From the Wright brothers’ first flight to the speedy development of COVID-19 vaccines, collaboration has been key to innovation. Paradoxically, even competitors can benefit from collaboration — when they hold different pieces of the same puzzle.

But these companies must strike a delicate balance, according to new research from the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin. Ramkumar Ranganathan, associate professor of management, offers some principles for managing the balance between competition and collaboration — particularly when it involves sharing information. "Firms need to pay attention to these longer-term issues,” he says. “It’s very easy to look at the short term and think, ‘This alliance partner is giving me X amount of money to co-develop this technology. So, what if I don’t let this person talk to this other person for a few months? That shouldn’t matter, right?’ But it does matter.”

Quitting tobacco could give a major economic uplift to the incomes of more than 20 million households in India, suggests an economic analysis published in the open access journal BMJ Global Health.  While the greatest impact would be felt in rural areas and among the poorest households, 7 million middle income families would also stand to benefit, the estimates suggest.

Superglue, penicillin, X-rays, the pacemaker: All are examples of “happy accidents” – inventions by individuals trying to do one thing, and winding up with something superior to the original objective. But can serendipity be “harnessed,” to make it actually work for a company? Researchers from Cornell University think that reflecting on unintended outcomes might lead to more and better ideas.

As global population aging advances and countries face shrinking workforces, a new study focusing on China by IIASA researchers and colleagues from Nanjing University reveals how economic growth can persist despite these changes in age structures.