Technology →
- 10 Aug 2015
- Research & Ideas
New Medical Devices Get To Patients Too Slowly
The FDA has streamlined drug testing to ensure new therapies come to market quickly. But when it comes to life-giving medical devices, approvals seem unnecessarily slow, according to research by Ariel Dora Stern. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 05 Aug 2015
- What Do You Think?
What Happened to the ‘Innovation, Disruption, Technology’ Dividend?
SUMMING UP. Jim Heskett’s readers are divided on whether we are seeing productivity dividends from the latest round of technological innovation. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 28 Jul 2015
- Working Paper Summaries
Technology Reemergence: Creating New Value for Old Technologies in Swiss Mechanical Watchmaking, 1970–2008
Focusing on Swiss watchmaking from 1970 to 2008, this study demonstrates key factors that contribute to, and influence, the re-emergence of market demand for a legacy technology in a mature institutional field. This paper shows how processes of preservation and transformation serve as necessary counterweights that encourage retaining some valued elements of the old institutional order alongside new elements that allow for change and survival. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 13 Jul 2015
- Research & Ideas
‘Humblebragging’ is a Bad Strategy, Especially in a Job Interview
While humblebragging runs rampant on Twitter, it's a lousy self-promotion tactic that usually backfires according to recent research by Ovul Sezer, Francesca Gino, and Michael Norton. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 11 May 2015
- Research & Ideas
A Road Map to Fix America’s Transportation Infrastructure
Why is America's transportation system so outdated, why should we care, and what can we do about it? Rosabeth Moss Kanter offers a road map to roadway recovery in her new book, Move: Putting America's Infrastructure Back in the Lead. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 04 May 2015
- Research & Ideas
Need to Solve a Problem? Take a Break From Collaborating
Organizations spend a lot of money enabling employees to solve problems collectively. But inducing more collaboration may actually hinder the most important part of problem-solving: actually solving the problem. Research by Jesse Shore, Ethan Bernstein, and David Lazer. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 08 Apr 2015
- What Do You Think?
Are Technology Companies Ripe for Disruption?
SUMMING UP Jim Heskett's readers discuss the fate of tech companies that continue to stuff their products with unwanted bells and whistles. What do YOU think? Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 17 Mar 2015
- Research & Ideas
Where Did My Shopping Mall Go?
The growing popularity of online shopping is remaking the world of offline shopping—stores are getting smaller, malls are getting scarcer. Rajiv Lal and José Alvarez look ahead five years at our radically transforming shopping experience. Plus: Book excerpt. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 02 Mar 2015
- Research & Ideas
Retail Reaches a Tipping Point—Which Stores Will Survive?
Part 1: The new book Retail Revolution: Will Your Brick and Mortar Store Survive? argues that ecommerce is about to deal severe blows to many familiar store-based brands—even including Walmart. Here's how retailers can fight back, according to Rajiv Lal, José Alvarez, and Dan Greenberg. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 02 Feb 2015
- Research & Ideas
Disruptors Sell What Customers Want and Let Competitors Sell What They Don’t
By "decoupling" activities that consumers value from the ones they don't, enterprising digital startups are wreaking havoc on established firms. Thales Teixeira discusses his research on the second wave of Internet disruption. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 15 Oct 2014
- Research & Ideas
Apple Pay’s Technology Adoption Problem
Apple wants to convert your iPhone into a digital wallet with Apple Pay. Professors Benjamin Edelman and Willy Shih assess its chances for success and wonder if consumers have a compelling reason to make the switch. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 02 Oct 2014
- Working Paper Summaries
Bitcoin
Bitcoin is an online communication protocol that facilitates virtual currency including electronic payments. Since its inception in 2009, Bitcoin has served approximately 41.8 million transactions between 62.8 million accounts, and the total market value of all bitcoins in circulation exceeds $8 billion. This article, forthcoming in the Journal of Economic Perspectives, presents the platform's design principles and properties for a non-technical audience; reviews its past, present, and future uses; and points out risks and regulatory issues as Bitcoin interacts with the conventional financial system and the real economy. Key features of Bitcoin's design are irreversible transactions, a prescribed path of money creation, and a public transaction history. Collectively, these yield a system that is understood to be more flexible, more private, and less amenable to regulatory oversight than other forms of payment--though as discussed in this paper, all these benefits face important limits. Yet the authors argue that the decentralization initially touted by Bitcoin has not fully come to fruition. Indeed there seem to be significant forces pushing towards concentration despite Bitcoin's design, calling into question the benefits that Bitcoin can offer compared to existing payment mechanisms and other stores of value. Key concepts include: The key innovation in Bitcoin is its decentralized core technologies. In particular, Bitcoin relies on network consensus rather than central authorities both for verifying transactions and for minting new currency. While it originally appeared that Bitcoin's decentralization made it unregulable, there now seems to be ample possibility of regulatory oversight, as well as circumstances in which such intervention could be useful. Bitcoin receives regulatory scrutiny for three classes of criminal concerns: Bitcoin-specific crime, money laundering, and Bitcoin-facilitated crime. The Bitcoin platform faces systemic operational risks through potential vulnerabilities in the protocol design or breakthroughs in cryptanalysis. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 16 Sep 2014
- Research & Ideas
Has Apple Reinvented the Watch?
