Publications

November 2012
Teaching Plan

The Langer Lab: Commercializing Science (TP)

By: Vicki L. Sato and Annelena Lobb

The Langer Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was a unique operation. Its head, Robert Langer, had always focused on selecting ideas to research that would have the greatest positive impact for humanity, and he encouraged an unusual... View Details

Keywords: Computers; Industry Evolution; Entrepreneurship; Intellectual Capital; R＆D; Technology Transfer; Patents; Research and Development; Massachusetts

15 Dec 2015
News

The Year in Ideas 2015

It’s also about a movement of people away from jobs where they’re not sure they are innovating to jobs at startups where they can be entrepreneurial.” -Diane Hessan (MBA 1977), CEO, Startup Institute Daughters of employed mothers are more... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna, Christine Lejeune, Dan Morrell, and April White

March 1990
Article

Architectural Innovation: The Reconfiguration of Existing Product Technologies and the Failure of Established Firms

By: R. Henderson and K. B. Clark

Keywords: Design; Innovation and Invention; Failure; Information Technology; Product

08 Jun 2018
News

My First Job: Selling Shoes, Surviving Black Monday, and Shaped by Chicken Lenses

each other. We went through the case and most of us didn't believe it was real. And, by coincidence, sitting up in the skydeck of the room in Aldridge was the actual man who had invented the chicken lenses... View Details

October 18, 2017
Editorial

Why We Must Embrace, Not Fear, the Technology That Is Revolutionising Education and Jobs

By: Peter Tufano

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Technology Adoption; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Change

Read Now

2022
Article

Is Maximising Creativity Good? The Importance of Elaboration and Internal Confidence in Producing Creative Ideas

By: Goran Calic, Elaine Mosakowski, Nick Bontis and Sébastien Hélie

While knowledge management researchers acknowledge that individuals transition from generation to implementation of ideas, these transitions are not fully understood. The current article focuses on idea elaboration – defined as the transition of an idea from an... View Details

Keywords: Knowledge Management; Organizational Culture; Creativity; Cognition and Thinking; Innovation and Invention; Learning

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January 2020
Article

Jack of All Trades and Master of Knowledge: The Role of Diversification in New Distant Knowledge Integration

By: Frank Nagle and Florenta Teodoridis

We consider the role of individual-level diversification as a mechanism through which skilled researchers engage in successful exploration—recognizing and integrating new knowledge external to one’s domains of expertise. To approach an ideal experiment, we (1) employ a... View Details

Keywords: Individual-level Knowledge Diversification; Novel Knowledge; Knowledge Acquisition; Diversification; Innovation and Invention; Research

SSRN

June 2018
Teaching Note

Sandra Brown Goes Digital

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Jonathan Cohen

As a middle manager at a biotechnology company, Sandra Brown harnessed digital tools and social media to engage others and build campaigns for change in the company. This Teaching Note presents strategies for teaching the Sandra Brown case series, which follows Brown's... View Details

Keywords: Change Leadership; Change Management; Digital; Engagement; Stakeholder Engagement; Grassroots Movement; Health Care Industry; Career Path; Innovation; Leading Change; Management; Innovation and Management; Personal Development and Career; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Quality

October 2022
Article

How Leaders with Divergent Visions Generate Novel Strategy: Navigating the Paradox of Preservation and Modernization in Swiss Watchmaking

By: Ryan Raffaelli, Rich DeJordy and Rory M. McDonald

How do leaders with divergent visions for their organization come together to create a novel strategy? This paper employs paradox as a lens to investigate how leader-dyads can integrate opposing strategies to produce a new, generative approach. Drawing on a qualitative... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Paradoxes; Senior Leaders; Organizational Reinvention; Leadership; Technological Innovation; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Change; Manufacturing Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Switzerland

Read Now

15 Jul 2013
Research & Ideas

Five Imperatives for Improving Health Care

Health Care Policy at HMS; and Joseph P. Newhouse, John D. MacArthur Professor of Health Policy and Management at Harvard University. The key findings from the conference and... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Health

June 2001 (Revised February 2005)
Background Note

Creative Destruction of Industrial Age Management Principles and Creative Construction of Information Age Management Principles

By: Richard L. Nolan

Traces the creative destruction of industrial age management principles and creative construction of new management principles more appropriate for the information age. Includes self-administered questionnaire to permit managers to assess the status of the... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Disruptive Innovation; Goals and Objectives; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Personal Development and Career; System; Information Technology

July 2014 (Revised December 2016)
Case

EcoMotors International

By: John D. Macomber and Hermes Alvarez

Eco-Motors, funded in part by Khosla Ventures, has to decide how to go to market with a new technology for internal combustion engines for automotive and industrial use. The OPOC engine has opposed pistons and is a two-stroke engine, as compared to a more traditional... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Business Model; Customer Value and Value Chain; Engineering; Manufacturing Industry; Green Technology Industry; Auto Industry

Educators

May 2024 (Revised April 2025)
Case

Leading Culture Change at Microsoft Western Europe

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Cat Huang

In 2023, Cindy Rose, President of Microsoft Western Europe, faced a critical decision. Rose grappled with the potential impact of widespread layoffs on psychological safety and the cultural transformation she had championed since her arrival. When Rose had first joined... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Organizational Culture; Transformation; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Problems and Challenges; Motivation and Incentives; Groups and Teams; Business or Company Management; Technology Industry; Europe

Educators