Fall 2021 Issue

David De Cremer and Yan Pang illuminate both the limitations and the potential of blockchain technology as the new currency of trust in organizational life. They have found that building trust within organizations requires leaving room for vulnerability, which makes blockchain unsuitable. For building trust between organizations, however, blockchain technology shows more promise because it acts as a regulatory middleman.

 Sunil Chopra describes how looking at combinations of product and channel through the lens of return on invested capital (ROIC) allows retailers to design omni-channel portfolios that align their products, service offerings, and pricing. By using each channel to improve invested capital turns or broaden profit margin, these portfolios increase the company’s value. 

A promising new business model for the employee health plans of large firms bypasses insurers and instead uses direct contracts with hospitals which have been designated as centers of excellence. Wallace Hopp, Jun Li, Soroush Saghafian, and Guihua Wang describe how combining this model with cutting edge analytics could revolutionize the delivery of high quality, cost-efficient health care.

Employee Health Plans Powered by Analytics Wallace Hopp | Ross School of Business, University of Michigan Jun Li | Ross School of Business, University of Michigan Soroush...

Many executives believe that, in digital transformation, they must pursue either revenue growth or cost reduction, but not both. Sunil Mithas and Roland Rustexplain how companies can invest in information technology to pursue both goals

To advance the world’s progress toward a net zero carbon economy, Patrick Bolton, Stefan Reichelstein, Marcin Kacperczyk, Christian Leuz, Gaizka Ormazabal, and Dirk Schoenmaker recommend that governments impose a mandate on corporations requiring them to report their annual direct carbon emissions.

 Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming the world we know. Suresh Sethi describes the fascinating career of Herbert A. Simon, a father of artificial intelligence, renaissance man, and true polymath who made pioneering contributions to fields ranging from economics to psychology and from management to the philosophy of science.

Digital technologies are changing the structure of information intensive services through a process of industrialization. The effects are specific to each service category including transactional, functional, content-based, and knowledge-based services. Consumer consumption behavior and physical services are also affected. Uday Karmarkar argues that managers must analyze the changes to their particular industry and revamp their strategies, core processes, and supporting systems accordingly.

In a remarkable five-year journey, Bank Leumi USA completed a major transformation with a range of dramatic effects. Through a close examination of the Leumi case, Karen Ayas illustrates an approach designed to increase the odds of success in transformation and offers practical guidance to those embarking on similar journeys.

Lennart Baardman, Maxime Cohen, Kiran Panchamgam, and Georgia Perakis present a detailed case study of how business analytics, prediction models, and optimization methods can be used to improve promotion planning. They describe the entire process, from collecting data to computing promotion recommendations for retailers.