploit existing capabilities and... View Details

Keywords: Ambidexterity; Exploit Vs. Explore; Dynamic Capabilities; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Technology Adoption; Innovation Leadership

Fall 2024
Article

The Three Traps That Stymie Reinvention: Organizational Identity, Architecture, and Collaboration Can Be Either Assets or Liabilities to Pursuing Growth in New Sectors

By: Ryan Raffaelli

In more than a decade of researching innovation, I have observed how organizations respond to new opportunities, technological changes, or unexpected market shifts that threaten to upend their current business model. This process, which I call reinvention, may occur... View Details

Keywords: Innovation And Strategy; Change Leadership; Collaboration; Architecture; Transformation; Disruption; Leading Change; Innovation Strategy; Identity; Organizational Culture; Organizational Structure

November 2022
Case

Ajax Health: A New Model for Medical Technology Innovation

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Ben Creo

This case teaches key success factors for both startup and established MedTech firms. It examines how to structure a firm to maximize innovation and financial returns with organizational structures that better align the incentives for the different skill sets... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Success; Innovation Strategy; Mergers and Acquisitions; Market Entry and Exit; Financial Strategy; Business Model; Partners and Partnerships; Entrepreneurship; Private Equity; Technology Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

Article

Beyond Magic Bullets: True Innovation in Health Care

By: Vaibhav A. Narayan, Marco Mohwinckel, Gary Pisano, Michael Yang and Husseini Manji

The molecular medicine revolution—based on advances in fields such as genomics and network modeling in the decade since the human genome sequence was completed—has changed the way we think about, study, and approach the development of novel therapies. However, these... View Details

Keywords: Integration; Business Model; Organizational Structure; Health Care and Treatment; Innovation and Invention; Pharmaceutical Industry

Research Summary

Building Bridges: The Social Structure of Interdependent Innovation

Multidivisional firms often fail to take advantage of innovations that involve combining resources from distinct divisions. This failure of cross-line-of-business innovation is a consequence of design choices employed to execute the firm’s strategy: in organizing... View Details

1965
Book

Product Innovation and Organization

By: J. W. Lorsch

Keywords: Product; Innovation and Invention; Organizational Structure

2016
Book

Innovation Policy and the Economy, Volume 17

By: Shane Greenstein, Josh Lerner and Scott Stern

The seventeenth volume of the National Bureau of Economic Research’s Innovation Policy and the Economy provides an accessible forum for bringing the work of leading academic researchers to an audience of policymakers and those interested in the interaction... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Technological Innovation; Governance; Policy; Economy