The First Step to Successful Innovation? Choosing the Right Partners

A person in a brown jacket and blue shirt against a black background, depicted in a headshot style.

Wharton management professor Exequiel Hernandez searches for the optimal mix of domestic and foreign partners in a firm’s network. The answer depends on what type of innovative solution a firm is trying to produce.Read More

“All Effective Innovations are Derived from a Profound Understanding of the User”

Headshot of a person with long hair, smiling, wearing a patterned shirt, against a neutral indoor background.

The “experience engineering” approach to innovation encourages designers to think about the series of emotions a user needs to feel in order to buy a product. Elisa Jagerson, CEO of Speck Design, argues that managers need to adopt a similar approach when trying to establish a culture of innovation.Read More

For Best Customer Insights, Ask Them How They Feel. But Don’t Actually Ask Them.

Richard Thorogood

How Technology is Transforming Market Research   Take a typical adult to an ice cream parlor, says Richard Thorogood, and before making a choice they’ll weigh as many factors as there are flavors. “Well, I kind of want strawberry,” they’ll think, “but I always get strawberry, so maybe I shouldRead More

Why Established Firms Should Keep an Eye on Kickstarter

Ethan Mollick

Crowdfunding has exploded in popularity since 2009, and its pace shows no signs of slowing. Funded researcher Ethan Mollick argues that this trend poses important implications for established firms as well as entrepreneurs.Read More

Five Lessons for Building Innovation Prowess

George Day

According to George Day, top businesses have a lot in common with top athletes. His research examines the qualities that separate “growth leaders” from “growth laggards” — in other words, the qualities that separate average or failing companies from those that achieve Olympic-level success.Read More

Cultivating Growth and Disrupting Proactively

Mack Institute Fall Conference 2013

Mack Institute events don’t typically include references to farming techniques, but the Fall Conference 2013 was a rare exception. In this video summary of his presentation, Takeshi Yamaguchi describes how Nissan’s approach to advanced technical development resembles the cultivation of an orchard. Instead of a linear approach, Nissan achieves successfulRead More

J.D. Power III’s Impact on the Auto Industry

A headshot of an older adult in a suit with a red tie, wearing glasses, conversing with another person.

How J.D. Power III Transformed the Auto Industry Through the collection of consumer feedback on cars, J.D. “Dave” Power III revolutionized the automobile industry in 1968. In this Knowledge@Wharton interview conducted by PVMI director John Paul MacDuffie, Power discusses the founding and early years of his firm, J.D. Power andRead More