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  • February 2024
  • Article

Diversification as an Adaptive Learning Process: An Empirical Study of General-Purpose and Market-Specific Technological Know-How in New Market Entry

By: Dominika Kinga Randle and Gary P. Pisano
An enduring trait of modern corporations is their propensity to diversify into multiple lines of business. Penrosian theories conceptualize diversification as a strategy to exploit a firm’s fungible, yet “untradeable”, resources and point to redeployment of... View Details
Keywords: Diversification; Market Entry and Exit; Assets
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  • Working Paper

Diversification as an Adaptive Learning Process: An Empirical Study of General-Purpose and Market-Specific Technological Know-How in New Market Entry

By: Dominika Kinga Randle and Gary P. Pisano
An enduring trait of modern corporations is their propensity to diversify into multiple lines of business. Penrosian theories conceptualize diversification as a strategy to exploit a firm’s fungible, yet “untradeable,” resources and point to redeployment of... View Details
Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Technology Adoption; Diversification; Market Entry and Exit; Transformation
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  • Summer 2018
  • Article

Scale versus Scope in the Diffusion of New Technology: Evidence from the Farm Tractor

By: Daniel P. Gross
Although tractors are now used in nearly every agricultural field operation and in the production of nearly all crops, they first developed with much more limited application. Early diffusion was accordingly rapid in these narrower applications but limited in scope... View Details
Keywords: Technology Diffusion; Spatial Technology Diffusion; Farm Tractors; R＆D; General-purpose Technologies; Technology Adoption; Agribusiness; Transportation; Research and Development; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; United States
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  • Summer 2016
  • Article

The Real Lessons From Kodak's Decline

By: Willy C. Shih
Eastman Kodak is often mischaracterized as a company whose managers didn't recognize soon enough that digital technology would decimate its traditional business. However, what really happened at Kodak is much more complicated—and instructive. Kodak suffered from a... View Details
Keywords: Technological Change; Disruption; Ecosystem; Semiconductors; Photography; Scaling-up; Scaling; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Information Technology; Product; Consumer Products Industry; United States
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  • October 2024 (Revised April 2025)
  • Case

Nvidia

By: Andy Wu and Matt Higgins
This case study examines Nvidia's strategic pivot from gaming GPUs to becoming a leader in general-purpose computing and AI. It explores how Nvidia leveraged its GPU architecture to dominate the growing fields of data center acceleration and AI training, outpacing... View Details
Keywords: Strategy; Technological Innovation; AI and Machine Learning; Product Development; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; United States; China; Taiwan
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  • June 2021
  • Case

Akira Fukabori and Kevin Kajitani at avatarin (A)

By: Linda A. Hill and Emily Tedards
In 2016, Akira Fukabori and Kevin Kajitani, aeronautical engineers at All Nippon Airways Co., Ltd., began to wonder why, in a world of accelerating globalization and digital connectivity, those who lived in far-remote villages or impoverished urban areas could not... View Details
Keywords: Agility; Ecosystem; Innovation Ecosystems; Crowdsourcing; Open Innovation; Partnership; Government; Collaboration; Co-creation; Purpose; Impact; Social Impact; Movement; Organizational Behavior; Organizational Ambidexterity; Ambidexterity; Culture; Culture Change; Global Teams; Experimentation; Space; Airline Industry; Start-up; Platform Business; Platform Strategy; Platform; Digital; Robotics; Robots; Mobility; Strategy; COVID-19; Intrapreneurship; Public-private Partnership; XPRIZE; Space Industry; Avatar; Telepresence; Innovation Lab; Innovation and Invention; Technological Innovation; Partners and Partnerships; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Alignment; Leadership; Leading Change; Diversity; Organizational Culture; Change Management; Entrepreneurship; Digital Platforms; Transportation Industry; Aerospace Industry; Japan
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  • 19 Jul 2016
  • First Look

July 19, 2016

complicated—and instructive. Kodak suffered from a technology transition in which it lost the benefits of a learning curve to a general-purpose technology platform where there... View Details
Keywords: Sean Silverthorne
  • June 2021
  • Case

Akira Fukabori and Kevin Kajitani at avatarin (A) (Abridged)

