Historical Trajectories and Corporate Competences in Wind Energy
| Authors: | Geoffrey Jones and Loubna Bouamane |
|---|---|
| Published: | October 18, 2011 |
| Paper Release Date: | May 2011 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
Analyzing developments in the wind turbine business over more than a century, Geoffrey Jones and Loubna Bouamane argue that public policy has been a key variable in the spread of wind energy since the 1980s, but that public policy was more of a problem than a facilitator in the earlier history of the industry. Geography has mattered to some extent, also: Both in the United States and Denmark, the existence of rural areas not supplied by electricity provided the initial stimulus to entrepreneurs and innovators. Building firm-level capabilities has been essential in an industry which has been both technically difficult and vulnerable to policy shifts.
Published in 2010
Boundary Spanning in a For-Profit Research Lab: An Exploration of the Interface Between Commerce and Academe
| Authors: | Christopher C. Liu and Toby E. Stuart |
|---|---|
| Published: | September 9, 2010 |
| Paper Release Date: | August 2010 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
In science-based industries, innovation requires bridging the boundary between universities and companies. As entrepreneurial faculty venture into the world of commerce by building relationships and reputations in industry, company researchers and dealmakers seek access to the distributed knowledge base that resides within the community of scholars. But what happens within organizations when scientists venture deeply into the world of academe? In this look at one influential life sciences company, Christopher C. Liu of the Rotman School of Management and Toby E. Stuart of Harvard Business School find important connections between publishing, the allocation of rewards within the company, and the structure of the communication network inside and beyond the borders of the organization.
The Role of Organizational Scope and Governance in Strengthening Private Monitoring
| Authors: | Lamar Pierce and Michael W. Toffel |
|---|---|
| Published: | August 18, 2010 |
| Paper Release Date: | July 2010 (Revised January 2011) |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
Governments have long debated which tasks should be outsourced to the private sector. Although often justified on the basis of the cost-efficiencies of market competition, outsourcing to private firms carries its own risks, which can reduce the quality of services provided. In addition to more conventional services such as garbage and recycling collection, some governments outsource the enforcement of laws and regulations. This paper by Olin Business School's Lamar Pierce and HBS professor Michael W. Toffel examines the automobile emissions testing market in one state where this form of regulatory enforcement has been outsourced to the private sector. Their analysis illustrates the importance of considering organizational scope and private governance mechanisms such as monitoring provided by corporate headquarters and independent third-parties in efforts to assure the reliability of firms that provide outsourced services.
How to Speed Up Energy Innovation
| Q&A with: | Rebecca Henderson |
|---|---|
| Published: | August 9, 2010 |
| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
We know the grand challenge posed by shifting away from dirty energy sources. The good news, says Harvard Business School professor Rebecca Henderson, is that we have seen such change before in fields including agriculture and biotech, giving us a clearer pathway to what it will take.
Earth Day Reflections
| Published: | April 28, 2010 |
|---|---|
| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
On the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, April 22, Harvard Business School professors Robert G. Eccles, Rebecca Henderson, and Richard H.K. Vietor shared their views on the sustainability-related challenges and opportunities facing today's business leaders.
The Evolution of Science-Based Business: Innovating How We Innovate
| Author: | Gary P. Pisano |
|---|---|
| Published: | February 19, 2010 |
| Paper Release Date: | January 2010 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
Science has long been connected to innovation and thus to the business enterprise. However, the nature of the connection between science and business in recent decades has begun to change in important ways. On the one hand, we have witnessed the decline of corporate industrial laboratories. At the same time, we have seen the emergence of a new class of entrepreneurial firms that are deeply immersed in science in sectors like biotech, nanotech, and more recently energy. HBS professor Gary P. Pisano examines the changing nature of the science-business intersection and describes the emergence of a science-based business as a novel organizational form. He also describes the institutional and organizational challenges created by this convergence.
Published in 2009
Business Summit: Business and the Environment
| Published: | June 26, 2009 |
|---|---|
| Feature: | HBS Business Summit |
If the causes for global climate change are not addressed, the consequences for the planet are likely to be disastrous. Governments, business, and consumers must act.
