Architectural Innovation: The Reconfiguration of Existing Product Technologies and The Failure of Established Firms

Rebecca M. Henderson; Kim B. Clark

Article | Administrative Science Quarterly | March 1990

Architectural Innovation: The Reconfiguration of Existing Product Technologies and The Failure of Established Firms

by Rebecca M. Henderson and Kim B. Clark

Keywords: Design; Innovation and Invention; Product; Technology; Failure; Business Ventures;

Format: Print

22 pages

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Citation:

Henderson, Rebecca M., and Kim B. Clark. "Architectural Innovation: The Reconfiguration of Existing Product Technologies and The Failure of Established Firms." Administrative Science Quarterly 35, no. 1 (March 1990): 9–30. (Reprinted in The Management of Innovation, edited by John Storey, London: Elgar, 2004; Managing Strategic Innovation and Change, edited by M.Tushman and P. Anderson, Oxford University Press, 2004; and in Strategic Management of Technology and Innovation, edited by Robert Burgelman, Clayton Christensen and Steven Wheelwright. Oxford University Press, 2004. Translated into Chinese for inclusion in an ASQ sponsored collection of "best papers" in 2005.)

How does one witness to businesspeople about climate change? Climate change is a problem for the collective and the long term, whereas business often requires a ruthless focus on the individual and the quarter. Climate change is an ethical catastrophe whose solution almost certainly requires a profoundly moral response, but talk of morality in the boardroom is often regarded with profound suspicion. Reconciling these tensions has forced me to navigate between worlds in an ongoing attempt to persuade businesspeople that solving climate change is both an economic and a moral necessity, and that the purpose of business is not only to make money but also to support the institutions that will enable us to build a sustainable world. This has not always been easy.

Case | HBS Case Collection | March 2015 (Revised August 2020)

Putting the Guiding Principles into Action: Human Rights at Barrick Gold (A)

Rebecca Henderson and Nien-he Hsieh

In 2010, Human Rights Watch, a well-regarded international NGO, approached Barrick Gold asserting that members of the company’s security force at the Porgera Gold Mine in Papua New Guinea had on multiple occasions raped women who were trespassing onto the mine’s waste dumps in search of gold. Subsequent investigations identified significant evidence to support the allegations, and the revelations led to broad ranging change at both Porgera and at Barrick more generally. Drawing heavily on the United Nation’s Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (GPs), Barrick not only moved to make efforts to provide restitution to the women involved, but also designed and rolled out a comprehensive set of policies designed to embed the protection of human rights into the entire company. Barrick also played a central role in leading the development of an auditing and verification framework for the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights (the VPs), a set of commitments embraced by most of the world’s largest extractive companies. The case provides students with an opportunity to analyze the challenges that arise from operating in environments with weak state institutions; to examine the challenges of implementing voluntary frameworks, such as the GPs or VPs, and their potential as alternatives to state institutions; to learn about the field of business and human rights; and to develop an analytic framework for evaluating the responsibilities of business leaders to society, especially from the perspective of human rights.

Keywords: human rights; business and society; Rights; Policy; Leading Change; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Government Relations;

Citation:

Henderson, Rebecca, and Nien-he Hsieh. "Putting the Guiding Principles into Action: Human Rights at Barrick Gold (A)." Harvard Business School Case 315-108, March 2015. (Revised August 2020.) View Details

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A newly appointed hospital CEO must decide how aggressively she should pursue a sexual harassment accusation against a long-time senior hospital executive, who was also a rival for the CEO position.

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Architectural Innovation: The Reconfiguration of Existing Product Technologies and The Failure of Established Firms

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