First Look

Abstract—The Creativity Reader is a necessary companion for anyone interested in the historical roots of contemporary ideas about creativity, innovation, and imagination. It brings together a prestigious group of international experts who were tasked with choosing, introducing, and commenting on seminal texts focused on creativity, invention, genius, and imagination from the period of 1850 to 1950. This volume is at once retrospective and prospective: it revisits old ideas, assesses their importance today, and explores their potential for the future. Through its wide historical focus, this Reader challenges the widespread assumption that creativity research is mainly a product of the second half of the 20th century. Featuring primary sources interpreted through the lenses of leading contemporary scholars, The Creativity Reader testifies to the incredible richness of this field of study, helps us understand its current developments, and anticipates its future directions. The texts included here, many of them little known or forgotten, are part of the living history of creativity studies. Indeed, an examination of these seminal papers helps the new generation of creativity and innovation researchers to be mindful of the past and unafraid to explore it.

Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=54032

Abstract—This article discusses how to diagnose the risks that disruptive industry forces pose to individual careers and offers suggestions on how to mitigate such threats. Recommendations are based on analyses of individuals’ career histories in the professional services sector and other settings, such as appliance manufacturing, oil and gas, health care, and education. The article proposes strategies on how to act preemptively and disrupt your own career to avoid being blindsided.

Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=55966

Abstract—At one point or another in our life, we all become consumers of the health care industry. Indeed, health care affects everyone and encompasses a diverse set of services from childbirth, to illness prevention, to the management of chronic disease and end-of-life care. Health care in the United States is executed through a complex set of interrelationships between three distinct parties: payers, providers, and consumers. Each group has its own perspective accompanied by a set of unique incentives, which complicate the adoption of a value-based health care system. To transform the American health care delivery system, all participants including patients, physicians, employers, insurance companies, and the government need to recognize that value is best defined as “a given health outcome per dollar of cost expended.” In this article, we examine some of the challenges to creating and implementing a value-based health care system against the backdrop of a turbulent industry and consider the implications for the anesthesiologist.

Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=55974

Abstract—As open source software (OSS) is increasingly used as a key input by firms, understanding its impact on productivity becomes critical. This study measures the firm-level productivity impact of nonpecuniary (free) OSS and finds a positive and significant value-added return for firms that have an ecosystem of complementary capabilities. There is no such impact for firms without this ecosystem of complements. Dynamic panel analysis, instrumental variables, and a variety of robustness checks are used to address measurement error concerns and to add support for a more causal interpretation of the results. For firms with an ecosystem of complements, a 1% increase in the use of nonpecuniary OSS leads to an increase in value-added productivity of between 0.002% and 0.008%. This effect is smaller for larger firms, and the results indicate that prior research underestimates the amount of IT firms use.

Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=54810

Abstract—In this paper, I jointly investigate the political and the economic effects of immigration and study the causes of anti-immigrant sentiments. I exploit exogenous variation in European immigration to U.S. cities between 1910 and 1930 induced by World War I and the Immigration Acts of the 1920s as well as instrument immigrants’ location decision relying on pre-existing settlement patterns. I find that immigration triggered hostile political reactions, such as the election of more conservative legislators, higher support for anti-immigration legislation, and lower redistribution. Exploring the causes of natives’ backlash, I document that immigration increased natives’ employment, spurred industrial production, and did not generate losses even among natives working in highly exposed sectors. These findings suggest that opposition to immigration was unlikely to have economic roots. Instead, I provide evidence that natives’ political discontent was increasing in the cultural differences between immigrants and natives. Results in this paper indicate that, even when diversity is economically beneficial, it may nonetheless be socially hard to manage.

Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=55981

Rodolfo, Marco, and Edoardo De Benedetti had received from their father his controlling shares in COFIDE, a publicly listed holding company that held 45.8% of CIR Group, another publicly listed holding. The latter held majority shares in GEDI, Italy’s largest print media, radio, and digital group, Sogefi, an auto component manufacturer and KOS, a home-care and hospital manager. Rodolfo had spent his entire career in CIR Group, which he had managed as CEO for 20 years. Edoardo, a cardiologist, had never worked in the family business, while Marco, now the head of Carlyle Europe, a private equity investment company, had worked in the family business for a few years but had developed a career mainly outside of the family business. The transfer of the shares’ ownership had tightened the three brothers’ bonds and had increased Marco and Edoardo’s interest in the business. The brothers had in total seven children. What should the three brothers do strategically with the company and how should they address the generational transfer? Did it make sense for the brothers to plan on passing their majority ownership of COFIDE (a publicly listed company) to the next generation? Would their children be interested in being actively involved in the Group? How to manage all that?

