Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • 2016
  • Chapter
  • Innovation Policy and the Economy, Volume 16

Innovation Experiments: Researching Technical Advance, Knowledge Production and the Design of Supporting Institutions

By: Kevin J. Boudreau and Karim R. Lakhani
  • Format:Print
ShareBar

Abstract

This paper discusses several challenges in designing field experiments to better understand how organizational and institutional design shapes innovation outcomes and the production of knowledge. We proceed to describe the field experimental research program carried out by our Crowd Innovation Laboratory at Harvard University to clarify how we have attempted to address these research design challenges. This program has simultaneously solved important practical innovation problems for partner organizations, like NASA and Harvard Medical School, while contributing research advances, particularly in relation to innovation contests and tournaments.

Keywords

Organizational Design; Research; Knowledge; Innovation and Invention

Citation

Boudreau, Kevin J., and Karim R. Lakhani. "Innovation Experiments: Researching Technical Advance, Knowledge Production and the Design of Supporting Institutions." In Innovation Policy and the Economy, Volume 16, edited by William R. Kerr, Josh Lerner, and Scott Stern, 135–167. National Bureau of Economic Research, and University of Chicago Press, 2016.
  • Read Now

About The Author

Karim R. Lakhani

Technology and Operations Management
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • June 2022
    • Management Science

    Conservatism Gets Funded? A Field Experiment on the Role of Negative Information in Novel Project Evaluation

    By: Jacqueline N. Lane, Misha Teplitskiy, Gary Gray, Hardeep Ranu, Michael Menietti, Eva C. Guinan and Karim R. Lakhani
    • May 2022 (Revised July 2022)
    • Faculty Research

    AWS and Amazon SageMaker (C): The Commercialization of Machine Learning Services

    By: Karim R. Lakhani, Shane Greenstein and Kerry Herman
    • May 2022
    • Faculty Research

    AWS and Amazon SageMaker (B): The Commercialization of Machine Learning Services

    By: Karim R. Lakhani, Shane Greenstein and Kerry Herman
More from the Authors
  • Conservatism Gets Funded? A Field Experiment on the Role of Negative Information in Novel Project Evaluation By: Jacqueline N. Lane, Misha Teplitskiy, Gary Gray, Hardeep Ranu, Michael Menietti, Eva C. Guinan and Karim R. Lakhani
  • AWS and Amazon SageMaker (C): The Commercialization of Machine Learning Services By: Karim R. Lakhani, Shane Greenstein and Kerry Herman
  • AWS and Amazon SageMaker (B): The Commercialization of Machine Learning Services By: Karim R. Lakhani, Shane Greenstein and Kerry Herman
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College