• Data and Analysis

People analytics (the reflexive use of big data within organizations to drive decision making) has the potential to transform the way we manage and lead from altering hiring practices to workload assessment and collaboration. From our 2017 Digital Transformation Summit, Professor Jeff Polzer leads a panel discussion exploring the state of this new field and what it means for managers — and employees — across the board.

• Digital Infrastructure

The internet makes distance less a problem for conducting business, but geography still matters in the digital age. Professor Shane Greenstein explains why.

• Innovation & Disruption

Tim O’Reilly considers the implications for society of an increasingly complex digital ecosystem and highlights the potential of digital transformation to create a better world. O'Reilly envisions a future of work in which humans will increasingly collaborate with machines, software, and algorithms to get things done.

• Managing in the Digital Economy

When Professor Ethan Bernstein used wearable technology to track workers around their open office, he discovered many who were trying to avoid collaboration rather than engage in it. This research throws a wrench in the much-hyped claims that open office plans increase productivity and collaboration.

• Managing in the Digital Economy

It’s a declaration we’ve all heard before: “We need more collaboration! We need to break out of our silos and build integrated, cross-functional teams!” But what if — when it comes to collaboration — there can be too much of a good thing? This is the hypothesis Professor Jeff Polzer set out to test with his research on collaborative overload, that is how the amount of collaboration relates to organizational productivity. Using digital trace data to analyze organizational productivity at scale, Professor Polzer finds some answers that may surprise you.

• Platforms & Crowds

Despite mounting evidence that innovation tools such as crowdsourcing are better, faster, and cheaper, it is still difficult for organizations to embrace this change. Held at HBS, the first annual Crowd Academy brought together researchers and industry experts to further the conversation on crowdsourcing, open innovation, and the future of work.

• Managing in the Digital Economy

Companies that contribute to (and use) open source software can gain a competitive advantage—even though they may be helping their competitors in the short run. The reason? Contributing to crowdsourced “public goods” that benefit other firms or industries can enable companies to gain valuable insights and compete more effectively in the long term. Call it the “Linux effect.”