This issue of MIT SMR offers up important solutions for achieving success in critical areas of management. Read the full lineup below.
Content subject to change.
Special Report:
Tech at the Boundaries: Evaluating the Potential of Emerging Tools
In this Special Report, we cut through the noise around Web3 to focus on one element that deserves business leaders’ attention now: decentralized credentialing systems. We also give those at the forefront of AI implementation insight into how to dissect developers’ performance claims for decision support models — and determine the quality of those tools’ recommendations. Finally, our update on quantum computing’s readiness for business suggests that the headline-making race to prove processing advantage over classical computing isn’t so relevant to leaders’ decisions to work with that technology. Instead, economic analyses should indicate when it’s time to shift to quantum.
The Quiet Corner of Web3 That Means Business
While the metaverse still lacks legs and crypto stumbles, managers keeping an eye on Web3 can learn from promising implementations of decentralized credentials.
— Mary Lacity (University of Arkansas), Erran Carmel (Kogod School of Business at American University), Amber Young (University of Arkansas), and Tamara Roth (University of Luxembourg)
What AI Vendors Aren’t Telling You About Model Quality
Determining whether an AI solution is worth implementing requires looking past performance reports and finding the ground truth on which the AI has been trained and validated.
— Sarah Lebovitz (UVA McIntire School of Commerce), Hila Lifshitz-Assaf (University of Warwick), and Natalia Levina (NYU Stern)
The Business Case for Quantum Computing
Quantum computers may deliver an economic advantage to businesses even on tasks that classical computers can perform as well.
— Francesco Bova (University of Toronto), Avi Goldfarb (University of Toronto), and Roger Melko (University of Waterloo)
Articles Featured in the Spring Issue
New Threats to the Subscription Model
Inflation and supply chain disruption might make it harder for businesses to meet their obligations to customers on subscription plans
— Oded Koenigsberg (London Business School)
The PR Power of Fessing Up
Companies are adopting a new communications strategy: publicly disclosing unflattering information about lapses and misdeeds. New research indicates doing so is effective for building trust.
— Sarah A. Soule and Lambert Zixin Li (both from Stanford Graduate School of Business)
Rethinking Hierarchy
We need to reconceive managerial authority for today’s business environment — not eliminate it.
— Nicolai J. Foss (Copenhagen Business School) and Peter G. Klein (Baylor University)
Why Innovation Depends on Intellectual Honesty
Fostering psychological safety isn’t enough if managers don’t pay particular attention to creating conditions for healthy debate.
— Jeff Dyer (Brigham Young University), Nathan Furr (INSEAD), Curtis Lefrandt (Innovator’s DNA), and Taeya Howell (Brigham Young University)
Become a Better Problem Solver by Telling Better Stories
One of the biggest obstacles to effective decision-making is failure to define the problem well. Invoking the power of narrative and a simple story structure can help ensure that teams are solving the right problem.
— Arnaud Chevallier, Albrecht Enders, and Jean-Louis Barsoux (all from IMD)
Why Companies Should Help Every Employee Chart a Career Path
Providing career development to all employees requires a commitment to clarifying pathways for growth and giving everyone opportunities to build new skills.
— George Westerman (MIT Sloan School of Management) and Abbie Lundberg (MIT Sloan Management Review)
Level Up to Strategic Data Sharing
Your data assets are key to developing new value for your customers and giving you clout in digital ecosystems.
— Barbara H. Wixom (MIT Center for Information Systems Research), Ina M. Sebastian (MIT Center for Information Systems Research), Robert W. Gregory (Miami Herbert Business School), and Gabriele Piccoli (Louisiana State University’s E.J. Ourso College of Business and University of Pavia)
Mining Underground Innovation
Many R&D employees proactively engage in innovation efforts not sanctioned by their managers. Organizations must find ways to surface these projects so that they can gain broader benefits.
— Jeroen P.J. de Jong (Utrecht University), Max Mulhuijzen (Utrecht University), and K. Venkatesh Prasad (Ford Motor Co.)
Reimagining HR for Better Well-Being and Performance
Organizations must rethink historical divisions between talent and benefits groups if they are to more effectively help workers develop the psychological skills to thrive now and in the future.
— Gabriella Rosen Kellerman (BetterUp) and Martin Seligman (University of Pennsylvania)