Management of Technology and Innovation

Big Data Lessons at MIT

David Kiron, executive editor of MIT SMR's Innovation Hubs, attended "Big Data: Making Complex Things Simpler," a two-day seminar taught by MIT's Erik Brynjolfsson and Sandy Pentland. Kiron shares insights from the course, including how cheap flows of data enable faster experimentation and the privacy implications of Big Data.

David Kiron

Why Detailed Data Is As Important As Big Data

The increasing ability for companies to get transaction-level, detail-level data — clickstream data versus summary data — presents huge opportunity, says Boston College’s Sam Ransbotham.

Sam Ransbotham (Boston College), interviewed by David Kiron

The Problem With Digital Design

Yes, digital design is a wonderful tool. But unless it is supported with strong management processes, there can be unintended — and negative — consequences.

By Tucker Marion, Sebastian Fixson and Marc H. Meyer

Size Matters in Social Business Adoption

In the recent survey on social business that MIT Sloan Management Review conducted in collaboration with Deloitte, respondents were asked how important social business was to their business. When we looked at which companies answered "important" it became clear that size matters.

Nina Kruschwitz

Why Innovations Are Arguments

Too many executives confuse what an innovation is with what an innovation would do for them if they had one. The solution? Think of innovation as an if-then argument.

By Randall S. Wright

Collaborating With Customer Communities: Lessons From the Lego Group

By tapping into the knowledge and enthusiasm of thousands of longtime users of its products, Lego has been able to enhance its product offerings — without increasing long-term fixed costs. Free to site members
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By Yun Mi Antorini, Albert M. Muñiz, Jr. and Tormod Askildsen

The Case for Standard Measures of Patent Quality

The current balkanized approach to measuring patent quality is not serving the users of the world’s patent systems.

By David J. Kappos and Stuart Graham

The Impact of IT Investments on Profits

New research finds that investments companies make in information technology increase profitability more than investments in advertising or R&D do.

By Sunil Mithas, Ali Tafti, Indranil Bardhan and Jie Mein Goh

Social Business at Kaiser Permanente: Using Social Tools to Improve Customer Service, Research and Internal Collaboration

Social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook have helped Kaiser Permanente — the nation's largest nonprofit health care provider — grow its positive media mentions close to 500% in the last five years, says Vince Golla, who oversees the organization’s external digital reputation.

Vince Golla (Kaiser Permanente), interviewed by David Kiron

Social Business Survey: How Fast to Mainstream?

How important is social media to your business? It depends sharply on the industry you’re in, according to a new survey by MIT Sloan Management Review and Deloitte.

Nina Kruschwitz

What Sells CEOs on Social Networking

Six years ago, MIT Sloan’s Andrew McAfee coined the term "Enterprise 2.0" as shorthand for what collaboration and sharing tools such as blogging and wikis (and, today, Twitter) would mean for enterprises. In a Q&A, he talks about how CEOs see this world today — and what really sells them on the tools.

Andrew McAfee, interviewed by David Kiron

Five Questions To Separate “The Next Big Thing” From the Lemon

Five questions to consider when trying to figure out which IT innovations to pay attention to versus which to wait out because they might prove to be lemons.

Leslie Brokaw

The Manager’s Guide to IT Innovation Waves

Is the latest IT innovation the Next Big Thing — or just the Next Big Sell? Understanding the dynamics that produce IT innovation waves can help executives make wise decisions about which innovations to adopt when. Free to subscribers
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By E. Burton Swanson

Winning the Race With Ever-Smarter Machines

Rapid advances in information technology are yielding applications that can do anything from answering game show questions to driving cars. But to gain true leverage from these ever-improving technologies, companies need new processes and business models. Free to subscribers
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By Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee

Fighting “Not-Sold-Here” Tendencies

“Not-sold-here” tendencies, the instinct to not want to give away a company's "crown jewels" through strategic licensing, are an impediment for companies looking to pursue open innovation practices. Monetary and non-monetary incentive mechanisms in support of technology transfer, such as an open innovation award, can help break this instinct.

Leslie Brokaw

How to Network Your Way to New Product Ideas

Eric von Hippel is a professor of technological innovation at the MIT Sloan School of Management in Cambridge, Massachusetts. What if much of what you know — or think you know — about the innovation process is wrong? That’s a question Eric von Hippel thinks many companies — and businesspeople — should consider. Von Hippel, [...]

Martha E. Mangelsdorf

Five Steps for Embracing Consumer Innovation

Five tips for how companies can work with consumer innovators, or “casual entrepreneurs,” by understanding that “lead users” are key, IDing those lead users and figuring out how to work with them (and not against them).

Leslie Brokaw

The Age of the Consumer-Innovator

Recent research shows that consumers collectively generate massive amounts of product innovation. These findings are a wake-up call for both companies and consumers — and have significant implications for our understanding of new product development.

By Eric von Hippel, Susumu Ogawa and Jeroen P.J. de Jong

The Trouble With Too Much Information

Companies that pursue a number of improvement initiatives at once risk creating information overload for employees. Free to subscribers
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By Satya S. Chakravorty

The User Innovation Revolution

According to innovation expert Eric von Hippel, users are often the first source of new products — and that has important implications for businesses.

Eric von Hippel (MIT Sloan School of Management), interviewed by Martha E. Mangelsdorf