Firm Innovation - Publications - Faculty & Research

13 Oct 2003
Research & Ideas

How to Pick Managers for Disruptive Growth

We suspect that the mistakes happen when firms choose managers at any level—from CEO to business unit head to project manager—based on what we call "right stuff" thinking, borrowing the term from Tom Wolfe's famous book and the... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Raynor

29 Oct 2014
Research & Ideas

Inventing Products is Less Valuable Than Inventing Ideas

appropriabilty, Ahuja offers advice as well. "Push for stretch goals in innovation," he says. Under pressure to produce in a short period of time, research teams are necessarily forced to go back and find new value in what has already been done than... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Technology

25 Nov 2014
First Look

First Look: November 25

traditional endogenous growth theory and to new theoretical approaches that focus on variability in innovation outcomes within the firm size distribution. Using new data on 11,514 U.S. R&D View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

February 2008 (Revised August 2008)
Case

Quanta Computer and the One Laptop Per Child Initiative

By: Willy Shih, Chintay Shih and Jyun-Chen Wang

When Quanta Computer, Inc., the world's largest manufacturer of laptop computers, first joined the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative, it faced a challenge trying to balance the cost objectives of a laptop computer targeted at children of the developing world with... View Details

Keywords: For-Profit Firms; Disruptive Innovation; Demand and Consumers; Supply Chain; Partners and Partnerships; Nonprofit Organizations; Hardware

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Contemporary Corporate Archives | Baker Library

the records of innovative companies and leaders who have shaped the world economy. The contemporary corporate archives prioritize the records of groundbreaking companies and businesspeople considered essential to the development of the... View Details

13 Dec 2016
First Look

December 13, 2016

state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Innovation increases after SOE privatizations, and this increase is larger in cities with strong IPR protection. Our results support theoretical arguments that IPR protection strengthens firms’ incentives... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

06 Feb 2012
Research & Ideas

Kodak: A Parable of American Competitiveness

process often sparks ideas that lead to creation of innovative new products, Shih explains. So when American companies allow the production of high-tech products like televisions and memory chips to disappear from the local landscape,... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Manufacturing

01 Mar 2011
News

Where the Jobs Are

U.S. high-tech firms have relied too much on outsourcing manufacturing in the mistaken belief that what really counts is R&D, not the actual fabrication of products. In fact, they argue, innovation and... View Details

Keywords: Roger Thompson; Manufacturing

15 Nov 2016
News

Uncovering The Secrets of Mittelstand Success

companies prevalent in German-speaking countries—has long captured the attention of global business practitioners and scholars. Why are these firms so competitive globally, particularly in emerging markets, and how have they managed to... View Details

01 Dec 2009
News

Taking the Plunge

swanky department stores, restaurants, and offices. (Visitors to HBS can try out a Washlet in Aldrich Hall, courtesy of TOTO.) “TOTO” is the final case in Leading Innovative Ventures; Tripsas notes that it brings together the two halves... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; Electrical Equipment, Appliance, and Component Manufacturing; Manufacturing

18 Oct 2016
News

China, artificial intelligence, and Jim Breyer

A venture capitalist with a career spanning three decades and a net worth of $2.6 billion is certain to have had a few big fish escape his hook over the years. For Jim Breyer (MBA 1987) of Breyer Capital, the Moby Dick that haunts him more than a quarter of a century... View Details

Keywords: Jennifer Myers

16 Feb 2021
Research & Ideas

To Fight Climate Change, Should Green Investors Reconsider Big Oil?

argues that “the majority of this recent green patenting is not driven by highly rated ESG firms but instead by firms that are explicitly excluded from the ESG funds investment universe.” 'Blockbuster' View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Energy

29 Sep 2015
First Look

September 29, 2015

innovations from industry outsiders who saw economic opportunities where others didn’t—and how these mainstream firms had no choice but to innovate themselves. New models were... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

06 Nov 2019
Op-Ed

Torched Planet: The Business Case to Reinvent Almost Everything

The world is. on. fire. The Earth is burning. We only have a little time to arrest climate change, and if we fail to do so the consequences will be both dire and irreversible. We have the technology and the resources to fix things, if we want to. We even have a... View Details

Keywords: by Rebecca Henderson; Energy

04 May 2023
Blog Post

Why Business Travel Still Matters in a Zoom World

and Trademark Office—when nonstop flights increase by 10 percent. The firms that benefitted most from nonstop flights tended to be bigger innovators overall, with more inventor stock and higher R&D... View Details

Keywords: All Industries

01 Mar 2013
News

Breyer Elected to Harvard Board

Jim Breyer (MBA 1987), a leading venture capitalist known for his expertise in innovative technology and media, has been elected to join the President and the Harvard Corporation as of July 1. Breyer is a partner at Accel Partners, a... View Details

Keywords: Funds, Trusts, and Other Financial Vehicles; Finance

Student-Faculty-Profile

Lauren Taylor & Rebecca Henderson

and from organizational theory and second, I’m particularly interested in the role that “relational contracts” or “trust” play in supporting innovative performance. I believe that so called “purpose-driven” or “mission-driven” View Details

25 Jun 2018
News

Incubating Ideas for the ‘Water Economy’

Tamin Pechet (MBA 2007) founded and manages a platform of firms that support and invest in innovative water and infrastructure resources. He is CEO of Upwell, chairman of Imagine H2O, and founder of Banyan... View Details

24 Sep 2014
Op-Ed

Tackling Climate Change Will Cost Less Than We Think

fuel were borne by those who use them —if, in other words, we imposed a realistic price for carbon emissions that reflected our best estimates of the real cost of dumping them into the atmosphere — then I suspect we would see unprecedented levels of View Details

Keywords: by Rebecca Henderson; Energy; Utilities

01 Apr 1998
News

Short Takes

organizations. The authors analyzed the companies in the top-performing quartile of their sample and discovered that "the better performers follow a pattern that we have found elsewhere in the industrial and industrializing world: successful View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons and Caroline Chauncey

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