Social Influence Given (Partially) Deliberate Matching: Career Imprints in the Creation of Academic Entrepreneurs
| Authors: | Pierre Azoulay, Christopher C. Liu, and Toby E. Stuart |
|---|---|
| Published: | June 11, 2009 |
| Paper Release Date: | May 2009 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
How do people select partners for relationships? Most relationships arise from a matching process in which individuals pair on a limited number of high-priority dimensions. Although people often match on just a few attributes, it may be that some set of additional characteristics, which was not considered when a choice was made to develop the relationship, results in the social transmission of attitudes and behaviors. For this reason, social matching is only "partially" deliberate. HBS professor Toby Stuart and coauthors observe this phenomenon in an analysis of the origins and consequences of the matching of postdoctoral biomedical scientists to their faculty advisers. This work shows the imprints of postdoctoral advisers on the subsequent choices of the scientists-in-training who travel through their laboratories. The researchers' findings contribute to a burgeoning literature on the interface between academic and commercial science.
Published in 2008
Extending Producer Responsibility: An Evaluation Framework for Product Take-Back Policies
| Authors: | Michael W. Toffel, Antoinette Stein, and Katharine L. Lee |
|---|---|
| Published: | November 6, 2008 |
| Paper Release Date: | September 2008 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
Managing products at the end of life (EOL) is of growing concern for durable goods manufacturers. While some manufacturers engage in voluntary "take back" of EOL products for a variety of competitive reasons, the past 10 years have seen the rapid proliferation of government regulations and policies requiring manufacturers to collect and recycle their products, or pay others to do so on their behalf. Toffel, Stein, and Lee develop a framework for evaluating the extent to which these product take-back regulations offer the potential to reduce the environmental impacts of these products in an effective and cost-efficient manner, while also providing adequate occupational health and safety protection. The evaluation framework is illustrated with examples drawn from take-back regulations in Europe, Japan, and the United States.
Economics of the Ethanol Business
| Published: | November 3, 2008 |
|---|---|
| Feature: | HBS Cases |
What happens when a group of Missouri corn farmers gets into the energy business? What appears to be a very lucrative decision quickly turns out to be much more risky. Professor Forest Reinhardt leads a case discussion on what the protagonists should do next. From HBS Alumni Bulletin.
Responding to Public and Private Politics: Corporate Disclosure of Climate Change Strategies
| Authors: | Erin M. Reid and Michael W. Toffel |
|---|---|
| Published: | October 1, 2008 |
| Paper Release Date: | August 2008, revised April 2009 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
Social activists are increasingly attempting to directly influence corporation behavior, using tactics such as shareholder resolutions and product boycotts to encourage companies to improve their environmental performance, increase their transparency about operations and governance, and more stringently monitor their suppliers' labor practices. This paper examines how companies are responding to these pressures, in the context of requests for greater transparency about the risks climate change poses to their business—and the strategies these companies have developed to address these risks. This paper reveals that a company is more likely to comply with social activists' requests for greater transparency about climate change when the company itself, or other companies in its industry, has been targeted by formal shareholder resolutions on environmental topics—and when the company is facing potential regulations restricting greenhouse gas emissions. These findings demonstrate that changes in corporate practices may be sparked by both social activists and by the mere threat of government regulations, and that challenges mounted against a specific firm may inspire broader changes within its industry.
Creating Leaders for Science-Based Businesses
| Published: | August 27, 2008 |
|---|---|
| Feature: | HBS Centennial Colloquia Reports |
The unique challenges of managing and leading science-based businesses—certain to be a driver of this century's new economy—demand new management paradigms. At Harvard Business School, the opportunities start just across the street. From HBS Alumni Bulletin.
Diffusing Management Practices within the Firm: The Role of Information Provision
| Authors: | Michael J. Lenox and Michael W. Toffel |
|---|---|
| Published: | April 17, 2008 |
| Paper Release Date: | March 2008 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
Managers face a range of options to diffuse innovative practices within their organizations. This paper focuses on one such technique: providing practice-specific information through mechanisms such as internal seminars, demonstrations, knowledge management systems, and promotional brochures. In contrast to corporate mandates, this "information provision" approach empowers facility managers to decide which practices to actually implement. The authors examine how corporate managers diffused advanced environmental management practices within technology manufacturing firms in the United States. The study identifies several factors that encourage corporate managers to employ information provision, including subsidiaries' related expertise, the extent to which the subsidiaries were diversified or concentrated in similar businesses, and the geographic dispersion of their employees.