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No abstract available.

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In December 2018, the blockchain startup Fluidity was about to participate in its first tokenization deal, which would create digital access to property rights in a 12-unit Manhattan condominium complex. The deal was proof-of-concept for Fluidity, which hoped to develop a business digitizing securities issuance for other real estate assets on the basis of its technical facility with blockchain technology in conjunction with its broker-dealer partner, Propellr. However, a successful transaction would only prompt larger and more urgent strategic questions. Among them was the appropriate revenue model for Fluidity—whether to grow by providing its technical services to broker-dealers, by going into tokenized securities issuance, or by harnessing its trading technology to facilitate a secondary market in tokenized securities.

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In late 2017, Camber Creek, a real estate technology focused venture capital firm, had to evaluate a potential investment in Measurabl Inc., which provides real estate companies of all sizes with a full SaaS solution for sustainability data.

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In November 2018, Shaival Shah, the founder and CEO of Ribbon Home, had to decide on the next steps for the company. Ribbon had introduced a program that backs consumers with cash offers without creating a loan structure in order to help them compete with iBuyers, such as Zillow Offers and Opendoor. Ribbon had experienced a successful launch in Charlotte, North Carolina, which prompted urgent strategic questions. Among them was the appropriate funding model—whether Ribbon should be mainly a platform for others to fund transactions, or should it buy and hold homes on its balance sheet, which it could securitize and sell using a line of credit.

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This note focuses on managers’ responsibilities—economic, legal, and ethical—to investors. In capitalist and some socialist economies, these responsibilities traditionally have been grounded in fiduciary duties and are typically part of the common law or statutory law or are incorporated in civil codes. But, as this note will show, fiduciary obligations are deeply intertwined with economic and ethical responsibilities.

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Chef Wolfgang Puck oversees a disparate business empire that includes fine dining restaurants, a catering business, and various licensed products that run from cookware, to soup, to fast-casual restaurants. His businesses activities are divided among three separate entities—Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group, Wolfgang Puck Catering, and Wolfgang Puck Worldwide—that share some formal and informal linkages. But the key person holding this all together is Wolfgang Puck himself. Now in his late 60s, Puck wonders what he needs to formalize—in terms of systems, processes, and management—to ensure that his different businesses will endure long after he is no longer involved in the day-to-day management of these three businesses.

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This case explores the evolution of Nike’s global product sourcing strategy, in particular ongoing efforts to improve working conditions at its suppliers’ factories. When the case opens in July 2018, Vice President of Sourcing Amanda Tucker and her colleagues in Nike’s Global Sourcing and Manufacturing division were focusing on three key supply chain challenges: sourcing from suppliers that meet compliance standards, challenging and encouraging suppliers to improve capabilities, and being responsive to consumer demand across the world.

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This short case, meant for pairing with HBS No. 615-013, “AmazonFresh: Rekindling the Online Grocery Market,” explores Amazon’s rationale for acquiring Whole Foods.

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In October 2016, SoftBank Group Corp., the Japanese conglomerate giant caused a significant shock to the worldwide market for venture capital and private equity by announcing the Vision Fund, the largest tech investment fund in the world at close to $100 billion. The reputation of legendary SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son depended on the success of the Vision Fund, a considerable challenge given the difficulties associated with organizing a large pool of capital, investing at scale, and generating VC-style returns. By effectively anointing category leaders and deterring competitive entry, would the Vision Fund accelerate innovation or undermine the market forces that have typically produced social value by spurring rapid technological change?

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This note discusses the centuries-long history and current situation of Mexican farmworkers north of the border—documented or undocumented, resident or temporary, and increasingly indigenous. The story provides the background for discussion of dilemmas facing policymakers, agricultural enterprises, and the workers themselves.

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No abstract available.

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No abstract available.

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Shaun Abrahamson and Stonly Baptiste aimed to invest in what they called "urbantech superheroes." At Urban Us, the seed-stage urban technology-focused venture capital firm the two started in 2012, they looked for startups innovating around the future of cities. By 2017, they had assessed over 700 potential deals. Each one required a go/no-go decision, and four along the way were no different in that regard. Of Remix, SeamlessDocs, Starcity, and One Concern, which should they back? Setting aside the question for the moment of why urbantech startups needed superpowers, which of these possessed them?

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