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Technology & Innovation

Technology & Innovation

    • December 2014
    • Article

    The Distinct Effects of Information Technology and Communication Technology on Firm Organization

    By: Nicholas Bloom, Luis Garicano, Raffaella Sadun and John Van Reenen

    Empirical studies on information communication technologies (ICT) typically aggregate the "information" and "communication" components together. We show theoretically and empirically that this is problematic. Information and communication technologies have very different effects on the decisions taken at each level of an organization. Better information access pushes decisions down, as it allows for superior decentralized decision making without an undue cognitive burden on those lower in the hierarchy. Better communication pushes decisions up, as it allows employees to rely on those above them in the hierarchy to make decisions. Using an original dataset of firms from the U.S. and seven European countries we study the impact of ICT on worker autonomy, plant manager autonomy, and span of control. Consistent with the theory, we find that better information technologies (Enterprise Resource Planning, ERP, for plant managers and CAD/CAM for production workers) are associated with more autonomy and a wider span of control. By contrast, communication technologies (like data networks) decrease autonomy for both workers and plant managers. Treating technology as endogenous using instrumental variables (distance from the birthplace of ERP and heterogeneous telecommunication costs arising from different regulatory regimes) strengthens our results.

    • December 2014
    • Article

    The Distinct Effects of Information Technology and Communication Technology on Firm Organization

    By: Nicholas Bloom, Luis Garicano, Raffaella Sadun and John Van Reenen

    Empirical studies on information communication technologies (ICT) typically aggregate the "information" and "communication" components together. We show theoretically and empirically that this is problematic. Information and communication technologies have very different effects on the decisions taken at each level of an organization. Better...

    • 2014
    • Working Paper

    Bridging Science and Technology Through Academic-Industry Partnerships

    By: Sen Chai and Willy C. Shih

    Scientific research and its translation into commercialized technology is a driver of wealth creation and economic growth. Partnerships to foster the translational processes from public research organizations, such as universities and hospitals, to private firms are a policy tool that has attracted increased interest. Yet questions about the efficacy and the efficiency with which funds are used are subject to frequent debate. This paper examines empirical data from the Danish National Advanced Technology Foundation (DNATF), an agency that funds partnerships between universities and private companies to develop technologies important to Danish industry. We assess the effect of a unique mediated funding scheme that combines project grants with active facilitation and conflict management on firm performance, comparing the likelihood of bankruptcy and employee count as well as patent count, publication count and their citations and collaborative nature between funded and unfunded firms. Because randomization of the sample was not feasible, we address endogeneity around selection bias using a sample of qualitatively similar firms based on a funding decision score. This allows us to observe the local effect of samples in which we drop the best recipients and the worst non-recipients. Our results suggest that while receiving the grant does bring an injection of funding that alleviates financing constraints, its core effect on the firm's innovative behavior is in fostering collaborations and translations between science and technology and encouraging riskier projects rather than purely increasing patenting.

    • 2014
    • Working Paper

    Bridging Science and Technology Through Academic-Industry Partnerships

    By: Sen Chai and Willy C. Shih

    Scientific research and its translation into commercialized technology is a driver of wealth creation and economic growth. Partnerships to foster the translational processes from public research organizations, such as universities and hospitals, to private firms are a policy tool that has attracted increased interest. Yet questions about the...

    • April 2014
    • Article

    Botsourcing and Outsourcing: Robot, British, Chinese, and German Workers Are for Thinking—Not Feeling—Jobs

    By: Adam Waytz and Michael I. Norton

    Technological innovations have produced robots capable of jobs that, until recently, only humans could perform. The present research explores the psychology of "botsourcing"—the replacement of human jobs by robots—while examining how understanding botsourcing can inform the psychology of outsourcing—the replacement of jobs in one country by humans from other countries. We test four related hypotheses across six experiments: (1) Given people's lay theories about the capacities for cognition and emotion for robots and humans, workers will express more discomfort with botsourcing when they consider losing jobs that require emotion versus cognition; (2) people will express more comfort with botsourcing when jobs are framed as requiring cognition versus emotion; (3) people will express more comfort with botsourcing for jobs that do require emotion if robots appear to convey more emotion; and (4) people prefer to outsource cognition-oriented versus emotion-oriented jobs to other humans who are perceived as more versus less robotic. These results have theoretical implications for understanding social cognition about both humans and nonhumans and practical implications for the increasingly botsourced and outsourced economy.

