Technology & Operations Management
-
- Summer 2024
- Article
The Business Revolution: Economy-Wide Impacts of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Platforms
By: Hanna Halaburda, Jeffrey Prince, D. Daniel Sokol and Feng ZhuIn this essay, we identify several themes of the digital business transformation, with a particular focus on the economy-wide impacts of artificial intelligence and digital platforms. In doing so, we highlight specific industries, beyond just the high-profile “Big Tech” firms, where the digital business revolution is having, or promises to have, significant impact. The papers in this special issue (flagged with bold font below) provide a deeper analysis of the themes and applications we touch on here.
- Summer 2024
- Article
The Business Revolution: Economy-Wide Impacts of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Platforms
By: Hanna Halaburda, Jeffrey Prince, D. Daniel Sokol and Feng ZhuIn this essay, we identify several themes of the digital business transformation, with a particular focus on the economy-wide impacts of artificial intelligence and digital platforms. In doing so, we highlight specific industries, beyond just the high-profile “Big Tech” firms, where the digital business revolution is having, or promises to have,...
-
- May 2024 (Revised May 2024)
- Case
Market by Met Council: Revolutionizing Food Pantries in the Digital Age
By: Elisabeth Paulson and Michael W. ToffelIn fall 2023, the Food Program of Met Council—America’s largest Jewish charity dedicated to fighting poverty—completed the rollout of the newest version of its digital pantry platform to twelve food pantries in the Met Council food pantry network. The digital initiative coincided with a shift from food pantries’ traditional “pre-packed” model—in which pantry staff and volunteers pre-packed standardized bags of foods and handed them out to long lines of waiting clients (the standard model in the US)—to a “client choice” model, where clients could choose their own food items. Over half of the pantries in Met Council’s network were undergoing the transition to client choice. For most of these pantries, the client choice model was initially implemented as an in-person shopping experience, similar to a small-scale grocery store. For the digital pantries, though, clients would be able to see available items and place orders online, similar to an online grocery shopping experience. Met Council viewed the digital initiative as the next step towards increasing the dignity of the pantry experience and incentivizing healthy food choices. This case discusses the evolution of the digital pantry; specifically, the pros and cons of each pantry model from an operational efficiency perspective, how operational levers can influence consumers’ purchasing decisions, fairness in resource allocation problems, and “push” versus “pull” inventory distribution models.
- May 2024 (Revised May 2024)
- Case
Market by Met Council: Revolutionizing Food Pantries in the Digital Age
By: Elisabeth Paulson and Michael W. ToffelIn fall 2023, the Food Program of Met Council—America’s largest Jewish charity dedicated to fighting poverty—completed the rollout of the newest version of its digital pantry platform to twelve food pantries in the Met Council food pantry network. The digital initiative coincided with a shift from food pantries’ traditional “pre-packed” model—in...
-
- May 2024
- Article
Tepid Uptake of Digital Health Technologies in Clinical Trials by Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Firms
By: Caroline Marra and Ariel D. SternDigital health technologies (DHTs) can enable more patient-centric therapeutic development by generating evidence that captures how patients feel and function, enabling decentralized trial designs that increase participant inclusivity and convenience, and collecting and structuring patient-generated data for regulators to use in approval decisions alongside traditional clinical outcomes. Although a growing body of evidence has documented increasing use of DHTs in clinical trials overall, the use of DHTs in clinical trials supporting medical product development is unclear; here, we quantify the use of DHTs in clinical trials sponsored by pharmaceutical and medical device firms. Despite interest from pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers in DHTs, we find tepid uptake of DHTs in trials by these sponsor types over time. Further, to date, these sponsors have most frequently used conventional, hardware-based technologies that have been available for many years (e.g., Holter monitors and glucose meters) rather than newer activity monitors, mobile apps, and other online-based tools that are frequently used by non-industry sponsors. Considering the recent and evolving nature of regulatory guidance around DHT use in clinical trials, our findings suggest that organizations pursuing product development still appear hesitant to incorporate DHTs in trials that provide the most critical evidence for regulatory review and impact how new products are used. This suggests there are likely additional opportunities for sponsors of regulated trials to incorporate (more) DHTs and patient-centric endpoints into product development clinical trials. However, additional regulatory clarity and efforts to reduce operational barriers may be needed in order to more fully capture these opportunities.
- May 2024
- Article
Tepid Uptake of Digital Health Technologies in Clinical Trials by Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Firms
By: Caroline Marra and Ariel D. SternDigital health technologies (DHTs) can enable more patient-centric therapeutic development by generating evidence that captures how patients feel and function, enabling decentralized trial designs that increase participant inclusivity and convenience, and collecting and structuring patient-generated data for regulators to use in approval decisions...
About the Unit
As the world of operations has changed, so have interests and priorities within the Unit. Historically, the TOM Unit focused on manufacturing and the development of physical products. Over the past several years, we have expanded our research, course development, and course offerings to encompass new issues in information technology, supply chains, and service industries.
The field of TOM is concerned with the design, management, and improvement of operating systems and processes. As we seek to understand the challenges confronting firms competing in today's demanding environment, the focus of our work has broadened to include the multiple activities comprising a firm's "operating core":
- the multi-function, multi-firm system that includes basic research, design, engineering, product and process development and production of goods and services within individual operating units;
- the networks of information and material flows that tie operating units together and the systems that support these networks;
- the distribution and delivery of goods and services to customers.
Recent Publications
The Business Revolution: Economy-Wide Impacts of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Platforms
- Summer 2024 |
- Article |
- Journal of Economics & Management Strategy
Market by Met Council: Revolutionizing Food Pantries in the Digital Age
- May 2024 (Revised May 2024) |
- Case |
- Faculty Research
Tepid Uptake of Digital Health Technologies in Clinical Trials by Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Firms
- May 2024 |
- Article |
- Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics
Sixty Years of Sylvia’s
- April 2024 |
- Teaching Plan |
- Faculty Research
Driving Decarbonization at BMW
- April 2024 |
- Supplement |
- Faculty Research
Human-Computer Interactions in Demand Forecasting and Labor Scheduling Decisions
- 2024 |
- Working Paper |
- Faculty Research
New Belgium Brewing and Climate Change
- April 2024 |
- Case |
- Faculty Research
Retailers and Health Systems Can Improve Care Together
- March–April 2024 |
- Article |
- Harvard Business Review