The growth of the Internet and the continuing dramatic decline in the cost of computer processing power are having a profound impact on the way business is conducted all across the world.  In 1999 the MIT Sloan School of Management recognized this powerful combination and, along with our closest corporate partners, created the MIT Center for Digital Business.  We feel today, as we did in 1999, that the MIT Sloan School has a unique and complementary set of skills to understand the developing Internet economy.  We are a top business school with an emphasis on technology.  Our teaching pedagogy is based on applied research.  We have world-renowned partner organizations across the MIT campus (including the World Wide Web Consortium, Media Lab, Computers Science and AI Lab, Communication Futures Program, and the AutoID Center).  Lastly, our close relationship with industry leaders makes for a powerful combination of unique abilities to benefit our sponsors, students and faculty.

Like other major technologies before it – electricity, the internal combustion engine – the full impact of the Internet and related technologies will take decades to reach its full potential.  Our goal, in part, is to reduce that timeline through basic and applied research in collaboration with industry, and guided by the MIT Sloan School credo of combining “rigor and relevance”.

The early period of speculative exploration and experimentation on the Internet has come to an end.  There is now the opportunity, and the necessity, to focus more explicitly on using digital technologies to deliver measurable business value through cost savings and increased worker productivity.  Amidst all this change, the business fundamentals of investment, revenues, expenses, profits, and satisfying customers have only grown even more important.  While the Internet has been an important catalyst, other new digital technologies have become just as relevant toward the potential to create business value.  Accordingly, while the Center for Digital Business has evolved its agenda to focus explicitly on research that can help create business value, it has also at the same time begun closely examining promising new technologies, such as RFID, which go beyond the Internet.

Today, the MIT Center for Digital Business is well established.  We are the largest research center in the history of the Sloan School of Management, and the largest in the world.  We have worked with more than 40 corporate sponsors.  We have funded more than 45 faculty and performed more than 60 research projects.  The results of our first three years are having an important impact on our sponsors, our faculty and our students.  And, we are not slowing down for the next three-year phase of the Center.

The goal of the MIT Center for Digital Business during our second three years (Phase II) is to bring together global companies, leading researchers, and some of the best students in the world, to innovate, invent, and understand the business value that can be created by the productive use of digital technologies through a dynamic interchange of ideas, analysis, and reflection.

In Phase II, our collaborative activities will be focused on four key initiatives:
Faculty-led, sponsor-focused applied research

1. Sponsor-proposed graduate student projects and internships
2. A mix of web-based and in-person interactive meetings and seminars among sponsors, faculty, and graduate students, supplemented by regular reports of projects and developments from the Center.
3. The creation of “special interest groups” (SIGs), which will coordinate research projects, and facilitate interaction among sponsors and faculty who have related interests.  These SIGs include:  “Digital Productivity”, “Digital Marketing”, “Digital Services”, and “Digital Health”.
4. We cannot claim to know all there is to know about digital business, but in these special interests groups, we have truly exceptional knowledge and abilities that enables extremely relevant research and results.

Sponsorship Overview

The MIT Center for Digital Business invites selected new sponsors to join in the second three years of activities. 

There are three levels of sponsorship:

• Founding Sponsors.  Founding Sponsors are allowed the highest level of interaction and collaboration with MIT faculty and students as well as with other industry leading companies.  In association with MIT Faculty, they will help co-design a large sponsor-focused research project, hold a seat on the Center’s Executive Board, and have complimentary participation in all Center events, both physical and web-based.  Founding Sponsors invest $300,000 per year and make a three-year commitment to fund research.  They may contribute additional funding to enable more research and participate in our Visiting Scholar Program*. 

• Research Sponsors.  Research Sponsors have substantial interaction with MIT faculty and other sponsors.  They will have a moderate-sized, sponsor-focused research project and have reserved seating in all Center events both physical and web-based.  Research Sponsors contribute $150,000 per year and make a three-year commitment. 

• Member Sponsors.  Member Sponsors will be firms who wish to remain informed of the Center’s research results and participate in events.  Typically, Member Sponsors maintain this level of support for one year, with the intention of graduating to more senior sponsorship levels for subsequent years.  They will interact with faculty, students, and other sponsors at many Center events, both physical and web-based.  Member Sponsors contribute $50,000 per year.  Renewal at this level is on an annual basis.

Contact
If you are interested in learning more about the Center for Digital Business and its research, please contact us at any time via email or phone.

David Verrill – Executive Director (T: 617-452-3216, E: dverrill@mit.edu)
Erik Brynjolfsson – Director (T: 617-253-4319, E: erikb@mit.edu)
Glen Urban – Chairman (T: 617-253-6615, E: glurban@mit.edu)
Carlene Doucette – Executive Assistant: (T: 617-253-7054, E: carlened@mit.edu)
Tammy Buzzell - Financial Assistant: (T: 617-452-3217, E: tbuzzell@mit.edu)

Benefits to Sponsors of the MIT Center for Digital Business

* With Approval from the Dean                                                                                                      November, 2007