Knowledge Production - Publications - Faculty & Research

November 2015
Article

Modularity and Intellectual Property Protection

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin and Joachim Henkel

Modularity is a means of partitioning technical knowledge about a product or process. When state-sanctioned intellectual property (IP) rights are ineffective or costly to enforce, modularity can be used to hide information and thus protect IP. We investigate the impact... View Details

Keywords: Modularity; Value Appropriation; Relational Contracts; Clans; Intellectual Property

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2014
Working Paper

Modularity and Intellectual Property Protection

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin and Joachim Henkel

Modularity is a means of partitioning technical knowledge about a product or process. When state-sanctioned intellectual property (IP) rights are ineffective or costly to enforce, modularity can be used to hide information and thus protect IP. We investigate the impact... View Details

Keywords: Modularity; Value Appropriation; Relational Contracts; Clans; Rights; Complexity; Intellectual Property

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February 2021
Article

Platform Diffusion at Temporary Gatherings: Social Coordination and Ecosystem Emergence

By: Tommy Pan Fang, Andy Wu and David R. Clough

Software platforms create value by cultivating an ecosystem of complementary products and services. Existing explanations for how a prospective complementor chooses platforms to join assume the complementor has rich information about the range of available platforms.... View Details

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30 Dec 2013
Research & Ideas

Most Popular Articles of 2013

of reader e-mails, Jim Heskett wonders whether the term "servant leadership" is an oxymoron? Clay Christensen's Milkshake Marketing About 95 percent of new products fail. The problem often is that their creators are using an... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

July 2012
Case

Johannes Linden: Managing the Global Executive Committee

By: Linda A. Hill and Mark Rennella

Johannes Linden is the Director of the Washer and Dryer division of Fluss, a large Swiss appliance manufacturer. Soon after the company completes its revenue projections and bonus targets for the upcoming year, Linden shares some good news with his leadership team, the... View Details

Keywords: Leadership Style; Groups and Teams; Organizational Culture; Management Style; Motivation and Incentives; Power and Influence; Multinational Firms and Management; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Switzerland

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12 Apr 2007
Working Paper Summaries

From Manufacturing to Design: An Essay on the Work of Kim B. Clark

Keywords: by Sylvain Lenfle & Carliss Y. Baldwin; Manufacturing

20 Dec 2018
Research & Ideas

Most Popular Stories and Research Papers of 2018

Why Ethical People Become Unethical Negotiators You may think you are an ethical person, but self-interest can cloud your judgment when you sit down at the bargaining table, says Max Bazerman. The year’s 5 most downloaded research papers Working View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

24 Oct 2011
Research & Ideas

The Yelp Factor: Are Consumer Reviews Good for Business?

restaurants were created equal. Chain restaurants, in particular, were largely unaffected by the ratings, while the greatest effect was shown for independent restaurants. That makes sense according to economic theory, says Luca, since diners presumably already have... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Food & Beverage

2020
Working Paper

Scientific Production: An Exploration into Organization, Resource Allocation, and Funding

By: Jerry Thursby, Marie Thursby, Karim R. Lakhani, Kyle R. Myers, Nina Cohodes, Sarah Bratt, Dennis Byrski, Hannah Cohoon and Maria Roche

Production of scientific knowledge is core to civilizational advancement in economic and material wellbeing of societies. Despite its fundamental importance, however, a systematic effort to quantitatively study the factors underlying scientific production, particularly... View Details

Keywords: Funding; Science; Knowledge; Research; Information Management; Resource Allocation

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01 Nov 2022
Research & Ideas

A Penny for Your Thoughts? For Big-Picture Ideas, the Right Pay Structure Matters

novel idea in the previous month. [div class=infogram-embed data-id=_/buhv4lJrYV50s7MdxGC9][/div] Workers with “variable pay” contracts—earning roughly the equivalent to hourly pay for workers in the US, with wages tied to their level of View Details

Keywords: by Scott Van Voorhis

March 2010 (Revised August 2010)
Case

Systems Infrastructure at Google (A)

By: Linda A. Hill and Emily Stecker

This case describes how a senior vice president of engineering at Google, Bill Coughran, leads a high-performing engineering organization. The case focuses specifically on Coughran's encouraging two teams of engineers to develop competing solutions for application... View Details

Keywords: Independent Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Innovation Leadership; Leadership Development; Product Design; Groups and Teams; Creativity; Motivation and Incentives; Competitive Strategy; Technology Industry; United States

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06 Feb 2006
Research & Ideas

Sorting Out the Patent Craze

include bodies as varied in scope as the Financial Accounting Standards Board on one end to the DSL Forum on the other. On the tech side, SSOs work both with technology sponsors and users to develop a set of standards for products to... View Details

Keywords: by Sara Grant; Technology

August 2020
Article

Machine Learning and Human Capital Complementarities: Experimental Evidence on Bias Mitigation

By: Prithwiraj Choudhury, Evan Starr and Rajshree Agarwal

The use of machine learning (ML) for productivity in the knowledge economy requires considerations of important biases that may arise from ML predictions. We define a new source of bias related to incompleteness in real time inputs, which may result from strategic... View Details

Keywords: Machine Learning; Bias; Human Capital; Management; Strategy

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2012
Working Paper

The Impact of Modularity on Intellectual Property and Value Appropriation

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin and Joachim Henkel

Modularity is a means of partitioning technical knowledge about a product or process. When state-sanctioned intellectual property rights are ineffective or costly to enforce, modularity can be used to hide information and thus protect intellectual property (IP). We... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Open Source Distribution; Value; Complexity; Intellectual Property

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13 Sep 2021
Research & Ideas

Science: The Unlikely Frontier for New Business Ideas

shrinking product lifecycles and rapidly changing technology are under pressure to bring new goods to market faster. Corporate spending on research and development (R&D) in the United States has also been outpacing inflation, raising... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

26 Nov 2001
Research & Ideas

How Toyota Turns Workers Into Problem Solvers

When HBS professor Steven Spear recently released an abstract on problem solving at Toyota, HBS Working Knowledge staffer Sarah Jane Johnston e-mailed off some questions. Spear not only answered the questions, but also asked some of his... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Johnston; Manufacturing; Transportation; Auto

16 Apr 2020
Research & Ideas

Has COVID-19 Broken the Global Value Chain?

The coronavirus pandemic has not only disrupted lives and businesses, it has illuminated underlying fragilities in the global value chain (GVC) that drives economies around the world. The smartphone you use many times daily is a product... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

22 Nov 2006
Research & Ideas

CEO Succession: The Case at Ford

for them to start making great products again? A: I would guess so. I'm not a car person, but yes. I think that's probably what appealed to them about Mulally because everybody was singing the praises of Airbus and then, five years later,... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Aisner; Auto; Employment

August 2004 (Revised June 2005)
Case

Fate of the Vasa, The

By: Alan D. MacCormack and Richard Mason

In 1628, the royal warship Vasa was launched. It was Sweden's most expensive naval vessel ever built, costing over 5% of GNP. On its maiden voyage, the ship sailed 1,400 yards in its own harbor, heeled over to the side, and then sank. One third of the 150 crew and... View Details