Publications

April 2010 (Revised December 2010)
Case

Shanzhai! MediaTek and the "White Box" Handset Market

By: Willy C. Shih, Chen-Fu Chien and Jyun-Cheng Wang

The term "white box" is often used to describe products without a brand name. Such products are assembled from standardized parts, and they became a very popular category of desktop PCs. Hsinchu, Taiwan based MediaTek is a fabless semiconductor company that unleashed a... View Details

Keywords: Disruptive Innovation; Growth and Development Strategy; Emerging Markets; Competitive Advantage; Wireless Technology; Semiconductor Industry; Taiwan

Web

Kraft Accelerator

data-driven innovations are disrupting drug discovery. But we must learn how to use these emerging technologies better so that we can ask more sophisticated questions, and come up with deeper insights into biology and the understanding... View Details

17 Dec 2001
Research & Ideas

Risks and Rewards of the Intrapreneur

levels of the company, particularly from the CEO. Evaluate the company's other start-up efforts and how it handled projects that failed in some regard, said Jim Barron, vice president of Innosight L.L.C., a consulting firm specializing in View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

March 1981 (Revised October 1998)
Case

Corning Glass Works International (A)

By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Michael Y. Yoshino

Follows the impact of a change in global strategy on a diversified company's global organization structure. Traces two failed attempts at bringing a business perspective to a geographic organization, and poses the problem of what the international division president... View Details

Keywords: Disruption; Framework; Global Strategy; Organizational Structure; Perspective; Power and Influence

September 2023 (Revised December 2023)
Case

Twiddy & Company: Trust in a Chaotic Environment

By: Sandra J. Sucher, Shalene Gupta and Tom Quinn

Twiddy & Company, known for Southern hospitality rooted in personal interactions, needed to adjust to contactless remote customer service as fear of the contagious virus prevented person-to-person contact. Local elected officials, in a bid to stop tourists from... View Details

Keywords: Trust; Health Pandemics; Organizational Culture; Disruption; Government Legislation; Transportation; Tourism Industry; North Carolina; United States

November 2021
Supplement

Ant Group (B)

By: Krishna G. Palepu, Feng Zhu and Susie L. Ma

Keywords: Information Technology; Value Creation; Network Effects; Strategy; Disruptive Innovation; Technology Industry; Financial Services Industry; China

June 2008
Case

Kidney Matchmakers

By: Brian J. Hall and Nicole Bennett

In this case we look at the design and development of an unconventional market, where neither money nor traditional "goods" are exchanged. Kidney exchange is an idea pioneered by HBS professor and market designer Alvin Roth and a small group of innovative doctors. This... View Details

Keywords: Moral Sensibility; Disruptive Innovation; Market Design; Market Transactions; Value Creation; Health Industry

Find at Harvard

June 1999 (Revised November 1999)
Background Note

Processes of Strategy Definition and Implementation, The

By: Clayton M. Christensen and Jeremy Dann

Strategy definition is not a short, discrete process. Rather, outside influences (market, political, technological, etc.) and the company's own resource allocation process continually reshape an organization's strategy. View Details

Keywords: Disruption; Management Practices and Processes; Resource Allocation; Strategic Planning; Situation or Environment; Strategy

01 Dec 2004
News

Aldrich Renovations Reach Halfway Point

Students taking classes in Aldrich Hall this year can literally place one foot in the past and one in the future where the old and newly renovated halves of the building meet on each of the three floors. To avoid disrupting classes,... View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

Portrait Project

Sam Li

probably take me three minutes, but for Michael, it was like taking a stressful exam. What is a password security question? What is PayPal? It was too much. Computer technology disrupted his life without providing much benefit. We... View Details

25 Aug 2022
News

Hair Today

precious: In addition to her studies, Winters was guardian of her sister, who was 14 at the time. “I remember thinking, ‘This is absolutely crazy,’” she says. After writing a paper about Drybar and its disruption of blowouts, Winters... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; entrepreneurship; hair; beauty; Houston; Super Bowl

01 Mar 2012
News

Where Innovation Rules

thousands of HBS alumni. Whether through creative destruction, disruptive innovation, or riding a societal quantum leap forward, HBS alumni entrepreneurs have founded or grown companies that are pervasive and familiar, from consumer... View Details

Keywords: Deborah Blagg;Garry Emmons;Julia Hanna;Roger Thompson; Corporate Services; Educational Services; Management

15 Nov 2016
News

Cultivating the Next Generation of Thought Leaders

Associate Professor George Serafeim (photo by Susan Young) Michael E. Porter was an associate professor at HBS when he first developed his now-renowned five forces framework for strategy. Likewise, Clayton M. Christensen advanced the concept of View Details

01 Apr 2000
News

Sign of the Times: General Management Course Evolves

announcing the change, MBA Program Chair and Senior Associate Dean W. Carl Kester emphasized the need to address new management challenges, such as increased competition from abroad and from companies that are taking advantage of View Details

07 Dec 2016
HBS Case

Why Millennials Flock to Fintech for Personal Investing

Millennials are disruptive bunch. The first generation to grow up with the internet, consumers born after 1980 are used to relying on technology and engineering to do almost everything—including shopping (Amazon), listening to music... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

2024
Book

Smart Rivals: How Innovative Companies Play Games That Tech Giants Can't Win

By: Feng Zhu and Bonnie Yining Cao

A fresh, research-based look at how companies can better compete, on their own terms, with tech giants. View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Product Design; Disruptive Innovation; Competitive Advantage

May 2018
Teaching Note

AT&T: Managing Technological Change and the Future of Telephone Operators in the 20th Century

By: Daniel P. Gross and William R. Kerr

Teaching Note for HBS No. 718-486. View Details

Keywords: AT＆T; Bell Telephone; Phone Lines; Phone Operators; Mechanical Switching; Layoffs; Technological Change; Transition; History; Innovation and Invention; Technological Innovation; Information Technology; Disruption; Change Management; Communications Industry; Telecommunications Industry; United States