INTELLIGENCE: RESEARCH BRIEF: Assessing the role of electronic product-recommendation systems.

The pursuit of self-interest can produce a lot of good, but it needs a bit of guidance if society is to prosper.

Companies often make crucial mistakes when trying to protect trade secrets, sometimes relying on policies that actually lead to more information being divulged.

Do we finally have the right technologies for knowledge work? Wikis, blogs, group-messaging software and the like can make a corporate intranet into a constantly changing structure built by distributed, autonomous peers -- a collaborative platform that reflects the way work really gets done.

Customers frequently play key roles in the delivery of services. But if customers fail in those roles, their experiences may be unsatisfactory for them -- and for the companies with which they do business.

For manufacturers and service companies alike, the ability to sell integrated solutions requires completely new organizational structures and capabilities.

To manage research and development projects, companies need to ensure that informal social networks are reinforced -- and not thwarted -- by formal organizational structures.

It takes a tremendous amount of detailed management on both the client and supplier sides to realize the expected benefits of offshore outsourcing of IT work. Here are 15 best practices that can accelerate learning and make the strategy eminently worthwhile.

Too often, leaders impose top-down visions on their organizations. The best leaders identify and express the meaning that is inherent in the organization's work.

Negative services -- those that are needed in emergencies, when problems arise or to ensure against unwanted outcomes -- are part of most businesses and central to many. Their very nature presents unique growth challenges.

Companies with a restricted view of innovation can miss opportunities. A new framework called the "innovation radar" helps avoid that.