By: Linda A. Hill and Emily Tedards
In 2016, Akira Fukabori and Kevin Kajitani, aeronautical engineers at All Nippon Airways Co., Ltd., began to wonder why, in a world of accelerating globalization and digital connectivity, those who lived in far-remote villages or impoverished urban areas could not... View Details
Keywords: Agility; Ecosystem; Innovation Ecosystems; Innovation; Crowdsourcing; XPRIZE; Open Innovation; Partnership; Government; Collaboration; Co-creation; Purpose; Impact; Social Impact; Movement; Organizational Behavior; Organizational Ambidexterity; Ambidexterity; Culture; Culture Change; Global Teams; Experimentation; Space; Space Industry; Airline Industry; Start-up; Platform Business; Platform Strategy; Platform; Digital; Robotics; Robots; Avatar; Telepresence; Innovation Lab; Mobility; COVID-19; Intrapreneurship; Public-private Partnership; Innovation and Invention; Technological Innovation; Partners and Partnerships; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Alignment; Leadership; Leading Change; Diversity; Organizational Culture; Change Management; Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Digital Platforms; Transportation Industry; Aerospace Industry; Japan
Related
  • 19 Jun 2018
  • First Look

New Research and Ideas, June 19, 2018

much more limited application. Early diffusion was accordingly rapid in these narrower applications but limited in scope until tractor technology generalized. The sequence of diffusion is consistent with a model of research and... View Details
Keywords: Dina Gerdeman
  • 15 Nov 2022
  • Op-Ed

Why TikTok Is Beating YouTube for Eyeball Time (It’s Not Just the Dance Videos)

intersperses longer-form algorithmic picks with its new YouTube Shorts. TikTok presents only short-form video, one at a time. The difference may seem slight, but it is not. YouTube is a general-purpose video tool, while TikTok optimizes... View Details
Keywords: by John Deighton and Leora Kornfeld
  • 25 Sep 2000
  • Research & Ideas

More Than the Sum of Its Parts: The Impact of Modularity on the Computer Industry

The computer age began some six decades ago with general-purpose machines with Star Wars-like names such as ENIAC and EDVAC. They were powered by vacuum tubes, big enough to fill an entire room, and developed by mathematicians under the... View Details
Keywords: by Staff; Technology; Technology; Technology
  • 31 Aug 2017
  • Blog Post

Why I Spent This Summer Coding

important general-purpose technology of our era, and now’s the time to partake in shaping its impact. You don’t need to know how to code to appreciate the vast potential and diversity of its applications,... View Details
Keywords: Technology
  • 01 Dec 2017
  • News

The First Five Years: Emmanuel Straschnov (MBA 2012)

people build things was very rewarding to him, and he felt he could do this at a larger scale for general-purpose programming. Josh started working on this idea in December 2011, more as a personal project; it wasn't even called Bubble... View Details
  • 12 Oct 2017
  • Blog Post

Why I Spent this Summer Coding

general-purpose technology of our era, and now’s the time to partake in shaping its impact. You don’t need to know how to code to appreciate the vast potential and diversity of its applications, but... View Details
  • 07 Jan 2013
  • Lessons from the Classroom

Culture Changers: Managing High-Impact Entrepreneurs

work, which in turn was made possible by widespread upheavals that occurred at the time—that did. The car was an enabler. Technologies seldom change culture by themselves; they might enable change in significant ways, yet without new... View Details
Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Beauty & Cosmetics; Food & Beverage; Entertainment & Recreation; Information; Publishing
  • 14 Sep 2010
  • First Look

First Look: September 14, 2010

technologies in the U.S. While there are several startups in clean energy that are well-suited to the traditional venture capital investment model, our analysis highlights a number of structural challenges related to venture capital (VC)... View Details
Keywords: Sean Silverthorne
  • 19 Dec 2017
  • First Look

New Research and Ideas, December 19, 2017

tractor technology generalized. The sequence of diffusion is consistent with a model of R&D in specific- versus general-purpose attributes and with other historical examples, suggesting that the key to... View Details
Keywords: Carmen Nobel
  • 30 Jun 2009
  • First Look

First Look: June 30

of specialized routines. Perturbation creates opportunities for organizations to invoke exploratory, general-purpose problem-solving routines. In mature organizations, exogenous perturbations become increasingly scarce to the point that... View Details
Keywords: Martha Lagace
  • 24 Apr 2018
  • First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, April 24, 2018

computational power for model estimation. We overcome computational burden by utilizing an improved simulator for likelihood evaluation and the general-purpose computing on graphics processing units (GPGPU) View Details
Keywords: Sean Silverthorne
  • 13 Oct 2015
  • First Look

October 13, 2015

desirable, if their message needs reinforcement, and if they are opting for the technology they want others to use. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=49666 October 2015 Harvard Business Review How Smart,... View Details