Will the Apple Watch reinvent wearables the way the iPhone did smartphones? Ryan Raffaelli shares his insights. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 31 Jul 2014
- Research & Ideas
A Scholarly Crowd Explores Crowdsourcing
At the Open and User Innovation Workshop, several hundred researchers discussed their work on innovation contests, user-led product improvements, and the biases of crowds. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 16 Jun 2014
- Research & Ideas
The Unfulfilled Promise of Educational Technology
With 50 million public school students in America, technology holds much potential to transform schools, says John Jong-Hyun Kim. So why isn't it happening? Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 02 Jun 2014
- Research & Ideas
Secrets to a Successful Social Media Strategy
Misiek Piskorski explores the secrets of successful social media tactics in his new book, A Social Strategy: How We Profit From Social Media. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 09 Apr 2014
- Working Paper Summaries
Visualizing and Measuring Software Portfolio Architectures: A Flexibility Analysis
Contemporary business environments are constantly evolving, requiring continual changes to the software applications that support a business. Moreover, during recent decades, the sheer number of applications has grown significantly, and they have become increasingly interdependent. Many companies find that managing applications and implementing changes to their application portfolio architecture is increasingly difficult and expensive. Firms need a way to visualize and analyze the modularity of their software portfolio architectures and the degree of coupling between components. In this paper, the authors test a method for visualizing and measuring software portfolio architectures using data of a biopharmaceutical firm's enterprise architecture. The authors also use the measures to predict the costs of architectural change. Findings show, first, that the biopharmaceutical firm's enterprise architecture can be classified as core-periphery. This means that 1) there is one cyclic group (the "Core") of components that is substantially larger than the second largest cyclic group, and 2) this group comprises a substantial portion of the entire architecture. In addition, the classification of applications in the architecture (as being in the Core or the Periphery) is significantly correlated with architectural flexibility. In this case the architecture has a propagation cost of 23 percent, meaning almost one-quarter of the system may be affected when a change is made to a randomly selected component. Overall, results suggest that the hidden structure method can reveal new facts about an enterprise architecture. This method can aid the analysis of change costs at the software application portfolio level. Key concepts include: This method for architectural visualization could provide valuable input when planning architectural change projects (in terms of, for example, risk analysis and resource planning). The method reveals a "hidden" core-periphery structure, uncovering new facts about the architecture that could not be gained from other visualization procedures or standard metrics. Compared to other measures of complexity, coupling, and modularity, this method considers not only the direct dependencies between components but also the indirect dependencies. These indirect dependencies provide important input for management decisions. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 05 Mar 2014
- What Do You Think?
When Will the Next Dot.com Bubble Burst?
Summing Up: Is that the sound of a dot.com bubble bursting? Could be, but is that a bad thing?, ask Jim Heskett's readers. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 24 Feb 2014
- Research & Ideas
Uncovering Racial Discrimination in the ‘Sharing Economy’
New research by Benjamin G. Edelman and Michael Luca shows how online marketplaces like Airbnb inadvertently fuel racial discrimination. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
Can Applied Economics Save Homeless Puppies?
At a startup she co-founded while pursuing a doctorate in economics, Christine L. Exley is rescuing dogs with principles of market design. Open for comment; 0 Comments.