How Sustainable Is Sustainability in a For-Profit Organization?
| Published: | February 1, 2008 |
|---|---|
| Feature: | What Do YOU Think? |
| Forum: | closed | 77 Comments posted |
Online forum now closed. For managers, sustainability can mean the integration and intersection of social, environmental, and economic responsibilities. The concept is admirable, says Jim Heskett, but does it also confuse managers entrusted with the bottom line? How should they make trade-offs? Jim sums up reader responses.
The Political Economy of "Natural" Disasters
| Authors: | Charles Cohen and Eric D. Werker |
|---|---|
| Published: | January 16, 2008 |
| Paper Release Date: | December 2007 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
With the onset of global warming, it is likely that the incidence of natural shocks will only increase in the years ahead. In addition, rising inequality between rich and poor countries combined with a commitment on the part of developed countries to increase foreign aid disbursements indicates that international relief in natural disasters will grow. Disaster relief is one of the most basic and important transfers of wealth between developed and developing countries. This paper argues that the relief enters and affects a highly political situation. It also argues that the political economy of natural disasters is understandable and predictable, and may be mitigated.
Mapping Polluters, Encouraging Protectors
| Published: | January 14, 2008 |
|---|---|
| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
Where are the biggest polluters? And what is your company doing to protect the environment? A new Web site—both a public service and a research tool—posts managers' data in real time, allowing a balanced view of industrial environmental performance. HBS professor Michael W. Toffel and senior research fellow Andrew A. King explain.
Published in 2007
The Ethnic Composition of U.S. Inventors
| Author: | William R. Kerr |
|---|---|
| Published: | September 12, 2007 |
| Paper Release Date: | August 2007 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
The contributions of immigrants to U.S. technology formation are staggering. While the foreign-born account for just over 10 percent of the U.S. working population, they represent 25 percent of the U.S. science and engineering workforce and nearly 50 percent of those with doctorates. Even looking within the Ph.D. level, ethnic researchers make an exceptional contribution to science as measured by Nobel Prizes, election to the National Academy of Sciences, patent citation counts, and so on. The magnitude of these ethnic contributions raises many research and policy questions: 4 examples are debates regarding the appropriate quota for H1-B temporary visas, the possible crowding out of native students from the science and engineering fields, the brain-drain or brain-circulation effect on sending countries, and the future prospects for U.S. technology leadership. This paper describes a new approach for quantifying the ethnic composition of U.S. inventors with previously unavailable detail.
Self-Regulatory Institutions for Solving Environmental Problems: Perspectives and Contributions from the Management Literature
| Authors: | Andrew King and Michael W. Toffel |
|---|---|
| Published: | May 25, 2007 |
| Paper Release Date: | May 2007 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
What role can business managers play in protecting the natural environment? Academic research on when it might "pay to be green" has advanced understanding of how and when firms achieve sustained competitive advantage. The focus of such research, however, has begun to change in light of limits to available "win-win" opportunities and to gaps in regulation. This paper, intended as a book chapter, reviews current literature and explores the potential of self-regulatory institutions to solve environmental problems.
Industry Self-Regulation: What's Working (and What's Not)?
| Q&A with: | Michael W. Toffel |
|---|---|
| Published: | April 9, 2007 |
| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
Self-regulation has been all over the news, but are firms that adopt such programs already better on important measures like labor and quality practices? Does adopting a program help companies improve faster? In this Q&A, HBS professor Michael Toffel gives a reality check and discusses the trends for managers.
Will Market Forces Stop Global Warming?
| Published: | April 6, 2007 |
|---|---|
| Feature: | What Do YOU Think? |
| Forum: | closed | 59 Comments posted |
HBS professor Jim Heskett sums up many creative responses from readers on the role of business in combatting global climate change. Online forum now closed.
