Publications

2019
Working Paper

Why Do User Communities Matter for Strategy?

By: Sonali K. Shah and Frank Nagle

User communities represent a unique organizing structure for the exchange of ideas and knowledge. They are organizations composed primarily of users working collaboratively, voluntarily, and with minimal oversight to freely and openly develop and exchange knowledge... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Management; Knowledge Sharing; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Organizations; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Strategy

SSRN

08 Mar 2019
Blog Post

Reclaiming Feminism: A Celebration of International Women’s Day

boardrooms and classrooms, like an insult on the proverbial playground? We didn’t know. So, we talked to allies and advocates, skeptics and critics. We asked of them, and ourselves: What does it mean to be a feminist? What does it mean to uphold the values of gender... View Details

30 Sep 2002
Research & Ideas

Use the Psychology of Pricing To Keep Customers Returning

Buyers are more apt to use a product right after they purchase it, a fact you need to ponder as you consider how to keep customers coming back for more. In this e-mail interview with HBS Working Knowledge's Manda Mahoney, Harvard Business... View Details

Keywords: by Manda Mahoney

2013
Working Paper

Testing Coleman's Social-Norm Enforcement Mechanism: Evidence from Wikipedia

By: Mikolaj J. Piskorski and Andreea Gorbatai

Since Durkheim, sociologists have believed that dense network structures lead to fewer norm violations. Coleman (1990) proposed one mechanism generating this relationship and argued that dense networks provide an opportunity structure to reward those who punish norm... View Details

Keywords: Governance Compliance; Governance Controls; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Information Publishing; Social and Collaborative Networks; Social Issues; Societal Protocols

SSRN

28 Feb 2019
Cold Call Podcast

Pursuing Precision Medicine at Intermountain Healthcare

Keywords: Re: Richard G. Hamermesh; Health; Biotechnology; Pharmaceutical

15 Jun 2020
Blog Post

Black MBA Students Pen Letters to the HBS Community: Letter 1/5

Black students in our community have spent the last few weeks grappling with the weight of a devastating truth: that our country and society has undeniably and systemically failed Black communities – and the false narrative that being... View Details

Article

Firms, Crowds, and Innovation

By: Teppo Felin, Karim R. Lakhani and Michael L. Tushman

The purpose of this article is to suggest a (preliminary) taxonomy and research agenda for the topic of “firms, crowds, and innovation” and to provide an introduction to the associated special issue. We specifically discuss how various crowd-related phenomena and... View Details

Keywords: Crowdsourcing; Innovation; Open Innovation; Organization Theory; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Organizations; Theory; Strategy

August 2007 (Revised July 2008)
Background Note

Take Advantage of Your Diaspora Network

By: William R. Kerr and Daniel J. Isenberg

Diaspora networks (DNs) are an important resource for global entrepreneurs. Discusses several features of DNs, combining both academic and practitioner perspectives. Describes the history and prevalence of DNs in many ethnicities, documents the broad resources DNs can... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Diasporas; Entrepreneurship; Globalized Markets and Industries; Social and Collaborative Networks

Educators

20 Nov 2014
Blog Post

An update from the Hospitality Club

surprise gift - Marriott Gold Membership status! We are also pleased with the increased collaboration with other clubs at HBS, such as the Real Estate Club who we are working... View Details

08 Jun 2011
Lessons from the Classroom

Twenty-first Century Skill: Trading Carbon Credits

Cap and trade has become an increasingly popular mechanism used by governments to induce green behavior among corporate polluters, with news emerging almost daily. Just recently New Jersey Governor Chris Christie withdrew his state from... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Energy; Utilities

29 Apr 2014
First Look

First Look: April 29

extrapolating past returns. Such beliefs are hard to reconcile with existing models of the aggregate stock market. We study a consumption-based asset pricing model in which some investors form beliefs about future price changes in the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

September 2023
Background Note

Amager Bakke: Municipal Waste to Energy

By: Willy Shih, Michael W. Toffel and Kelsey Carter

This background note describes the Amager Bakke waste-to-energy (WtE) plant in Copenhagen, which merges traditional waste incineration with a combined heat and power (CHP) plant and air pollution control (scrubbing) technology, and had plans to add carbon dioxide (CO2)... View Details

Educators

04 May 2023
Blog Post

Why Business Travel Still Matters in a Zoom World

Nonstop flights generally make traveling more pleasant—but can they lead to innovation, too, especially in the global context? Research suggests that they can, with important takeaways for managers reinstating business travel in a world... View Details

Keywords: All Industries

04 Apr 2023
Blog Post

Maersk’s Journey to Decarbonize Shipping

Collaboration with suppliers to dramatically increase supply of green shipping fuels. Maersk’s massive scale means that they can essentially create a new market for sustainable shipping fuels, which they are... View Details

13 Aug 2024
Op-Ed

Can AI Save Physicians from Burnout?

documentation, litigation defense, and regulatory compliance. These excessive documentation requirements also strain the patient-physician relationship, reducing the time patients spend with their doctors and hampering effective... View Details

Keywords: by Susanna Gallani, Lidia Moura, and Katie Sonnefeldt; Health

20 Jul 2009
Research & Ideas

Markets or Communities? The Best Ways to Manage Outside Innovation

of an article in the current issue of MIT Sloan Management Review by Lakhani and collaborator Kevin J. Boudreau (London Business School), "How to Manage Outside Innovation" (free registration required). The right model to follow depends... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Technology

May 2012 (Revised January 2013)
Case

Wikipedia: Project Esperanza

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski, Andreea Gorbatai and Tiona Zuzul

In October 2006, Wikipedia was the largest volunteer-run on-line encyclopedia which could be freely read and edited by anyone with internet access. Within almost six years of its founding in 2001, the project had attracted hundreds of thousands of editors who had... View Details

Keywords: Web-enabled Application; Internet; Information Publishing; Social and Collaborative Networks; Groups and Teams; Publishing Industry; United States

Educators

23 Aug 2004
Research & Ideas

New Challenges for Long-Term Investors

individual's portfolio to his or her age (young investors should take more risk with stocks) and attitudes toward risk (conservative investors should hold more cash). Research done by Harvard Business School finance professor Luis M.... View Details

Keywords: by Ann Cullen

2015
Article

Free at Last, Now What: The Soviet and Chinese Attempts to Offer a Roadmap for the Post-Colonial World

By: Jeremy Friedman

This article seeks to understand the motivations behind the People's Republic of China's attempt to present an alternative development model for the post-colonial world and challenge Soviet leadership in the international communist movement in mid-1960s. When the wave... View Details

Keywords: Development Economics; Business and Government Relations; China; United States; Soviet Union

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