HBS Cases: Clocky, the Runaway Alarm Clock
| Published: | December 12, 2011 |
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| Feature: | HBS Cases |
| Forum: | open for comment; 7 Comments posted |
There had not been an innovative breakthrough in alarm clock design since the snooze button until entrepreneur Gauri Nanda created Clocky. Her runaway hit has been the inspiration for several cases written by Professor Elie Ofek.
Multi-Sided Platforms
| Authors: | Andrei Hagiu and Julian Wright |
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| Published: | November 4, 2011 |
| Paper Release Date: | October 2011 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
Research in multi-sided platforms (MSPs) studies how payment networks bring together cardholders and retailers, shopping malls bring together shoppers and retailers, and video game systems bring together gamers and game developers. Andrei Hagiu and Julian Wright propose a new definition of MSPs that aims to capture what makes eBay, shopping malls, Yellow Pages directories, and dating websites different from "regular" firms such as a bakery or car dealership, as well as how to characterize less clear-cut examples. They also discuss the economic trade-offs that determine where organizations choose to place themselves on the continuum between MSPs and resellers, or between MSPs and input suppliers.
Sharpening Your Skills: Leveraging Intellectual Property
| Published: | September 29, 2011 |
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| Feature: | Sharpening Your Skills |
Many companies lack a coherent policy for maximizing the value of their intellectual property. In this collection from our archives, Harvard Business School faculty offer insights on the importance of IP and how best to protect and use it.
How Small Wins Unleash Creativity
| Published: | September 6, 2011 |
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| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
| Forum: | open for comment; 12 Comments posted |
In their new book, The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work, authors Teresa M. Amabile and Steven J. Kramer discuss how even seemingly small steps forward on a project can make huge differences in employees' emotional and intellectual well-being. Amabile talks about the main findings of the book. Plus: book excerpt.
Getting to Eureka!: How Companies Can Promote Creativity
| Published: | August 22, 2011 |
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| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
| Forum: | open for comment; 19 Comments posted |
As global competition intensifies, it's more important than ever that companies figure out how to innovate if they are going to maintain their edge, or maintain their existence at all. Six Harvard Business School faculty share insights on the best ways to develop creative workers.
Five Discovery Skills that Distinguish Great Innovators
| Published: | July 20, 2011 |
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| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
| Forum: | open for comment; 18 Comments posted |
In The Innovator's DNA, authors Jeff Dyer , Hal Gergersen, and Clayton M. Christensen build on the idea of disruptive innovation to outline the five discovery skills that distinguish the Steve Jobses and Jeff Bezoses of the world from the run-of-the-mill corporate managers.
The Contingent Effect of Absorptive Capacity: An Open Innovation Analysis
| Authors: | Andrew A. King and Karim R. Lakhani |
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| Published: | April 26, 2011 |
| Paper Release Date: | April 2011 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
Does experience with adopting technology improve a person's capacity for inventing better technology? On the other hand, does invention experience increase the capacity for adoption? This paper explores how adoption and invention affect each other, using data from several programming competitions sponsored by The MathWorks Corporation. Research was conducted by Andrew A. King of the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and Karim R. Lakhani at Harvard Business School.
Reinventing the National Geographic Society
| Published: | April 4, 2011 |
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| Feature: | HBS Cases |
| Forum: | open for comment; 18 Comments posted |
How do you transform a 123-year-old cultural icon and prepare it for the digital world? Slowly, as a new case on the National Geographic Society by professor David Garvin demonstrates.
Risky Trust: How Multi-entity Teams Develop Trust in a High Risk Endeavor
| Authors: | Faaiza Rashid and Amy C. Edmondson |
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| Published: | March 29, 2011 |
| Paper Release Date: | February 2011 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
Work that comes with high risk requires a great deal of trust among the individuals involved, whether it's the financial risk of producing a high-budget film or the personal safety risk of working in a war zone. In this paper, reporting on case study research on a high-risk, multimillion-dollar construction project, HBS doctoral candidate Faaiza Rashid and professor Amy C. Edmondson explore the concept of "risky trust," and examine how colleagues can learn to trust each other in the midst of high-risk work situations.