    • April 2014
    • Article

    Botsourcing and Outsourcing: Robot, British, Chinese, and German Workers Are for Thinking—Not Feeling—Jobs

    By: Adam Waytz and Michael I. Norton

    Technological innovations have produced robots capable of jobs that, until recently, only humans could perform. The present research explores the psychology of "botsourcing"—the replacement of human jobs by robots—while examining how understanding botsourcing can inform the psychology of outsourcing—the replacement of jobs in one country by humans...

    • Article

    Digital Ubiquity: How Connections, Sensors, and Data Are Revolutionizing Business

    By: Marco Iansiti and Karim R. Lakhani

    When Google bought Nest, a maker of digital thermostats, for $3.2 billion just a few months ago, it was a clear indication that digital transformation and connection are spreading across even the most traditional industrial segments and creating a staggering array of business opportunities and threats. The digitization of tasks and processes has become essential to competition. General Electric, for example, was at risk of losing many of its top customers to nontraditional competitors—IBM and SAP on the one hand, big data start-ups on the other—offering data-intensive, analytics-based services that could connect to any industrial device. So GE launched a multibillion-dollar initiative focused on what it calls the industrial internet: adding digital sensors to its machines; connecting them to a common, cloud-based software platform; investing in software development capabilities; building advanced analytics capabilities; and embracing crowd-based product development. With all this, GE is evolving its business model. Now, for example, revenue from its jet engines is tied to reduced downtime and miles flown over the course of a year. After just three years, GE is generating more than $1.5 billion in incremental income with digitally enabled, outcomes-based business models. The company expects that number to double in 2014 and again in 2015.

    • Article

    Digital Ubiquity: How Connections, Sensors, and Data Are Revolutionizing Business

    By: Marco Iansiti and Karim R. Lakhani

    When Google bought Nest, a maker of digital thermostats, for $3.2 billion just a few months ago, it was a clear indication that digital transformation and connection are spreading across even the most traditional industrial segments and creating a staggering array of business opportunities and threats. The digitization of tasks and processes has...

    • 2014
    • Working Paper

    The Decoupling Effect of Digital Disruptors

    By: Thales S. Teixeira and Peter Jamieson

    While the Internet's first wave of disruption was marked by the unbundling of digital content, the second wave, decoupling, promises to generate more casualties in an even broader array of industries. Digital start-ups are disrupting traditional businesses by inserting themselves at every juncture in the customer's consumption chain. By decoupling—the act of separating activities that people are used to co-consuming—new digital businesses are disrupting retailing, telecom and other industries. Decoupling allows consumers to benefit from the value created at a lower cost or effort compared to what is delivered by traditional businesses. For those companies, the only solutions are to either recouple activities or rebalance to create and capture value (i.e., revenues) from both activities separately. Here, digital technologies can be seen as an instrument that will both disrupt traditional business models and potentially preserve them.

    • 2014
    • Working Paper

    The Decoupling Effect of Digital Disruptors

    By: Thales S. Teixeira and Peter Jamieson

    While the Internet's first wave of disruption was marked by the unbundling of digital content, the second wave, decoupling, promises to generate more casualties in an even broader array of industries. Digital start-ups are disrupting traditional businesses by inserting themselves at every juncture in the customer's consumption chain. By...

Digital Initiative

The Digital Initiative is a cross-unit venture that unites scholars and practitioners to explore and impact the transformation of business in today’s digital, networked, and media-rich environment.
Digital

The early works of William Abernathy on roadblocks to innovation and Richard Rosenbloom on technology and information transfers in the 1960's and 1970's started the Technology Strategy field and helped pave the path for our research today, which focuses on value creation of platforms and two-sided markets; use of open architecture and leverage of its collective value; development and execution of innovation strategies; innovative attributes of executives and firms; development of new markets through the creation of disruptive innovations that displace earlier technologies; development of innovations in sectors; and the impact of innovation on economic growth.

Digital Initiative

The Digital Initiative is a cross-unit venture that unites scholars and practitioners to explore and impact the transformation of business in today’s digital, networked, and media-rich environment.

Digital

Recent Publications

Tech with a Side of Pizza: How Dominos Rose to the Top

By: Boris Groysberg, Sarah L. Abbott and Susan Seligson
  • January 2021 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
After hitting an all-time low in 2008, Domino’s Pizza underwent a vigorous rebranding, product development, and embraced innovative technologies to become the world’s leading international fast-food retailer. Domino’s considered itself as much a tech company as it was a purveyor of fast food, with digital orders accounting for a high percentage of sales. Domino’s was run more like a Silicon Valley company than a fast food chain and was described by CEO Patrick Doyle as “a technology company that delivers pizza.” As it bested rivals like Pizza Hut and Papa John’s, Domino’s declared itself “The Official Food of Everything.” In 2020, as much of the world remained in lockdown Domino’s, which offered delivery options from drones to driverless vehicles, saw a jump in sales. How did Domino’s become the world’s leading restaurant?
Keywords: Digital Marketing; Digital Technology; Innovation; Scaling; Data Analytics; Technological Innovation; Technology; Strategy; Management; Marketing; Operations; Human Resources; Entrepreneurship; Change Management; Analysis; Performance; Customers; Growth And Development; Competitive Advantage; Employees; Training; Leadership Development; Food And Beverage Industry; Technology Industry; United States
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Groysberg, Boris, Sarah L. Abbott, and Susan Seligson. "Tech with a Side of Pizza: How Dominos Rose to the Top." Harvard Business School Case 421-057, January 2021.

