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    Nicholas, TomRemove Nicholas, Tom →

    Page 1 of 7 Results
    • 01 Oct 2021
    • Research & Ideas

    Dying to Lead: How Reaching the Top Can Kill You Sooner

    by Jay Fitzgerald

    A study of General Electric employees by Tom Nicholas shows how the stress of chasing professional success can shorten an executive's life. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 18 Jul 2017
    • First Look

    First Look at New Research and Ideas, July 18, 2017

    Sean Silverthorne

    The creative habits of ordinary people ... Pursuing innovation at Polaroid ... Do we know how to improve bad working conditions?

    • 13 Jun 2017
    • First Look

    First Look at New Research and Ideas, June 13

    Sean Silverthorne

    Focus on a few growth metrics ... Immigrants and ingenuity ... How important is ‘detailing’ to medical sales?

    • 22 Aug 2011
    • Research & Ideas

    Getting to Eureka!: How Companies Can Promote Creativity

    by Michael Blanding

    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. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 22 Jun 2011
    • Sharpening Your Skills

    Sharpening Your Skills: Motivation

    Re: Multiple Faculty

    Can employers motivate employees to work more creatively, ethically, or productively? Or does that power reside solely within the individual? Recent research at Harvard Business School suggests workers can be motivated by their environment. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 03 Jun 2011
    • Working Paper Summaries

    Inducement Prizes and Innovation

    by Liam Brunt, Josh Lerner & Tom Nicholas

    Throughout recent history, many foundations have tried to induce innovation through competition, offering massive cash prizes to inventors who meet the challenge of creating world-changing inventions. For instance, in 1996 the X Prize Foundation offered $10 million to the first non-government organization to launch a reusable, suborbital manned spacecraft twice within two weeks. The prize was awarded in 2004 to a project financed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. The problem is that inventors cannot win these competitions if they cannot come up with funding to realize their inventions, and research and development costs often exceed the amount of the cash prize. So, does the incentive of an eventual prize really induce innovation? In this paper, Liam Brunt, Josh Lerner, and Tom Nicholas look to answer that question, using a data set of prizes awarded by the Royal Agricultural Society of England (RASE) between 1839 and 1939. Key concepts include: The RASE competitions led to an uptick in the number of new patents awarded in any given year, indicating that offering prizes is good for overall innovation. However, based on the number of contest entries in the hundred-year period, the researchers find that inventors seemed more motivated by the possibility of winning medals than in winning cash prizes. The findings offer guidance for current invention competitions. While the biggest competitions presuppose that inventors are fueled by the possibility of cash prizes, the evidence suggests that they are more fueled by the possibility of publicity--and the idea that winning will make it easier to market the prize-winning product. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 17 Mar 2011
    • Research & Ideas

    Harvard Business School Faculty Comment on Crisis in Japan

    Re: Multiple Faculty

    Harvard Business School faculty share their views and insights about the challenges that lie ahead for Japan's business leaders and for global companies operating there. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

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