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Innovation and ManagementRemove Innovation and Management →

New research on innovation and management from Harvard Business School faculty on issues including the importance of workplace transparency, how to manage 'creative types,' and crowdsourcing solutions.
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Accounting for Product Impact in the Consumer Finance Industry

by George Serafeim and Katie Trinh

A framework and method for measuring and monetizing product impact across industries, applying it to two competitors in the consumer finance space.

Iterative Coordination and Innovation

by Sourobh Ghosh and Andy Wu

Do Agile methodologies promote innovation? Results of a field experiment with Google show that increasing the frequency and goal orientation of stand-up meetings reinforces integration and value but reduces specialization and novelty in outcomes.

‘Organizing’, ‘Innovating’, and ‘Managing’ in Complexity Space

by Michael C. Moldoveanu

This paper explores organizational complexity by proposing a two-dimensional framework to help us understand organizational coping mechanisms and failure modes. The framework makes it possible to ask new questions about organizational adaptations to complexity that investigate its underlying structure and dynamics.

If the Key to Business Success Is Focus, Why Does Amazon Work?

Sunil Gupta explores the infiltration of Amazon into dozens of industries including web services, grocery, and movie production. What’s the big plan? Is the company spread too thin? Open for comment; 0 Comments.

How Managers Stifle Creativity

by Danielle Kost

3QUESTIONS: Teresa Amabile discusses the roots of creativity, how to achieve more of it, and combining it with artificial intelligence. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Judgment Aggregation in Creative Production: Evidence from the Movie Industry

by Hong Luo, Jeffrey T. Macher, and Michael Wahlen

Selecting early-stage ideas in creative industries is challenging because consumer taste is hard to predict and the quantity to sift through is large. Using The Black List that ranks scripts annually based on nominations from film executives, this study shows that aggregating expert opinions helps reduce quality uncertainty and can influence high-budget production.

Say Again? Uncommon Advice for Common Business Problems

by Sean Silverthorne

Sometimes the right answer is far from obvious. Learn why an introvert may be the best choice to lead your team, taking a pay cut might make you a better manager, and why you should not trust your gut when the pressure is on. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

How to Design a Better Customer Experience

by Dina Gerdeman

With the help of LEGO bricks, Stefan Thomke helps business executives discover how design principles can serve as building blocks to create a great customer experience. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Flexing the Frame: TMT Framing and the Adoption of Non-Incremental Innovations in Incumbent Firms

by Ryan Raffaelli, Mary Ann Glynn, and Michael Tushman

Organizations continuously face decisions about whether or not to adopt innovations. Often, however, senior teams do not adopt an innovation even when the organization has the resources to do so. Using real examples, this paper theorizes how the processes of cognitive and emotional framing inform managerial choices about whether or not to adopt innovations.

Why Companies Are Placing Users at the Core of Their Innovation Strategies

by Dina Gerdeman

In his recent edited volume Revolutionizing Innovation, Karim Lakhani brings together the latest thinking around open innovation, users, and communities. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Break the Rules of How Business is Done

by Julia B. Austin

Making just small changes to how you do business inside and outside the company can help you attract bright employees and increase innovation, argues Julia B. Austin. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Why Fierce Competitors Apple and Amazon Became ’Frenemies’ Over eReaders

by Michael Blanding

New research by Feng Zhu and colleagues reveals why sometimes it's better for fierce competitors like Apple and Amazon to work together. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Need to Solve a Problem? Take a Break From Collaborating

by Carmen Nobel

Organizations spend a lot of money enabling employees to solve problems collectively. But inducing more collaboration may actually hinder the most important part of problem-solving: actually solving the problem. Research by Jesse Shore, Ethan Bernstein, and David Lazer. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Digital Initiative Summit: The Business of Crowdsourcing

by Dina Gerdeman

Gaining the community's trust is vital to building a successful business with crowdsourcing. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Why Entrepreneurs Should Go Work for Government

by Michael Blanding

In a new Harvard Business School course on public entrepreneurship, Mitchell B. Weiss explores how fresh thinkers can work with—and within—the halls of government. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Retail Reaches a Tipping Point—Which Stores Will Survive?

by Sean Silverthorne

Part 1: The new book Retail Revolution: Will Your Brick and Mortar Store Survive? argues that ecommerce is about to deal severe blows to many familiar store-based brands—even including Walmart. Here's how retailers can fight back, according to Rajiv Lal, José Alvarez, and Dan Greenberg. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

A Methodology for Operationalizing Enterprise Architecture and Evaluating Enterprise IT Flexibility

by Alan MacCormack, Robert Lagerstrom & Carliss Y. Baldwin

When dealing with complex information system architectures, changes often propagate in unexpected ways, increasing the costs of adapting the system to future needs. In this paper the authors use data from a real firm and develop a robust network-based methodology by which to visualize and measure any firm's enterprise architecture. They also explore the dynamics of how different types of coupling influence the flexibility of enterprise architectures. They conclude with insights for practicing managers who must, for example, allocate resources and identify opportunities for system redesign. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

How New BofA Executives Learn its ’Deep Smarts’

Bank of America's stringent onboarding process for new execs ensures they understand role expectations, quickly develop networks, and learn from other leaders what it takes to succeed. From the new book by Dorothy Leonard and colleagues, Critical Knowledge Transfer. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Bottlenecks, Modules and Dynamic Architectural Capabilities

by Carliss Y. Baldwin

Large technical systems made up of many interoperable components are becoming more common every day. Many of these systems, like tablet computers, smartphones, and the Internet, are based on digital information technologies. Others, like the electrical grid, the financial payments system, and all modern factories, rely on digital technologies. How do firms create and capture value in large technical systems? To answer this question, the author argues, it is first necessary to develop ways of describing such systems. One useful lens is architecture. Architectural capabilities are an important subset of dynamic capabilities that provide managers with the ability to see a complex technical system in an abstract way and change the system's structure by rearranging its components. Purposeful architectural change can then be used to create and capture value at different points in the technical system. Furthermore, value-enhancing architectural change arises through the effective management of bottlenecks and modules in conjunction with the firm's organizational boundaries and property rights. Key concepts include: Bottlenecks are points of value creation and capture in any complex man-made system. The architecture of a system defines its components, describes interfaces between components, and specifies ways of testing performance. The tools a firm can use to manage bottlenecks are 1) an understanding of the modular structure of the technical system and how it can be changed; and 2) an understanding of the contract structure of the firm, especially its organizational boundaries and property rights. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

Inventing Products is Less Valuable Than Inventing Ideas

by Michael Blanding

When companies create new products, they are often also inventing new ideas—and that's where the real value resides. Gautam Ahuja discusses why companies fall short in fully exploiting their intellectual capital. Open for comment; 0 Comments.