Publications

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October 2015
Case

Bigbelly

By: Mitch Weiss and Christine Snively

To accelerate Bigbelly's sales growth and its "smart cities" positioning, its CEO planned to shift his company from equipment sales to a subscription service. Jack Kutner hoped to re-position Bigbelly's solar-powered trash compacting stations beyond trash and recycling... View Details

February 2015 (Revised November 2015)
Supplement

Building an Integrated Biopharma Company: Crucell (B)

By: Richard G. Hamermesh, Marianne Van Der Steen and Susan Harmeling

The Crucell (B) case updates events at Crucell since 2009. In September, 2009, Johnson & Johnson acquired 18% of Crucell for $400 million. This investment was part of a business development deal. Subsequently, in 2012, Johnson & Johnson acquired Crucell for $2.8... View Details

Keywords: Biotechnology; Biopharmacy Company; Licensing Agreements In Biopharmacy; Licensing; Human Cell-line Technology; Vaccine; Healthcare Innovation; Global Health; Entrepreneurship; Health Care and Treatment; Acquisition; Innovation and Invention; Biotechnology Industry; Biotechnology Industry

August 28, 2018
Article

How Intermittent Breaks in Interaction Improve Collective Intelligence

By: Ethan Bernstein, Jesse Shore and David Lazer

People influence each other when they interact to solve problems. Such social influence introduces both benefits (higher average solution quality due to exploitation of existing answers through social learning) and costs (lower maximum solution quality due to a... View Details

2009
Working Paper

The CHAT Dataset

By: Diego A. Comin and Bart Hobijn

This note accompanies the Cross‐country Historical Adoption of Technology (CHAT) dataset. CHAT is an unbalanced panel dataset with information on the adoption of over 100 technologies in more than 150 countries since 1800. The data is available for download at:... View Details

Keywords: Geographic Location; History; Technology Adoption

Research Summary

Professor Hiatt’s research is aimed at discovering how institutional factors can affect sector growth and technology development and adoption by mediating and moderating uncertainty. His work encompasses two related research questions:

1) How can... View Details

December 2010 (Revised March 2015)
Case

The Wright Brothers and Their Flying Machines

By: Tom Nicholas and David Chen

Wilbur (1867-1912) and Orville (1871-1948) Wright were fascinated by the mystery of flight and they built on the ideas of prominent earlier figures such as Octave Chanute (1832-1910) the French-born American who was influential in fostering the free exchange of ideas... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Business History; Technological Innovation; Patents; Knowledge Sharing; Air Transportation; Air Transportation Industry; Europe; United States

17 Jul 2006
Lessons from the Classroom

Developing a Strategy for Digital Convergence

Following the dot-com bust at the turn of the century, the technology business went through a gloomy period, 2001-2002, when innovation dried up, MBAs looked for careers in finance, and investors put their funds in a holding pattern.... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Computer; Education

26 Apr 2010
News

Pharma's Future Depends on These Three Trends

Working Paper

The Composition and Dynamics of Technology-Enabled Entrepreneurship

By: Innessa Colaiacovo, Daniel P. Gross and Jorge Guzman

Using data on nearly all U.S. business registrations since the turn of the twentieth century, and a set of 386 major technologies invented over this period, we study the level, composition, and dynamics of entrepreneurial activity around new technology. We find a... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Invention; Patents; Technology Industry

SSRN

September 1992
Case

International Airlines

A frequent flyer for a large international airline encounters typical but recurring service problems. The marketing management of the company explores the use of information technology in understanding and dealing with the issues involved. Concepts of database... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Communications; Information Technology; Customer Focus and Relationships; Air Transportation Industry

August 2022
Case

In-Q-Tel: Innovation On A Mission

By: Joshua Lev Krieger and Josh Lerner

In 2022, the leaders of In-Q-Tel (IQT) considered what was next for the unique mission-driven organization. Since 1999, IQT had one mission: to be the most sophisticated source of strategic technical knowledge and capabilities to the U.S. government and its allies. IQT... View Details

Keywords: Mission and Purpose; National Security; Technological Innovation; Research; Geopolitical Units; Risk Management; Recruitment; Growth and Development Strategy; Venture Capital; Knowledge Management; Information Industry; Information Industry

01 Nov 2014
News

Smart Connected Products: Killing Industries, Boosting Innovation

November 2017 (Revised September 2020)
Supplement

Miami's Tech Future (C): Reaching Another Miami

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter

The effects of Miami’s startup scene have not reached many “left-behind” lower-income Black communities, which are disproportionately affected by problems such as segregation and racial discrimination, lack of transportation access, crime, education quality, government... View Details

September 2011
Article

What Drives Innovation?

By: Tom Nicholas

The idea that innovation drives economic growth is incontrovertible, but the factors that, in turn, drive innovation are not fully understood. This paper surveys the recent literature, focusing on three main drivers: intellectual property rights institutions, the... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Economic Growth

Find at Harvard

Carolyn Fu is an assistant professor of business administration in the Strategy Unit. She studies innovation strategy in the context of high degrees of social construction – where the value of an innovation is continuously redefined between firms and their... View Details

Michael E. Porter

Michael Porter is an economist, researcher, author, advisor, speaker and teacher. Throughout his career at Harvard Business School, he has brought economic theory and strategy concepts to bear on many of the most challenging problems facing corporations, economies... View Details

Keywords: e-commerce industry; e-commerce industry; e-commerce industry; e-commerce industry; e-commerce industry; e-commerce industry; e-commerce industry; e-commerce industry; e-commerce industry

September 2002 (Revised January 2013)
Case

Siebel Systems: Organizing for the Customer

By: Robert Simons and Antonio Davila

Siebel Systems is one of the fastest growing companies in America. Tom Siebel, the company's founder, has organized the business to accommodate growth and focus on the customer. Innovative information technology systems and clear accountability prove to be essential to... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Structure; Applications and Software; Business Growth and Maturation; Information Technology; Performance Evaluation; Performance Expectations; Innovation and Management; Technological Innovation; Customer Focus and Relationships; Management Teams; Information Technology Industry; North and Central America

September 2017
Case

Tencent

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

Tencent had undergone many transformations since it was founded in 1998 as a simple messaging service. In 2017, it was the largest online games provider in China with a wide range of game types, China’s largest social networking service provider with several of the... View Details