Publications

15 Apr 2016
Working Paper Summaries

Big History, Global Corporations, Virtual Capitalism

Keywords: by Richard L. Nolan

Christian Kaps

Christian Kaps is an Assistant Professor of business administration in the Technology and Operations Management (TOM) Unit at Harvard Business School. Kaps' research focuses on emerging topics in renewable electricity generation and storage - notably how new... View Details

April 2020 (Revised May 2020)
Case

NTT DOCOMO's Race to 5G

By: Juan Alcácer, Horst Melcher and Akiko Kanno

The case, based on extensive interviews with NTT DOCOMO’s technology leaders, focuses on the opportunities and challenges that NTT DOCOMO faces with the launch of infrastructure and services for 5G wireless telecommunication technology. With higher data rates and... View Details

Keywords: 5G; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Product Launch; Strategic Planning; Decision Making; Strategy; Technology Industry; Technology Industry

September 2006 (Revised April 2007)
Case

Medtronic Vision 2010

By: Lynda M. Applegate

Describes the company's year-long efforts to transition from a medical device company selling products to physicians for use with patients suffering chronic end-stage disease, to a medical technology company providing life-long solutions for people with chronic... View Details

Keywords: Business Plan; Transition; Decision Choices and Conditions; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Financial Management; Financing and Loans; Health Care and Treatment; Innovation and Invention; Strategic Planning; Health Industry

January 2014 (Revised March 2014)
Case

SAP 2014: Reaching for the Cloud

By: Karim R. Lakhani, Marco Iansiti and Noah Fisher

In May 2014, Bill McDermott will become the sole CEO of SAP AG, the world leader in the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) field. The case occurs in January 2014 at SAP's investors meeting, at a time when the company's stock is near record high. A 2010 strategy... View Details

Keywords: Cloud Computing; Platform; Strategy And Execution; Strategy And Leadership; Enterprise Resource Planning; Software; Information Technology; Digital Platforms; Applications and Software; Information Technology Industry; Germany

December 2005 (Revised December 2008)
Case

SchoolNet: Pursuing Opportunity beyond Federal Mandates

Settling into his seat on the train bound for New York, CEO Jonathan Harber reflected on the evolution of SchoolNet's position in the educational technology market and its important relationship with Philadelphia. Specifically, how could it transition from a project to... View Details

Keywords: Customers; Education; Performance Improvement; Partners and Partnerships; Expansion; Technology Adoption; Philadelphia

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April 1992 (Revised March 1993)
Case

Brigham and Women's Hospital in 1992, The

Brigham and Women's Hospital is a highly successful teaching hospital in 1992. However, the hospital sector is undergoing a major transition and the hospital faces uncertainty about changing demographic trends, new types of competitors, and technological and scientific... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Change Management; Social Entrepreneurship; Decision Making; Health Care and Treatment; Business Strategy; Education Industry; Health Industry; Massachusetts

June 2005
Case

Furqan Nazeeri and the IMTrader Spin-Out

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Brian DeLacey

Furqan Nazeeri is looking to spin out a promising set of products and technologies from an established financial services firm. Designed as an exercise in negotiation. Includes material from the original business plan, and it is possible to simulate a negotiation... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Business or Company Management; Negotiation Process; Product Development; Technology Adoption

14 Apr 2020
News

Three Keys To Engaged, Productive Telework Teams

October 2022
Case

Ceibal: Sustaining and Scaling Educational Innovation in Uruguay

By: John J-H Kim, Michael Chu and Mariana Cal

Ceibal was founded in 2007 in Uruguay, as an initiative to reduce the digital gap in the country. After playing an important role providing a smooth transition to remote learning during COVID, Ceibal in 2022 must now determine the best way to fulfill its mission to "be... View Details

Keywords: Digital Gap; COVID-19 Pandemic; Education; Teaching; Digital Platforms; Technology Adoption; Technological Innovation; Social Issues; Transformation; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Education Industry; Latin America; South America; Uruguay

May 2008 (Revised May 2008)
Case

Symyx Technologies, Inc.

By: H. Kent Bowen, Courtney Purrington and Thomas D. Perry

Symyx is a science-based company spun out of Berkeley. Its unique materials technology has been exploited for 10 years, but the company needs a new business model. The company concept required the invention of hardware and software to do high throughput materials... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Transition; Engineering; Technological Innovation; Resource Allocation; Product Development; Partners and Partnerships; Science-Based Business; Information Infrastructure; Applications and Software

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Leila Doumi is a PhD Candidate in the Strategy Unit and an affiliate of the Digital Data and Design (D^3) Institute at Harvard. She conducts research on technology adoption, corporate strategy, and the future of work with a focus... View Details

December 2019
Article

What Is Different About Digital Strategy?: From Quantitative to Qualitative Change

By: Ron Adner, Phanish Puranam and Feng Zhu

The recent attention paid to the challenge of digital transformation signals an inflection point in the impact of digital technology on the competitive landscape. We suggest that this transition can be understood as a shift from the quantitative advances that have... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Transformation; Strategy; Digital Transformation

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October 2024 (Revised April 2025)
Case

Nvidia

By: Andy Wu and Matt Higgins

This case study examines Nvidia's strategic pivot from gaming GPUs to becoming a leader in general-purpose computing and AI. It explores how Nvidia leveraged its GPU architecture to dominate the growing fields of data center acceleration and AI training, outpacing... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Technological Innovation; AI and Machine Learning; Product Development; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; United States; China; Taiwan