The Challenges of Investing in Science-Based Innovation
| Published: | June 1, 2009 |
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| Feature: | Executive Education |
Smart science-based businesses view today's economic turmoil as an opportunity to stoke up research and innovation for long-term competitive advantage, says professor Vicki L. Sato. How about your business?
Published in 2008
Incompatible Assumptions: Barriers to Producing Multidisciplinary Knowledge in Communities of Scholarship
| Authors: | Corinne Bendersky and Kathleen L. McGinn |
|---|---|
| Published: | March 25, 2008 |
| Paper Release Date: | December 2007 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
Just as flows of knowledge within and across communities of practice improve the quality of new products, knowledge sharing among knowledge workers within interdisciplinary communities may be critical for new discoveries and for a more comprehensive and accurate understanding of phenomena. In spite of this, biologists tend to talk to biologists, economists tend to talk to economists, and lawyers tend to talk to lawyers. This paper argues that producing and disseminating knowledge within a multidisciplinary community of practice is enhanced when knowledge workers hold compatible assumptions, even when the form and content of knowledge generation across those workers varies.
Published in 2007
The Value of Openness in Scientific Problem Solving
| Authors: | Karim R. Lakhani, Lars Bo Jeppesen, Peter A. Lohse, and Jill A. Panetta |
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| Published: | February 7, 2007 |
| Paper Release Date: | January 2007 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
Scientists are generally rewarded for discoveries they make as individuals or in small teams. While the sharing of information in science is an ideal, it is seldom practiced. In this research, Lakhani et al. used an approach common to open source software communities—which rely intensely on collaboration—and opened up a set of 166 scientific problems from the research laboratories of twenty-six firms to over 80,000 independent scientists. The outside scientists were able to solve one-third of the problems that the research laboratories were unable to solve internally.
The Immigrant Technologist: Studying Technology Transfer with China
| Q&A with: | William R. Kerr and Michael J. Roberts |
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| Published: | January 22, 2007 |
| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
Immigrants account for almost half of Ph.D.-level scientists and engineers in the U.S., and are prime drivers of technology development. Increasingly, however, Chinese technologists and entrepreneurs are returning home rather than staying in the U.S. to pursue opportunities. Professor William Kerr discusses the phenomena of technology transfer and implications for U.S.-based businesses and policymakers. From New Business.
Published in 2006
The Industry R&D Survey: Patent Database Link Project
| Authors: | William R. Kerr and Shihe Fu |
|---|---|
| Published: | December 8, 2006 |
| Paper Release Date: | November 2006 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
The development and diffusion of new innovations are central to economic growth, and understanding the firm-level underpinnings of technology progress is important to academics, policymakers, and business managers. While many researchers have examined (either separately or together) corporate research and development and technology diffusion, they run into two significant data constraints. William R. Kerr and Shihe Fu describe how they developed a new dataset for studying corporate innovation that encompasses three important existing datasets. This paper summarizes the Industry R&D Survey for researchers who want to study innovation through the Census Bureau's data.
Open Source Science: A New Model for Innovation
| Q&A with: | Karim R. Lakhani |
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| Published: | November 20, 2006 |
| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
Borrowing a practice that is common in the open source software community, HBS professor Karim R. Lakhani and colleagues decided to see how "broadcasting" might work among scientists trying to solve scientific problems. The results? Promising for many types of innovation, as he explains in this Q&A.
Mixing Students and Scientists in the Classroom
| Published: | September 6, 2006 |
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| Feature: | Lessons from the Classroom |
In his course on commercializing science and technology, Lee Fleming combines students from business, engineering, law, science, and medicine. The result: Ideas for products from scale-eating bacteria to quantum dot cancer treatments.
The Accidental Innovator
| Q&A with: | Robert D. Austin |
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| Published: | July 5, 2006 |
| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
Many important innovations are the byproduct of accidents—the key is to be prepared for the unexpected. Professor Robert D. Austin discusses his research and practical implications on the concept of accidental innovation.
Behavioral Operations
| Authors: | Francesca Gino and Gary P. Pisano |
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| Published: | July 5, 2006 |
| Paper Release Date: | February 2006 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
Organizations often commit to more product development projects than they can handle. And while people do not always behave rationally, most research on operations management still assumes they do. This paper explores theoretical and practical ways to study the effects of behavior and cognition on operations.
Published in 2005
IPR: Protecting Your Technology Transfers
| Q&A with: | C. Fritz Foley |
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| Published: | October 24, 2005 |
| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
Countries are adopting stronger intellectual property rights to entice international corporate investment. But who really benefits from IPR? Should multinationals feel secure that their secrets will be protected? A Q&A with professor C. Fritz Foley.