Managing the Open Source vs. Proprietary Decision
| Published: | March 2, 2011 |
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| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
| Forum: | open for comment; 2 Comments posted |
In their new book, The Comingled Code, HBS professor Josh Lerner and London School of Economics professor Mark Schankerman look at the impact of open source software on economic development. Our book excerpt discusses implications for managers.
Published in 2010
When Does a Platform Create Value by Limiting Choice?
| Authors: | Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Hanna W. Halaburda |
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| Published: | October 26, 2010 |
| Paper Release Date: | September, 2010 (Revised January, 2011) |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
Platforms such as video games and smartphones need to attract users, and the best way to do so is to offer more and more applications. Is there ever a point where a platform should limit the variety available? Researchers Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Hanna Halaburda observe that in many situations users enjoy consuming applications together. When such consumption complementarities are present, users may benefit if the platform limits choice. With fewer applications to choose from, it is easier for users to take full advantage from shared consumption.
Published in 2009
Understanding Users of Social Networks
| Published: | September 14, 2009 |
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| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
Many business leaders are mystified about how to reach potential customers on social networks such as Facebook. Professor Mikolaj Jan Piskorski provides a fresh look into the interpersonal dynamics of these sites and offers guidance for approaching these tantalizing markets.
Markets or Communities? The Best Ways to Manage Outside Innovation
| Q&A with: | Karim R. Lakhani |
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| Published: | July 20, 2009 |
| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
No one organization can monopolize knowledge in any given field. That's why modern companies must develop a new expertise: the ability to attract novel solutions to difficult or unanticipated problems from outside sources around the world. A conversation with Harvard Business School professor Karim R. Lakhani on the keys to managing distributed innovation.
Don't Just Survive—Thrive: Leading Innovation in Good Times and Bad
| Authors: | Lynda M. Applegate and J. Bruce Harreld |
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| Published: | June 24, 2009 |
| Paper Release Date: | April 2009, revised May 2009 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
The financial crisis provides a sobering reminder of what happens when innovation fails to drive productive economic growth. For over a decade, money from around the world poured into the United States seeking innovation. Despite these massive investments, when adjusted for inflation, U.S. GDP grew slowly with much of the growth coming from government, professional, and business services, including real estate and outsourcing. What's more, inflation adjusted wages stalled for many, even as consumer spending increased. This paper argues that innovation is not a side business to a real business: rather, innovation is the foundation of a successful business.
Published in 2008
Radical Design, Radical Results
| Published: | February 19, 2008 |
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| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
Consumers appear increasingly willing to make purchase decisions based upon their emotions about a product—how it looks, or sounds, or makes them feel using it. But the traditional design process based on user experience goes only so far in creating radical innovation. Harvard Business School visiting scholar Roberto Verganti is exploring the new world of "design-driven innovation."
Published in 2007
What Is Management's Role in Innovation?
| Published: | November 30, 2007 |
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| Feature: | What Do YOU Think? |
| Forum: | closed | 93 Comments posted |
Online forum closed. It's an open question whether management, as it is currently practiced, contributes much to creativity and innovation, says HBS professor Jim Heskett. What changes will allow managers, particularly in larger organizations, to add value to the creative process? What do you think?
High Note: Managing the Medici String Quartet
| Q&A with: | Robert D. Austin |
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| Published: | September 10, 2007 |
| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
As one of the top ensembles in classical music, the Medici String Quartet has enjoyed a long and creative collaboration. But it hasn't always been harmonious. HBS professor Robert Austin explains what innovative businesses can learn about managing creative people.
Jumpstarting Innovation: Using Disruption to Your Advantage
| Published: | September 4, 2007 |
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| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
Fostering innovation in a mature company can often seem like a swim upstream—the needs of the existing business often overwhelm attempts to create something new. Harvard Business School professor Lynda M. Applegate shows how one of the forces that threatens established companies can also be a source of salvation: disruptive change. Plus: Innovation worksheets.
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.
Published in 2006
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.
