Publications

Marco Iansiti, David Sarnoff Professor of Business Administration,is a codirector of the Laboratory for Information Science at Harvard and of the Digital Initiative at HBS.

Prof. Iansiti's research examines the digital transformation of companies and... View Details

Keywords: e-commerce industry; e-commerce industry; e-commerce industry; e-commerce industry; e-commerce industry; e-commerce industry; e-commerce industry; e-commerce industry; e-commerce industry; e-commerce industry; e-commerce industry; e-commerce industry; e-commerce industry

Article

Was the Wealth of Nations Determined in 1000 B.C.?

By: Diego A. Comin, Bill Easterly and Erick Gong

We assemble a dataset on technology adoption in 1000 B.C., 0 A.D., and 1500 A.D. for the predecessors to today's nation states. We find that this very old history of technology adoption is surprisingly significant for today's national development outcomes. Our strong... View Details

Keywords: Cost Accounting; Information Technology; Technology Adoption; Growth and Development; Adoption; Business Strategy; Cost; Cost Management; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Culture; Technology Industry

Read Now

November 2008 (Revised April 2009)
Case

E Ink in 2008

By: David B. Yoffie and Renee Kim

In the fall of 2008, E Ink had positioned itself as a leader in electronic ink technology thanks to the launch of several eBook devices such as Amazon's Kindle. Yet E Ink still faced the question of how to turn its technology into a profitable business amid competing... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Profit; Product Positioning; Business Strategy; Competition; Hardware; Technology Industry

02 Oct 2018
News

How Companies Can Tap Into Talent Clusters

21 Jun 2004
Research & Ideas

Music Downloads: Pirates—or Customers?

Carolina at Chapel Hill. Their paper, "The Effect of File Sharing on Record Sales," caused a ruckus in the music industry not seen since the British invasion of the Beatles. Many recording executives were not singing "Yeah,... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Entertainment & Recreation; Music

April 2012
Article

Local R&D Strategies and Multi-location Firms: The Role of Internal Linkages

By: Juan Alcacer and Minyuan Zhao

This study looks at the role of firms' internal linkages in highly competitive technology clusters, where much of the world's R&D takes place. The leading players in these clusters are multilocation firms that organize and integrate knowledge across sites worldwide.... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management; Technological Innovation; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Research and Development; Risk and Uncertainty; Competition; Competitive Advantage; Technology

Research Summary

The Global Agglomeration of Multinational Firms

By: Laura Alfaro

The explosion of multinational activities in recent decades is rapidly transforming the global landscape of industrial production. But are the emerging clusters of multinational production the rule or the exception? What drives the offshore agglomeration of... View Details

Jim Matheson

Jim joined the HBS Faculty in 2019 and teaches the EC courses Entrepreneurial Finance and Tough Tech Ventures and is a faculty affiliate of the Business & Environment Initiative. He is an active investor, and Board director & advisor for... View Details

January 2021
Case

Bespoken Spirits: Disrupting Distilling

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

On October 7, 2020, Bespoken Spirits publicly announced it had received $2.6 million of seed funding for its “sustainable maturation process,” a process that could produce award-winning whiskeys in just days rather than years using a novel technology and data science. ... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Business Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Disruption; Entrepreneurship; Environmental Sustainability; Cash Flow; Disruptive Innovation; Innovation Strategy; Brands and Branding; Business Model; Consumer Products Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Service Industry; United States; California

April 2004
Background Note

Emergence of "Silicon Wadi", The

By: Paul A. Gompers and Sara Bergson

Provides background information on the high-tech industry in Israel. View Details

Keywords: Applications and Software; Industry Clusters; Information Technology Industry; Israel

11 Jun 2014
Blog Post

Alumni: Where are they now? Featuring Joe…

promising breakthrough technologies that could have a real impact on energy-intensive industries like electric utilities, oil and gas, chemicals, and mining, and then provide financing to help build... View Details

Keywords: Technology

05 Aug 2015
What Do You Think?

What Happened to the ‘Innovation, Disruption, Technology’ Dividend?

technology is being diverted to the creation of more variations on basic ideas faster instead of “an economy based on new products/platforms/ideas.” Donald Shaw cited “problems in finding qualified people to hire.” He also said that,... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Technology; Technology

05 Jul 2004
Research & Ideas

Radical Change, Entrepreneurial Opportunity

Mary Tripsas, Assistant Professor in the Entrepreneurial Management unit at Harvard Business School, is interested in how radical technological change transforms industries, and how such change affects established firms and creates... View Details

Keywords: by Michael J. Roberts; Technology

March 2006 (Revised June 2006)
Case

The Speedway That Won't Slow Down

Dick Berggren, well-known FOXTV announcer for NASCAR races and executive editor of Speedway Illustrated magazine, considers how to grow the business he founded and balance his time, energy, and commitments to his wife. Explores the explosive growth of media businesses... View Details

Keywords: Work-Life Balance; Business Plan; Media; Sports; Media and Broadcasting Industry; United States

27 Sep 2021
Blog Post

Working to Change the Food System

Jesse Lou (MBA 2022) reflects on his decision to come to HBS, what motivates him to make a difference in the world by using technology to build a more sustainable food system, and how he has utilized resources at HBS to make this happen.... View Details

February 2024
Article

Archetypes of Product Launch by Insiders, Outsiders, and Visionaries

By: Shane Greenstein

What archetypes emerge from prominent episodes of product launches? This essay examines a set of episodes in information technology history that led to significant changes in industry leadership. It highlights that, in all of these instances, there is an example of a... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Product Launch; Leadership; Market Entry and Exit

Register to Read

26 Mar 2020
Blog Post

The Road Untraveled: VC Perspectives on COVID-19

African-American investors across the country. After school, he plans to continue working in the VC industry, partnering with incredible founders to build leading technology platforms of the future. We caught up with Brian to learn about... View Details

24 Oct 2018
News

America’s Need for Skilled Immigrants Isn’t Going Away

September 2018
Case

Sealed Air Corporation: Deciding the Fate of VTID (Abridged)

By: Elie Ofek

In mid-2010 the Sealed Air Corporation has to decide on next steps for its novel video tracking technology (called VTID) after unsuccessful attempts to market it in three different industry settings. The company must determine whether its most recent target market, the... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decision Choices and Conditions; Technological Innovation; Marketing Strategy; Problems and Challenges; Commercialization; Service Industry