We the Possibility: Harnessing Public Entrepreneurship to Solve Our Most Urgent Problems

By: Mitchell Weiss
  • 2021 |
  • Book |
  • Faculty Research
The huge public challenges we face are daunting. At the same time, many of us have come to accept the notion that government can't do new things or solve tough challenges—it's too big and slow and bureaucratic. Not so. Entrepreneurial savvy in government is growing, transforming the public sector's response to big problems at all levels. The key is a shift from a mindset of "Probability Government"—overly focused on safe solutions and mimicking "best" practices—to "Possibility Government." This means public leadership and management that’s willing to imagine new possibilities and to experiment. Public officials and the public will have to shift towards possibility together. They will need to work to craft 1) government that can imagine; 2) government that can try new things; and 3) government that can scale to serve the many.
Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Public Sector; Government Administration; Government And Politics; Technological Innovation; Problems And Challenges; Innovation Leadership; Public Administration Industry; Technology Industry
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Weiss, Mitchell. We the Possibility: Harnessing Public Entrepreneurship to Solve Our Most Urgent Problems. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press, 2021.

IBM Watson at MD Anderson Cancer Center

By: Shane Greenstein, Mel Martin and Sarkis Agaian
  • December 2020 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
After discovering that their cancer diagnostic tool, designed to leverage the cloud computing power of IBM Watson, needed greater integration into the clinical processes at the MD Anderson Cancer Center, the development team had difficult choices to make. The Oncology Expert Advisor tool used a combination of machine learning and the latest cancer care research to make recommendation to clinicians in the field. Was automated cancer diagnosis the future of cancer care? The development team, comprised of clinicians and data scientists, reviewed the results of their experiment to augment their implementation plan and better evaluate the efficacy of the analytics tool.
Keywords: Decision Making; Innovation Strategy; Knowledge Management; Knowledge Use And Leverage; Operations; Failure; Technology; Information Technology; Software; Health Care And Treatment; Product Development; Health Industry; Information Technology Industry; Technology Industry; United States; Houston; Texas
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Greenstein, Shane, Mel Martin, and Sarkis Agaian. "IBM Watson at MD Anderson Cancer Center." Harvard Business School Case 621-022, December 2020.

The Evolutionary Nature of Breakthrough Innovation: Re-Evaluating the Exploration vs. Exploitation Dichotomy

By: Dominika K. Sarnecka and Gary P. Pisano
  • 2020 |
  • Working Paper |
  • Faculty Research
Over the past few decades, a consensus has emerged that breakthrough innovations emerge from exploration of novel terrain while more routine innovations are the product of exploitation. In this paper, we revisit this explore versus exploit dichotomy with an analysis of over two and half thousand firm-level innovation histories spanning three decades. Our data and a novel measure of search (Technological Focal Proximity) enable us to characterize at a detailed level the search strategies of firms and to examine breakthroughs and non-breakthroughs associated with different search strategies. Using our novel firm-level data and method, we find (contrary to the existing literature) that breakthrough innovations evolve through a process involving both exploration (initially) and exploitation (subsequently). The breakthrough innovation process appears to evolve through phases. In the early phases, firms explore unfamiliar terrain. However, as the process unfolds, firms shift their search strategies to focus on exploiting cumulative knowledge. Our findings call into question the strong dichotomy between exploration versus exploitation that has played such a prominent role in thinking about the origins of breakthrough innovation, and have potential implications for strategy, organizational design, management practice, and corporate culture.
Keywords: Breakthrough Innovation; Exploration And Exploitation; Innovation And Invention; Technological Innovation
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Sarnecka, Dominika K., and Gary P. Pisano. "The Evolutionary Nature of Breakthrough Innovation: Re-Evaluating the Exploration vs. Exploitation Dichotomy." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 21-071, December 2020.

