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Taking a one-size-fits-all approach to crowdsourcing - in which crowds without directly relevant knowledge are asked to address problems they're poorly suited to solve - is the cause of many crowdsourcing failures. Research suggests that three distinct types of crowdsourcing can be used to solve problems of differing scope and complexity and generate opportunities for innovation.

In 2019, World Bank analyst Abebi Eke had a difficult assignment: decide whether to recommend that the World Bank, in line with its commitment to expanding financial inclusion to the world's poor, lend its support to a particular digital payments scheme. Eke was asked to investigate two of the most promising payment systems-UPI in India and M-Pesa in Kenya-and prepare a memo comparing the benefits and drawbacks of each. Eke had discovered that while successful digital payment systems often shared some aspects of their operating business models, their agent networks and even their marketing campaigns, their regulatory and corporate structures could be quite dissimilar. She also learned that digital payment services had flourished in some countries, both developed and developing, but not in others. Why? The World Bank's own research revealed that of the five countries that most successfully implemented mobile money-a form of digital payments-one was a low-income economy, one a lower-middle-income economy, and three were considered upper-middle-income economies, demonstrating there was no one route to achieving financial inclusion. To write her memo, Eke needed to deeply understand the drivers of and barriers to success in digital payments. The case presents students with a rich understanding of both digital payment systems, allowing students to compare and contrast them while assessing each one's likely success in another country. Case number 2173.0

A decade ago, we published an article in Business Horizons about the challenges and opportunities of social media with a call to action: "Users of the world, unite!" To celebrate its anniversary, we look at artificial intelligence and the need to create the rules necessary for peaceful coexistence between humanity and AI. Hence, we now are urging: "Rulers of the world, unite!" In this article, we outline six debates surrounding AI in areas like artificial superintelligence, geographical progress, and robotics; in doing so, we shed light on what is fact and what is Utopia. Then, using the PESTEL framework, we talk about the six dilemmas of AI and its potential threat and use. Finally, we provide six directions on the future of AI regarding its requirements and expectations, looking at enforcement, employment, ethics, education, entente, and evolution. Understanding AI's potential future will enable governments, corporations, and societies at large (i.e., the rulers of this world) to prepare for its challenges and opportunities. Then, we can avoid a scenario in which we return in 10 years to write the article: "Dreamers of the world, unite!"

This research examines current applications and potential capabilities of a wide array of social media applications such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and others within the context of B2B supply chain operations. Specifically, we use social media affordances (SMA) as a framework to explore how social media is used in B2B supply chain settings. We report finding based on a survey of 209 professionals in supply chain areas. These findings include the extent to which social media and different social media tools are used in B2B supply chain operations, the impact of company size on social media use, the areas in which social media is used, the perceptions of social media, and other relevant issues such as social media policy and security. Based on these findings, this study provides a discussion regarding the current and future use of social media in B2B supply chain operations.

GoDaddy had long been known for polarizing television commercials that were focused on generating attention and buzz-CNBC called its brand "synonymous with controversial advertisements with scantily clad women." But the company decided that the ads did not appropriately reflect its internal culture and in 2013 undertook a transformation intended to shift its external brand to reflect its actual culture and to champion its diverse customers. In the process, GoDaddy partnered with the VMware Women's Leadership Innovation Lab at Stanford University and set out to make their company a top workplace for women in technology. Among the key issues it worked to address were the calibration, or talent review, sessions at which the performance of GoDaddy employees was discussed; performance ratings that resulted from these meetings impacted career trajectory, promotion, equity, and salaries. GoDaddy decided to pursue the "Holy Grail:" helping with career advancement through equal access to top performance marks.

Supplement for Case SM318A

Supplement for Case SM318A

In 2017, the chief information officer (CIO) of Midwest Health System (Midwest), a major health care provider in a central town in the United States, noticed that incorrect billing, data theft, waste, fraud, and abuse in the health care industry had increased over the years. Compliance requirements related to various rules and regulations had also posed increasing challenges. The CIO wanted to meet with his colleagues in the information systems and audit groups to review risks related to information technology and the billing and collection process-the most critical process in terms of its impact on Midwest's operations and financial statements. His plan was to modify and strengthen existing controls and to institute new ones to mitigate the significant risks identified. The CIO believed that better controls would enable Midwest to improve patient satisfaction and reduce loss of revenues due to incorrect billing, fraud, and other factors by ensuring better security processes while complying with various rules and regulations.

