Blockchain represents more than just cryptocurrencies and digital cash. The decentralized ledger system provides a platform for smart contracts, which are digital agreements that are fast, secure, and require no third party.

Blockchain has recently taken center stage in the conversation about management’s digital makeover. Many believe the impact of blockchain on the ways organizations function and produce value may be greater than other technologies that have grabbed most of our recent attention — data and analytics, the cloud, even artificial intelligence.

The Bank of England, one of the world’s oldest and most influential central banks, has made analytics excellence a key pillar of its mission to promote economic stability within the United Kingdom. Like other central banks, the Bank has relied on data and analytics to formulate policy recommendations. But, since 2008 when it regained its status as a regulator, the Bank has begun using its access to new forms of data to increase its insights and forecasting abilities about the British economy.

Could science-based industries benefit from a financing model similar to one used to make Hollywood movies? “We propose that a form of governance centered on the project rather than the company may be a more efficient way to organize innovation in science-based industries,” write the authors. Their proposal addresses the fact that traditional venture capital “wasn’t designed to deal with the costs, risks, and slow payout of science-based industries.”

What should we make of the role of financial innovation in precipitating the financial crisis — and how might problems with risk management that the crisis revealed be addressed?

MIT Sloan School professor Simon Johnson offers an unsettling interpretation of the financial crisis. Also: Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke spoke about the relationship between financial innovation and consumer protection.

A leading expert on disruptive innovation discusses a range of topics — from health care to innovation in financial markets –in an interview published in MIT Sloan Management Review.

In the minds of many, the financial crisis has given innovation a black eye. Disruption theorist Clayton Christensen disagrees.

The global financial crisis that occurred in 2008 can be viewed as a systems accident that was fueled, in part, by innovations in the financial sector.

A NEW KIND OF INFORMATION SYSTEM IS EMERGING THAT WILL REDUCE THE TIME TO MARKET, HELP TAILOR PRODUCTS AND SERVICES TO customers’ needs, and make processes more responsive to unexpected events. Expressive systems allow users to adapt quickly and easily to exceptions from standard operating procedure. The authors describe how expressive systems work and suggest ways of modifying the roles and structure of IS departments to implement the new technology.