Publications

October 2009 (Revised July 2012)
Case

Emotiv Systems Inc.: It's the Thoughts that Count

By: Elie Ofek, Jason Riis and Paul Hamilton

Emotiv is getting ready to launch its innovative brain-computer interfacing (BCI) technology. The company has developed a special headset, called EPOC, and highly sophisticated software that can translate a person's emotions, cognitive thoughts, and facial expressions... View Details

Keywords: Technology Adoption; Sales; Technological Innovation; Demand and Consumers; Marketing Strategy; Partners and Partnerships; Entrepreneurship; Forecasting and Prediction; Product Launch; Business Startups; Technology Industry

27 Jun 2016
Research & Ideas

These Management Practices, Like Certain Technologies, Boost Company Performance

employees may balk at changes. For example, they may resist the introduction of new processes fearing that increased productivity will lead to fewer jobs, causing layoffs. Management changes can be equally... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

Dorothy A. Leonard

Dorothy Leonard*, the William J. Abernathy Professor of Business Administration Emerita, joined the Harvard faculty in 1983 after teaching for three years at the Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has taught MBA courses in... View Details

Keywords: computer; consulting; education industry; electronics; federal government; high technology; information technology industry; software; venture capital industry

August 2005 (Revised April 2006)
Case

Kemps LLC: Introducing Time-Driven ABC

By: Robert S. Kaplan

Kemps is making a strategy shift: from being focused on fulfilling customer requests to becoming the best cost dairy producer in the industry. Its existing manufacturing cost system, however, fails to capture the costs associated with handling special flavors, small... View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Customer Relationship Management; Cost Accounting; Managerial Roles; Cost Management; Earnings Management; Business Strategy; Time Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Teams; Decisions; Food and Beverage Industry

09 Jan 2024
Research & Ideas

Could Clean Hydrogen Become Affordable at Scale by 2030?

Hydrogen is poised to move from the sidelines of global clean energy as the industry learns to produce it more efficiently and at lower cost, according to newly published research led by Gunther Glenk, a climate fellow with Harvard Business School's Institute for the... View Details

Keywords: by Desmond Dodd; Energy; Green Technology

23 Nov 2016
Cold Call Podcast

Digital Change: Lessons from the Newspaper Industry

Keywords: Re: Bharat N. Anand; Journalism & News

April 2013
Article

Information and Subsidies: Complements or Substitutes?

By: Nava Ashraf, B. Kelsey Jack and Emir Kamenica

Does providing information about a product affect the impact of price subsidies on purchases of new or unfamiliar products? This question is particularly relevant for the introduction of health products in developing countries where consumers may be uncertain about... View Details

Keywords: Subsidies; Information; Consumer Behavior; Health; Zambia

Find at Harvard

Read Now

01 Jul 2016
Video

Fixing America’s Talent Supply Chain

2020
Working Paper

Pioneer (Dis-)advantages in Markets for Technology

By: Moritz Fischer, Joachim Henkel and Ariel Dora Stern

This study sheds new light on first- and early-mover advantages in the context of product innovation. Research on this classic topic often assumes that each firm participates in the entirety of the innovation and commercialization process. However, a division of labor... View Details

Keywords: First-mover Advantage; Product; Innovation Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Acquisition; Technology

SSRN

Read Now

March 1986 (Revised July 2000)
Case

Peter Browning and Continental White Cap (A)

Presents a new divisional vice president's entry into a well-established and still successful manufacturing organization which is nevertheless facing an impending competitive crisis. Demonstrates his challenge and his efforts, under pressure from corporate... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leading Change; Crisis Management; Manufacturing Industry

March 2021 (Revised August 2022)
Case

Seeding and Selling Asana

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Susie Ma and Amram Migdal

In December 2019, Oliver Jay, Asana’s Chief Revenue Officer (CRO), was reconsidering his go-to-market (GTM) strategy. Asana was cloud-based work management software that enabled users to break up projects into discrete tasks that could be assigned, scheduled, and... View Details

Keywords: SaaS; Customer Journey; Business Model; Business Organization; Change Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Marketing Channels; Marketing Strategy; Product Marketing; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web; Technology Industry; United States

September 2023
Article

(Not) Paying for Diversity: Repugnant Market Concerns Associated with Transactional Approaches to Diversity Recruitment

By: Summer R. Jackson

In a 20-month ethnographic study, I examine how a technology firm, ShopCo (a pseudonym), considered 13 different recruitment platforms to attract racial minority engineering candidates. I find that when choosing whether to adopt recruitment platforms focused on racial... View Details

Keywords: Technology Adoption; Recruitment; Race; Organizational Change and Adaptation

Read Now

11 Jan 2013
Working Paper Summaries

The Spatial Diffusion of Technology

Keywords: by Diego A. Comin, Mikhail Dmitriev & Esteban Rossi-Hansberg

March 1981 (Revised February 1993)
Case

Hank Kolb, Director, Quality Assurance

By: Frank S. Leonard and W. Earl Sasser

Designed to introduce the systemic nature of product quality and the complexity of quality problems. Uses a new director, quality assurance, and the discovery of a quality problem. The new director has to decide if it is a real problem, what to do about it, and how to... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Product; Organizational Culture; Problems and Challenges; Quality; Attitudes; Complexity

01 Oct 2012
Research & Ideas

Better by the Bundle?

Sales can soar when companies bundle products together into one cheaper package—Happy Meal, anyone? Yet a buyer's affinity for such deals comes with a big caveat, according to new research: These groupings... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

February 2003 (Revised February 2008)
Case

Singapore Inc.

By: Richard H.K. Vietor and Emily Thompson

In early 2003, Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong is assessing Singapore's development strategy--tax cutting combined with an industrial policy focused on six "clusters," including biomedical sciences. After 36 years of stupendous growth, Singapore has slowed down and faces... View Details

Keywords: Development Economics; Economic Growth; Growth and Development Strategy; Industry Clusters; Business and Government Relations; Competition; China; Singapore