Head: Prof. Erik Brynjolfsson, Sloan School of Management

Associated Faculty and Staff:
Prof. Sinan Aral, MIT Sloan School and NYU Stern School of Management
Prof. Benjamin Grosof, MIT Sloan School, Information Technology Group
Prof. S. P. Kothari, MIT Sloan School, Economics, Finance and Accounting Group
Prof. Thomas Malone, MIT Sloan School, Information Technology Group
Prof. David McAdams, MIT Sloan School, Economics, Finance and Accounting Group
Prof. Wanda Orlikowski, MIT Sloan School, Information Technology Group
Prof. Marshall Van Alstyne, MIT Sloan School and Boston University School of Management
Dr. Peter Weill, MIT Sloan School, Information Technology Group
Prof. JoAnne Yates, MIT Sloan School, Behavioral Policy Science Group

Description:
The projects in this Group are focused on understanding how business processes, organizational structures and corporate culture can be reshaped using information and communication technologies to measurably increase business performance.  Faculty have expertise in economics, computer science, information systems, organizational studies, strategy, accounting, finance, and coordination science.  BT, Cisco, CSK, Fleet, France Telecom, Intel, Liberty Mutual, PWC, and SAP have provided financial support for this research.  In addition, over a million dollars in funding has been provided by the National Science Foundation.   

Ongoing projects include:

• Understanding the drivers of productivity for "information work", including the work of managers, professionals, researchers and others whose work primarily involves receiving, processing and communicating information.
• Analysis of information diffusion in communications networks and the relationship to individual worker performance
• Determining the causality between IT and Productivity using detailed data on ERM, SCM and CRM purchases and installations. 
• Measurement of how the diversity of one person's information flows affects individual productivity and the factors that influence who sees news first.
• A statistical analysis of the business practices and "Internet culture" that have been adopted by several hundred businesses with varying levels of productivity.
• A study of the intangible costs and benefits of IT projects, including investments in human and organizational capital.
• The reaction of the stock market to various types of informational and investment disclosures, and a comparison to several financial and non-financial performance measures over time.
• The development of the eBusiness "Process Handbook" that documents several thousand IT-enabled business models, processes and technologies.
• The development and field use of the "Matrix of Change", a tool for business process redesign.
• Case studies of alternative change management strategies, focused on improvisational change.
• The development of knowledge-based techniques for contracting and finance ("Semantic Web Services").