The Cycles of Theory Building in Management Research
| Authors: | Paul R. Carlile and Clayton M. Christensen |
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| Published: | July 5, 2006 |
| Paper Release Date: | February 2005 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
How do business academics know they are categorizing or measuring the best things to help us understand interesting phenomena? Scholars waste a lot of time and energy disparaging and defending various research methods. Yet the stakes are high for business academics to create theory that is intellectually rigorous, practically useful, and able to stand the tests of time. The authors describe a three-stage process for building theory; discuss the role of anomalies for building better theory; and suggest how scholars can refine research questions, carry out projects, and design student coursework.
Published in 2004
Do Managers' Heuristics Affect R&D Performance Volatility? A Simulation Informed by the Pharmaceutical Industry
| Authors: | Francesca Gino and Gary P. Pisano |
|---|---|
| Published: | July 5, 2006 |
| Paper Release Date: | December 2004, revised February 2006 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
Can the R&D process be managed to provide more certainty and success? The authors explore R&D performance volatility using the pharmaceutical industry as the model. The study looks at two types of heuristics that are commonly used to manage R&D project portfolios: (1) which products to start, and whether to continue or kill a product in development; (2) how resources should be allocated at each phase of development. By changing the heuristics used to make decisions at each stage of development, managers can decrease the amount of uncertainty and failure in the R&D process.
Caves, Clusters, and Weak Ties: The Six Degrees World of Inventors
| Q&A with: | Lee Fleming |
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| Published: | November 29, 2004 |
| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
Your company's scientists and investors can be antennas that bring great ideas into your company. The key, says HBS professor Lee Fleming, is understanding small-world networks.
Does Speed Trump Intellectual Property?
| Published: | October 4, 2004 |
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| Feature: | What Do YOU Think? |
| Forum: | closed | 17 Comments posted |
Speed can enhance product development and innovation, but speed can also be used effectively by fast imitators to both save design costs and preempt market share.
Published in 2003
Cheap, Fast, and In Control: How Tech Aids Innovation
| Q&A with: | Stefan H. Thomke |
|---|---|
| Published: | August 11, 2003 |
| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
Companies don’t need to spend a fortune on research and innovation. HBS professor Stefan Thomke explains how new technologies enable businesses to experiment on the cheap in his new book, Experimentation Matters.
The Benefits of "Not Invented Here"
| Published: | June 9, 2003 |
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| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
Not all the smart people work for you. By leveraging the discoveries of others, companies can produce spectacular results. A Q&A with professor Henry Chesbrough on his new book.
How Bank of America Turned Branches into Service-Development Laboratories
| Published: | May 5, 2003 |
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| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
In this Harvard Business Review excerpt, HBS professor Stefan Thomke describes how Bank of America applies a systematic R&D process to create services.
Published in 2002
A Toolkit for Customer Innovation
| Published: | May 6, 2002 |
|---|---|
| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
It seems almost counterintuitive. But this Harvard Business Review excerpt by Harvard Business School professor Stefan Thomke and MIT's Eric von Hippel suggests that you stop listening closely to your customers—and instead give them tools for creating their own products.
Published in 2001
When In-House Research Isn't Enough
| Published: | June 18, 2001 |
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| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
Big companies have long relied on their own internal R&D efforts to help build new products and services. But Professor Henry Chesbrough says corporate research has to broaden its vision and incorporate external resources to support new initiatives. Here's why.
The Essentials for Enlightened Experimentation
| Published: | March 19, 2001 |
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| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
In the past, the high cost of experimentation has greatly impacted many firms' ability to successfully innovate. But now, new technologies are enabling reinvention of R&D from the ground up. HBS associate professor Stefan Thomke explains.
Published in 2000
Networked Incubators: Hothouses of the New Economy
| Published: | October 2, 2000 |
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| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
Are business incubators a fleeting phenomenon or a lasting way of bringing start-ups to fruition? Four HBS professors argue that one particular model—the "networked incubator"—is most likely to endure.
Published in 1999
From Spare Change to Real Change: The Social Sector as a Beta Site for Business Innovation
| Published: | December 14, 1999 |
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| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
U.S. companies have too often viewed the social sector as a dumping ground for their spare cash, obsolete equipment, and tired executives, but that mind-set, says HBS Professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter, has hardly created lasting change. In this excerpt from an article in the Harvard Business Review, she issues a call for corporate social innovation, an approach, says Kanter, that's more R&D than it is charity.
