Publications

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September 1992 (Revised November 1996)
Case

Royal Automobile Club Rescue Services Division: Transformation Through Technology

By: W. Earl Sasser and Roger H. Hallowell

The Royal Automobile Club uses a new computer and telephone system to improve its service standards and profitability. After the initial impact of changes from technology, the organization faces a need to choose between future technological development or... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Information Technology; Corporate Strategy; Service Industry; Auto Industry; United Kingdom

September 2019 (Revised September 2019)
Case

Facebook Fake News in the Post-Truth World

By: John R. Wells, Carole A. Winkler and Benjamin Weinstock

In August 2019, Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, was surrounded by controversy. The first major storm of protest followed the surprise election of Donald Trump as President of the United States on November 8, 2016; many put the blame at the door of fake... View Details

January 2017
Article

Innovation Under Regulatory Uncertainty: Evidence from Medical Technology

By: Ariel Dora Stern

This paper explores how the regulatory approval process affects innovation incentives in medical technologies. Prior studies have found early mover regulatory advantages for drugs. I find the opposite for medical devices, where pioneer entrants spend 34% (7.2 months)... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

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15 Oct 2014
Research & Ideas

Apple Pay’s Technology Adoption Problem

Only about 10 percent of retailers use NFC readers, and at least one retailer—Best Buy—stopped using them because they were too expensive. Officials with both Best Buy and Walmart have said the retailers have no plans, at least right now, of accepting the View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Technology; Technology

25 Oct 2018
Cold Call Podcast

Vodafone’s Innovative Approach to Advanced Technologies

Keywords: Telecommunications

June 1999
Teaching Note

Markets for Technology and the Returns on Research TN

By: Clayton M. Christensen

The purpose of the readings and class discussion is to help students understand why it often is so difficult for companies that conduct research to capture its value in their commercial businesses. Often new technology leaks more easily to the market. Students can... View Details

Keywords: Problems and Challenges; Research; Commercialization; Technology Adoption; Value

2016
Working Paper

Pivoting Isn't Enough: Principled Pragmatism and Strategic Reorientation in New Ventures

By: Rory McDonald and Cheng Gao

New technology ventures often experience deviations from their original plans that oblige them to reorient in pursuit of better fit between their evolving products and target customers. Yet research is largely silent on how entrepreneurs explain and justify their... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Reorientation; Technology Entrepreneurship; Innovation; Product Development Processes; Organizational Adaptation; Qualitative Methods (General); Information Technology; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Communication; Entrepreneurship; Alignment; Innovation and Invention; Product Development

January 1999
Case

State Street Corporation: Leading with Information Technology (B)

By: Stephen P. Bradley and Kelley Porter

With Multi-currency HORIZON, a real-time multi-currency accounting system that replaced the traditional batch-oriented single-currency accounting system, successfully launched, State Street Corp. (State Street) began to focus on growing the scope of its business... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Trends; Global Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Information Technology; Value Creation; Financial Services Industry

Research Summary

Ruling the Waves: Business and Politics along the Technological Frontier

By: Debora L. Spar

There are certain periods of time when technological innovation pushes at the frontiers of government and law; when technology undermines state authority and opens massive loopholes for entreneneurs to exploit. During these critical junctures, rules disappear and... View Details

24 Oct 2005
Research & Ideas

IPR: Protecting Your Technology Transfers

used prior to reforms but also transfer new technology to reforming countries. We did not identify any specific facets of IPR that are magic bullets when it comes to promoting View Details

Keywords: by Cynthia Churchwell

July 1997
Case

Ford Motor Company: Maximizing the Business Value of Web Technologies

One of the largest companies in the world decides to aggressively deploy Web technology and must manage and support the new technology. A discussion of infrastructure renewal, application development, extranets, and content management is included. View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Value Creation; Information Technology; Infrastructure; Internet and the Web; Manufacturing Industry; Auto Industry

November 2024
Supplement

AlphaGo (C): Birth of a New Intelligence

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Shweta Bagai

This case, the final of a three-part series, explores DeepMind's pivotal transition from mastering games to solving real-world scientific challenges. In December 2020, DeepMind's AI system AlphaFold 2 achieved a breakthrough by solving protein folding—a 50-year-old... View Details

Keywords: Autonomy; Deep Learning; Drug Discovery; Healthcare Innovation; Neural Networks; Scientific Research; Technology Startup; AI and Machine Learning; Technological Innovation; Research and Development; Business Model; Business Strategy; Open Source Distribution; Technology Industry; United States

Research Summary

Fintech, Small Business & the American Dream: How Technology Is Transforming Lending and Shaping a New Era of Small Business Opportunity

Fintech, Small Business & the American Dream describes the needs of small businesses for capital and demonstrates how technology—novel data sources, artificial intelligence, machine learning—will transform the small business lending market. This market has been... View Details

November 1988 (Revised July 1997)
Case

Technology Transfer at a Defense Contractor

By: Linda A. Hill

At a time of great changes in the corporate environment, Larry Yoshino, a design lab manager at Parsons Controls Corp., faces a delay in a costly defense project due to the inability of one of his subordinates to gain the cooperation of engineers at Parsons'... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management; Conflict Management; Managerial Roles; Management Teams; Employees; Competitive Strategy; Projects

April 2013
Article

In Search of a Second Act: Riding the Popularity of a Great First Product Is Easy; Finding the Next One Is Hard

By: Elie Ofek and Jill Avery

The article presents a fictional case study on new product development and improvement after the successful launch of a first breakthrough product. Topics include business planning for brand name products, finance and investment for the development of educational toys,... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Growth Strategy; Consumer Marketing; Marketing; Brand Management; Market Research; New Product Development; Marketing Management; Technology Commercialization; Technology; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Product Marketing; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; North and Central America; United States

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March 2010 (Revised January 2011)
Case

Carrot or Stick? Getting Paid for Innovation at Tessera Technologies

By: Willy C. Shih

Tessera Technologies has been very successful developing technologies for the semiconductor and mobile device industry, and then licensing them broadly to manufacturers. In addition to licensing patents, it also supplies know-how to help manufacturers move into... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Innovation Strategy; Patents; Courts and Trials; Rights; Mobile Technology; Semiconductor Industry; California

June 2004
Case

Medical Technology Industry and Japan (A), The

In a five-year effort, the Health Industry Manufacturers Association (HIMA) tried to influence government health policy in Japan. In 1993, HIMA mobilized in response to fears the Japanese government was planning to target the U.S. medical devices industry. The case... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Policy; Globalized Markets and Industries; Government and Politics; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Japan; United States