Want to See the Future of Digital Health Tools? Look to Germany

By: Ariel Dora Stern, Henrik Matthies, Julia Hagen, Jan B. Brönneke and Jörg F. Debatin
  • Article |
  • Harvard Business Review (website)
A new law will make it easier to introduce and determine the benefits of new tools. Perhaps its most important provisions are its formalization of “prescribable applications,” which include standard software, SaaS, and mobile as well as browser-based apps, and the creation of the Fast-Track Process, an accelerated regulatory path for companies to take their digital health applications to market. With at least 50 apps currently already in the Fast-Track process and hundreds expected over the coming years from manufacturers worldwide, evaluation studies will create a wealth of data on how digital tools for remote patient care work in practice, which other payers and health systems can learn from. They will also be valuable in convincing health care providers—for whom evidence is of paramount importance—of the value of digital tools, both generally and in particular use cases.
Keywords: Health Care And Treatment; Transformation; Online Technology; Technological Innovation; Germany
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Stern, Ariel Dora, Henrik Matthies, Julia Hagen, Jan B. Brönneke, and Jörg F. Debatin. "Want to See the Future of Digital Health Tools? Look to Germany." Harvard Business Review (website) (December 2, 2020).

What Has Changed? The Impact of COVID Pandemic on the Technology and Innovation Management Research Agenda

By: Gerard George, Karim R. Lakhani and Phanish Puranam
  • December 2020 |
  • Article |
  • Journal of Management Studies
Whereas the pandemic has tested the agility and resilience of organizations, it forces a deeper look at the assumptions underlying theoretical frameworks that guide managerial decisions and organizational practices. In this commentary, we explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on technology and innovation management research. We identify key assumptions, and then, discuss how new areas of investigation emerge based on the changed reality.
Keywords: Covid-19; Health Pandemics; Technology; Innovation And Management; Research
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George, Gerard, Karim R. Lakhani, and Phanish Puranam. "What Has Changed? The Impact of COVID Pandemic on the Technology and Innovation Management Research Agenda." doi:10.1111/joms.12634. Journal of Management Studies 57, no. 8 (December 2020).

Disrupting the Disruptors or Enhancing Them? How Blockchain Re‐Shapes Two‐Sided Platforms

By: Daniel Trabucchi, Antonella Moretto, Tommaso Buganza and Alan MacCormack
  • November 2020 |
  • Article |
  • Journal of Product Innovation Management
The importance of platform‐based businesses in the modern economy is growing continuously and becoming increasingly relevant. Specifically, the deployment of digital technologies has enhanced the applicability of two‐sided business models, enabling companies to act not just as builders and owners of assets, but as orchestrators of external resources. Management research has therefore focused increasingly on the unique aspects of this model. At the center of a two‐sided platform there is a platform provider that enables a transaction between the sides, reducing the relative transaction costs. However, in recent years, a new technology emerged that challenges some of the underlying assumptions of this model: the blockchain. Blockchain enables the creation of a peer‐to‐peer network that is able to authenticate transactions, upon which applications and services may be built. It allows users to conduct transactions without the need for a central platform.
We explore how blockchain technology re‐shapes two‐sided platforms, focusing in particular on the role of the platform provider. The research is based upon multiple case studies, using an inductive approach to explore this emerging phenomenon. Our findings show there is a significant shift in the role of the central player that links the two sides of a transaction using blockchain. We frame this as a shift from a "platform provider" to a "service provider", leveraging the blockchain as a Platform‐as‐a‐Service. Our work examines the peculiarities of this model, unveiling new dynamics in these businesses. Specifically, we show that different variables must be considered to classify two‐sided platforms using blockchain. Furthermore, the essential characteristics of two‐sided platforms must also be enlarged. For example, traditional platform theories emphasize the importance of cross‐side network externalities in creating value. In blockchain‐enabled platforms however, we show the use of “tokens” play a key role in creating different types of externalities between the two sides.
Keywords: Blockchain; Two-sided Platforms; Business Model; Innovation And Invention; Technological Innovation
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Trabucchi, Daniel, Antonella Moretto, Tommaso Buganza, and Alan MacCormack. "Disrupting the Disruptors or Enhancing Them? How Blockchain Re‐Shapes Two‐Sided Platforms." Journal of Product Innovation Management 37, no. 6 (November 2020): 552–574.

