Publications

Summer 2018
Article

Why High-Tech Commoditization Is Accelerating

By: Willy C. Shih

Knowledge embedded within state-of-the-art production and design tools is a powerful force that is leveling the global technology playing field. It democratizes innovation and makes future competition more challenging. This paper describes the knowledge flows through... View Details

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2010
Working Paper

The Mirroring Hypothesis: Theory, Evidence and Exceptions

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin

The mirroring hypothesis predicts that the organizational patterns of a development project (e.g. communication links, geographic collocation, team and firm co-membership) will correspond to the technical patterns of dependency in the system under development. Scholars... View Details

Keywords: Infrastructure; Product Design; Organizational Design; Practice; Groups and Teams; Social and Collaborative Networks; Information Technology

December 2006 (Revised April 2014)
Case

J. R. D. Tata

By: Nitin Nohria, Anthony Mayo and Mark Benson

J.R.D Tata, Chairman of the Indian conglomerate Tata & Sons, played a significant role in building India's economic infrastructure. Under his guidance, Tata & Sons built locomotives, steel refineries, airlines, chemical plants, and technology-based enterprises.... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Development Economics; Working Conditions; Leadership; Infrastructure; Personal Development and Career; Business and Government Relations; India

March 2004 (Revised June 2004)
Case

Blackout: August 14, 2003

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Ryland Matthew Willis

On August 14, 2003, an electricity blackout cascaded throughout the northeastern United States and Canada. Describes the structure, technology, and economics of the electric utility industry and how gradual deregulation beginning in the 1970s placed unprecedented, and... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Performance Improvement; Infrastructure; Energy Sources; Business and Government Relations; Networks; Emerging Markets; Failure; Economics; Utilities Industry; Canada; Northeastern United States

December 1999 (Revised April 2002)
Case

International Business Machines Corporation (A)

By: David F. Hawkins

Perform financial ratio analysis to identify changes in IBM's business mix and profitability. Teaching purpose: Ratio analysis. View Details

Keywords: Information Infrastructure; Capital Structure; Performance Efficiency; Business Earnings; Business Model; Private Sector; Commercialization; Computer Industry; Accounting Industry

May 2004
Background Note

56K Modem Battle

By: David B. Yoffie and Deborah Freier

Examines the battle to set the standard for the 56K modem. Set in 1996, this case looks at how computers accessed the Internet via a telephone line, or dial-up connection, and a hardware modem. In 1995, there were 18.6 million total modem unit shipments, with market... View Details

Keywords: Announcements; Revenue; Patents; Product Launch; Network Effects; Standards; Competition; Information Infrastructure; Internet and the Web; Technology Industry; Illinois

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27 May 2008
Sharpening Your Skills

Sharpening Your Skills: Thinking About Global

and run major infrastructure projects such as power and water. But a set of new property protections has done little to manage the risk in many of these politically unstable environments. Professor Louis T. Wells, coauthor of a recent... View Details

01 Dec 2008
News

A U.S. Turnaround?

from fossil fuels to alternative sources of energy. We will need to finance research in technology innovation and biotechnology, including stem cell research. We will need to generate most of our electricity using nuclear fuel. We will need to bring our View Details

Keywords: Byron Wien; Performing Arts, Spectator Sports, and Related Industries; Arts, Entertainment; Computer and Electronic Product Manufacturing; Manufacturing; Transportation Equipment Manufacturing; Manufacturing; Electric Power Generation, Transmission, Distribution; Utilities

09 Mar 2021
Blog Post

New BEI Director: Lynn Schenk

Initiative in which she leveraged her structured finance background and expertise from her tenure at Citigroup to focus on issues ranging from the financial structuring of renewable energy and infrastructure assets to climate-related... View Details

02 Apr 2015
Research & Ideas

Digital Initiative Summit: Freeing Patient Data to Enable Innovation

organize our data and translate it into something actionable. We're still at the stage where we're building infrastructure for it and, unfortunately, too often it's garbage in, garbage out." Lahkani asked panelists where they believe the... View Details

Keywords: Re: Karim R. Lakhani; Health

18 Nov 2013
Op-Ed

Twitter IPO: Overvalued or the Start of Something Big?

opportunities for real-time conversations and engagement to people around the world. The company has accomplished this by taking advantage of the modular nature of today's ubiquitous communications infrastructures provided by the Internet... View Details

Keywords: by Chet Huber; Technology

13 Jan 2021
Blog Post

Welcome to the BEI Blog!

opportunities for students. BEI works with a team of over 30 faculty affiliates who are dedicated to researching every aspect of the impacts of climate change: how it will change the infrastructure of our buildings and cities; innovative... View Details

01 Dec 2018
News

Research Is the Foundation

fundamental means by which people interact in any organization.” Her research—published in her award-winning 2017 book, The Language of Global Success: How a Common Tongue Transforms Multinational Organizations (Princeton University Press)—“wouldn’t have happened... View Details

01 Jun 2017
News

Ask the Expert: On the Fly

free-market competition. While market liberalization internationally is still evolving, the consumer benefits of the competitive marketplace are pretty compelling. Putting any one carrier in charge of the infrastructure that forms the... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna

01 Oct 1997
News

William K.L. Fung

skills to develop its infrastructure and revive heavy industry. "Guess who's going to be in there?" he says with a smile. "The guys who were sewing garments in Hong Kong in the 1970s will now be running steel plants in China." With the... View Details

Keywords: Alejandro Reyes

March 1998 (Revised March 1999)
Case

Dell Online

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Marie Bell

Dell started online commerce for its PCs in 1996, and by 1997 had achieved a sales rate of $3 million a day. The case describes the internal process that led to these dramatic results and poses the question of how the firm should leverage this activity to meet Michael... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Behavior; Market Transactions; Goals and Objectives; Business Processes; Distribution Channels; Internet and the Web; Information Infrastructure; Competitive Advantage; Computer Industry; Retail Industry