Publications

Read Now

June 2014
Teaching Plan

Bioinspiration at the San Diego Zoo

By: Karim R. Lakhani and Greta Friar

February 2015 (Revised December 2016)
Case

Poseidon Carlsbad: Desalination and the San Diego County Water Authority

By: John Macomber

Extreme drought conditions in California have significant impacts on the ability of the San Diego County Water Authority to provide adequate water for current users. Water shortfalls also could curtail the economic development of one of the fastest growing regions in... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Partners and Partnerships; Resource Allocation; Public Sector; Private Sector; Environmental Sustainability; Policy; Infrastructure; Green Technology Industry; Utilities Industry; California

June 2014
Case

Bioinspiration at the San Diego Zoo multimedia case

By: Karim R. Lakhani, Vish V. Krishnan and Ruth Page

October 2024
Case

ADU It Yourself: Unlocking Housing Potential in San Diego

By: Boris Vallee, Alex Riolo and James Blume

June 2011 (Revised June 2011)
Case

Calit2: A UC San Diego, UC Irvine Partnership

By: Linda A. Hill and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld

Larry Smarr, the founding director of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2), reflects on the Institute's past 10 years of successes and challenges. In 2010, more than 700 university scientists, artists, engineers, and... View Details

Keywords: Success; Problems and Challenges; Innovation and Invention; Projects; Leadership; Innovation Leadership; Partners and Partnerships; Information Technology Industry; Telecommunications Industry; California

Find at Harvard

30 Jun 2015
First Look

First Look: June 30, 2015

the San Diego County Water Authority Extreme drought conditions in California have significant impacts on the ability of the San Diego County... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

September 2014
Case

Pfizer's Centers for Therapeutic Innovation (CTI)

By: Gary Pisano, James Weber and Kait Szydlowski

In 2010, Pfizer established four small research units in New York, Boston, San Francisco, and San Diego located close to several premier Academic Medical Centers (AMCs), or hospitals with adjoining medical schools. The goal of these units was to redesign collaboration... View Details

Keywords: Drug Development; Academic Collaboration; Research And Development; Innovation; Translational Research; Management; Operations; Problems and Challenges; Research; Science; Information Technology; Strategy; Biotechnology Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; North and Central America; Europe; Asia

2014
Working Paper

The Organizational and Geographic Drivers of Absorptive Capacity: An Empirical Analysis of Pharmaceutical R&D Laboratories

By: Francesca Lazzeri and Gary P. Pisano

Scholars and practitioners alike now recognize that a firm's capacity to assimilate and use know-how from external sources—what Cohen and Levinthal (1990) called "absorptive capacity"—plays a central role in innovation performance. In recent years, a common strategy... View Details

Keywords: Geographic Location; Industry Clusters; Knowledge Acquisition; Pharmaceutical Industry; San Francisco; San Diego; Massachusetts

SSRN

Read Now

15 Jul 2014
First Look

First Look: July 15

Publications August 2013 Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal Business Model Evaluation: Quantifying Walmart's Sources of Advantage By: Brea-Solís, Humberto, Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, and Emili Grifell-Tatjé Abstract—We develop an analytical framework on the basis of... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

October 2007 (Revised July 2013)
Case

Vertex Pharmaceuticals and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation: Venture Philanthropy Funding for Biotech

By: Robert F. Higgins, Sophie LaMontagne and Brent Kazan

In 2001, Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated acquired the San Diego-based biotech company, Aurora Biosciences. The combination of Vertex's and Aurora's technologies would improve the flow of novel drug candidates into development. However, several questions related to... View Details

Keywords: Philanthropy; Philanthropy Funding; Innovation; Funding Model; Venture Capital; Partners and Partnerships; Financing and Loans; Investment Funds; Acquisition; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Biotechnology Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; San Diego

October 2016 (Revised March 2019)
Case

Carrum Health: Scaling Bundled Payments

By: Robert S. Huckman and Sarah Mehta

Founded in 2014, Carrum Health helped self-insured employers located in three markets (San Diego, California; Seattle, Washington; and San Francisco, California) save money on their employees’ planned surgeries. It did so by contracting directly with top-quality... View Details

Keywords: Health Financing; Health Insurance; Value-based Healthcare Reimbursements; Bundled Payments; Innovation; Scale; Health; Health Care and Treatment; Cost Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Decision Choices and Conditions; Health Industry; California; San Francisco; San Diego; Seattle

February 2011
Case

Jamie Turner at MLI, Inc.

By: John J. Gabarro and Colleen Kaftan

The case describes the evolution of an interpersonal mismatch between a previously successful manager, Jamie Turner, and his new boss, Pat Cardullo. Turner, a 32-year-old MBA graduate, has been recruited by Cardullo to be vice president of marketing and sales at Modern... View Details

Keywords: Communication; Interpersonal Relations; Superior ＆ Subordinate; Micro Organizational Behavior; Performance Management; Personal Strategy ＆ Style; Management Style; Conflict Management; Interpersonal Communication; Employee Relationship Management; Rank and Position; Performance; Communication Strategy; Personal Development and Career; Acquisition; Distribution Industry; Consumer Products Industry; San Diego; Chicago

October 2012
Teaching Plan

Vertex Pharmaceuticals and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation: Venture Philanthropy Funding for Biotech (TP)

By: Robert F. Higgins

This is the teaching note related to HBS case 808005. In 2001, Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated acquired the San Diego-based biotech company, Aurora Biosciences. The combination of Vertex's and Aurora's technologies would improve the flow of novel drug candidates... View Details

Keywords: Venture Philanthropy; Biotechnology; Funding Philanthropy Venture; Cystic Fibrosis; Foundations; Pharmaceuticals; Mergers and Acquisitions; For-Profit Firms; Venture Capital; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Science-Based Business; Nonprofit Organizations; Pharmaceutical Industry; Biotechnology Industry; United States; San Diego

22 Apr 2014
First Look

First Look: April 22

occurred in the pharmaceutical industry over the past two decades. Since 1989, a number of major pharmaceutical companies (Merck, Novartis, Pfizer, etc.) have chosen to locate new laboratories in one or more major life science hotspots (Massachusetts, the View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

14 Nov 2023
Research & Ideas

The Network Effect: Why Companies Should Care About Employees’ LinkedIn Connections

assistant professor at the University of Southern California, and Aner Zhou, an assistant professor at San Diego State University. Mapping employee connections through LinkedIn The team obtained data with... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand

14 Apr 2003
Research & Ideas

Pay-for-Performance Doesn’t Always Pay Off

unacknowledged, he suggested. Misunderstandings about goals are the result. Pay-for-performance may also have a natural life cycle that managers are unaware of, he said. Problems In San Diego One HP unit... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

July 2022 (Revised November 2022)
Case

Building a Mishap-Free U.S. Navy

By: Amy C. Edmondson, Herman B. Leonard, Michael W. Toffel and Michael Norris

In 2021, Kevin “Bud” Couch, a retired Navy captain who was now working as a civilian employee of the Navy Safety Center, was trying to determine how best to reduce the risk of Navy mishaps. The Navy had experienced a series of major mishaps in 2017 that had led to a... View Details

Keywords: National Security; Safety; War; Ship Transportation; Risk Management; Operations; Singapore; Tokyo; San Diego

July 2020 (Revised September 2020)
Case

The Honor Foundation: Accessing Special Operations Talent

By: Boris Groysberg and John Masko

In 2020, The Honor Foundation (THF), a nonprofit dedicated to helping U.S. military special operators to transition into civilian careers, was facing a series of strategic challenges. THF had been founded in 2013 by former Navy SEAL trainee Joe Musselman, who observed... View Details