Migrant Inventors and the Technological Advantage of Nations

By: Dany Bahar, Prithwiraj Choudhury and Hillel Rapoport
  • November 2020 |
  • Article |
  • Research Policy
We investigate the relationship between the presence of migrant inventors and the dynamics of innovation in the migrants’ receiving countries. We find that countries are 25 to 60 percent more likely to gain advantage in patenting in certain technologies given a twofold increase in the number of foreign inventors from other nations that specialize in those same technologies. For the average country in our sample, this number corresponds to only 25 inventors and a standard deviation of 135. We deal with endogeneity concerns by using historical migration networks to instrument for stocks of migrant inventors. Our results generalize the evidence of previous studies that show how migrant inventors "import" knowledge from their home countries, which translates into higher patenting in the receiving countries. We interpret these results as tangible evidence of migrants facilitating the technology-specific diffusion of knowledge across nations.
Keywords: Innovation; Migration; Patent; Knowledge; Innovation And Invention; Immigration; Patents; Technology; Knowledge Dissemination
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Bahar, Dany, Prithwiraj Choudhury, and Hillel Rapoport. "Migrant Inventors and the Technological Advantage of Nations." Special Issue on STEM Migration, Research, and Innovation. Research Policy 49, no. 9 (November 2020).

Hot Wheels: Launching The Mixed Play Experience

By: Elie Ofek, Andres Terech and Nicole Tempest Keller
  • September 2020 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
Chris Down, Global Brand General Manager for Hot Wheels, and his team from the Advanced Play Group within Mattel, Inc., had developed an entirely new “mixed play” product experience that blended familiar Hot Wheels play in the physical world with breakthrough play in the digital world. The technology underlying the product was an NFC chip embedded in the physical Hot Wheels die-cast car that could be scanned to add a digital version of the car into a virtual domain, where users could see their stats and play video games with the car. The goal for the new mixed play experience was to extend the age of the Hot Wheels customer, as children were observed to be moving on from physical toys to digital play at a younger and younger age. The mixed play concept had received unprecedented investment and support, since it represented a whole new approach to play that could set the stage for the future of Hot Wheels and other Mattel brands. In early 2019, the product development phase was nearly complete and plans were being set for the launch. Key decisions needed to be made around positioning, naming, pricing, channel, promotion, and launch timing. Given the high expectations for the innovative mixed play platform, it was critical to get these go-to-market decisions right.
Keywords: Toys; Go-to-market Strategy; Product Development; Technological Innovation; Product Launch; Product Positioning; Decision Making; Marketing; Strategy; Los Angeles
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Ofek, Elie, Andres Terech, and Nicole Tempest Keller. "Hot Wheels: Launching The Mixed Play Experience." Harvard Business School Case 521-017, September 2020.

Merck: COVID-19 Vaccines

By: Willy C. Shih
  • September 2020 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
COVID-19 infections were still climbing across the U.S. and many other parts of the world in September 2020, and it seemed that every time Ken Frazier, the CEO of Merck & Co. consented to an interview in recent months he always seemed to hear the same question, “Where’s Merck?” The company, a leader in the global vaccine business had a low public profile even though it was working assiduously on two vaccine candidates for the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19. The U.S. Government had initiated a high profile program—Operation Warp Speed (OWS)—to accelerate the development of vaccines, but Merck was notably absent. Should Merck seek or accept funding from OWS, and what terms might accompany such an agreement?
Keywords: Vaccines; Health Pandemics; Health Testing And Trials; Innovation And Management; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Business Strategy; Pharmaceutical Industry
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Shih, Willy C. "Merck: COVID-19 Vaccines." Harvard Business School Case 621-028, September 2020.
More Publications

Faculty

Lynda M. Applegate
Marco Iansiti
Rosabeth M. Kanter
Karim R. Lakhani
Dorothy A. Leonard
Josh Lerner
Alan D. MacCormack
Tom Nicholas
Elie Ofek
Willy C. Shih
Michael L. Tushman
David B. Yoffie
→See All

Seminars & Conferences

Feb 11
  • 11 Feb 2021
Technology & Operations Management (TOM) Seminar
Avi Goldfarb, University of Toronto Rotman School of Business
Feb 18
  • 18 Feb 2021
Technology & Operations Management (TOM) Seminar
Imke Reimers, Northeastern University
→Seminars & Conferences

HBS Working Knowlege

    • 19 Jan 2021

    The Value of Descriptive Analytics: Evidence from Online Retailers

    Re: Ayelet Israeli
    • 19 Jan 2021

    The Role of Constraints in Creative Problem-Solving

    Re: Karim R. Lakhani
    • 14 Jan 2021

    Dog Eat Dog: Measuring Network Effects Using a Digital Platform Merger

    Re: Chiara Farronato
→More Articles

Harvard Business Publishing

    • March 2013
    • Article

    For Mobile Devices, Think Apps, Not Ads

    By: Sunil Gupta
    • September 2020
    • Case

    Hot Wheels: Launching The Mixed Play Experience

    By: Elie Ofek, Andres Terech and Nicole Tempest Keller
→More Harvard Business Publishing
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