Competition in Modular Clusters
| Authors: | Carliss Y. Baldwin and C. Jason Woodard |
|---|---|
| Published: | January 17, 2008 |
| Paper Release Date: | December 2007 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
The last 20 years have witnessed the rise of disaggregated "clusters," "networks," or "ecosystems" of firms in a number of industries, including computers, telecommunications, and pharmaceuticals. In these clusters, different firms design and produce the various components of a complex artifact (such as the processor, peripherals, and software of a computer system), and different firms specialize in the various stages of a complex production process. This paper considers the pricing behavior and profitability of these so-called modular clusters. Baldwin and Woodard isolate the offsetting price effects in a model, and show how they might operate in large as well as in small clusters.
Published in 2005
Effects of Task Difficulty on Use of Advice
| Authors: | Francesca Gino and Don A. Moore |
|---|---|
| Published: | July 5, 2006 |
| Paper Release Date: | October 2005, revised February 2006 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
We make most of our choices by weighing other people's advice counter to our own opinions. People generally underweight advice from others, though the practice is not universal. In two studies, it is determined that people overweight advice on difficult tasks but underweight it on the easy ones.
Published in 2004
Do We Listen to Advice Just Because We Paid for It? The Impact of Cost of Advice on Its Use
| Author: | Francesca Gino |
|---|---|
| Published: | July 5, 2006 |
| Paper Release Date: | September 2004, revised February 2006 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
People make decisions every day by weighing their own opinions with advice from other sources. But do we know whether people use advice in a way that is helpful to them? In two experiments performed under controlled, laboratory conditions, Gino found that all else being equal, people weigh advice differently according to the amount of money they pay for it. Also, the cost of advice affects the degree to which people use it.
Published in 2003
The Future of IT Consulting
| Q&A with: | Richard L. Nolan |
|---|---|
| Published: | March 31, 2003 |
| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
A new Harvard Business School working paper traces the evolution of IT management consulting and trends for the future. Read our e-mail interview with professor Richard Nolan and HBS Interactive Senior Vice President Larry Bennigson.