Many of the changes seemed to occur at the confluence of three major trends that characterized the industry; namely, (1) the advent of extremely cheap computing power and ubiquitous connectivity; (2) the increasing impact of customer centricity, and (3) the rising influence of wide-ranging new technology tools such as predictive data analytics, artificial intelligence, and neural networks that promised to reduce operating costs while at the same time making a quantum leap in product design and customization. Loosely referred to as the 4thIR (4th Industrial Revolution), these technologies were a small subset of fundamental shifts that were reshaping the industrial world. The financial services industry in the United States was dominated by a handful of very large players who dominated both the active management as well as the passive fund management sides of the business. Most of the industry revenues originated from the fee income for investment advisory services and active fund management services that the companies provided through its legions of financial advisors and branch networks that spread across the country. Black Rock, Vanguard, State Street, JP Morgan, and Fidelity managed approximately $23 trillion. However, life at the top was far from secure. The advent of distributed payment systems, new investment opportunities and approaches such as blockchain-powered Bitcoin and Ethereum, along with the rise of chat bots and digitally enabled user-friendly advisory interfaces, threatened to upset the balance in this once staid industry. The case discusses attempts by Fidelity Investments to navigate the changing landscape through the establishment of Fidelity Labs, an in-house innovation engine that was chartered to experiment, validate, and develop new technological solutions that would allow Fidelity to retain its edge in the changing world of financial services.

In May 2019 Memphis-based pharmacist and social entrepreneur Phil Baker hopes coding will start soon on blockchain software and related applications that will enable efficient and secure collection of usable drugs from individual donors and redistribution to needy authorized patients. To reach this point, he founded the subscription-based Good Shepherd charitable pharmacy, which bypasses pharmacy industry middlemen to sell medications at low prices, and distribute free donated drugs. Next, he successfully lobbied for passage of a Tennessee law that allows medications to be donated by individuals from anywhere in the US, to be redispensed to Tennessee patients, prioritized by need. After forming RemediChain LLC, recruiting a software development team, conducting some pilot tests to verify how to attract willing donors and needy patients, and launching the design phase for the blockchain system architecture, he formed a small consortium of pharmacy schools and other health-care organizations, in anticipation of further pilot-testing. Now, he wants to identify and plan how to mitigate foreseeable blockchain system project challenges before the system architecture and key elements are designed and software development begins. Since his two organizations (RemediChain LLC and Good Shepherd Pharmacy) are under financial pressure, and he wants to move forward quickly on building a scalable solution.

Today markets are being reshaped by a new kind of firm--one in which artificial intelligence runs the show. This cohort includes giants like Google, Facebook, and Alibaba, and growing businesses such as Wayfair and Ocado. Every time we use their services, the same thing happens: Rather than relying on processes run by employees, the value we get is delivered by algorithms. Software is at the core of the enterprise, and humans are moved off to the side. This model frees firms from traditional operating constraints and enables them to compete in unprecedented ways. AI-driven processes can be scaled up incredibly quickly, allow for greater scope because they can be connected to many kinds of businesses, and offer very powerful opportunities for learning and improvement. And while the value of scale eventually begins to level off in traditional models, in AI-based ones, it never stops climbing. All of that allows AI-driven firms to quickly overtake traditional ones. As AI models blur the lines between industries, strategies are relying less on specialized expertise and differentiation based on cost, quality, and branding, and more on business network position, unique data, and the deployment of sophisticated analytics.

In 2016, the Volkswagen Group (VW Group) announced a new future program, Together-Strategy 2025, which outlined the company's ambition of becoming "a world-leading provider of sustainable mobility" by 2025. The VW Group made it clear that innovation and technology would be essential enablers to the success of the new strategy. In 2018, VW Group, like other players in the automotive industry, was increasingly drawn to artificial intelligence (AI), which could be used in areas including manufacturing, autonomous vehicles, and data analytics.

This case recounts the implementation of a customer relationship management (CRM) system in what is considered a non-traditional use case for this category of enterprise system. In the early 2010s, HEC Montréal, a leading Canadian business school in Montreal, Quebec, had to devise new strategies to respond to profound changes taking place in the labour market as well as within the higher education sector. To that end, the school embarked on a project to implement a CRM system to build and maintain strong bonds with its prospective, current, and past students. This three-part case study covers (1) the inception of the CRM project as one of strategic relevance to HEC Montréal, (2) the decisions that had to be made with regard to the implementation strategy - namely whether to adopt a plan-driven or an agile approach and whether to deploy the CRM on-premises or through a software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider - and (3) the unfolding of the first phases of the implementation.

This case recounts the implementation of a customer relationship management (CRM) system in what is considered a non-traditional use case for this category of enterprise system. In the early 2010s, HEC Montréal, a leading Canadian business school in Montreal, Quebec, had to devise new strategies to respond to profound changes taking place in the labour market as well as within the higher education sector. To that end, the school embarked on a project to implement a CRM system to build and maintain strong bonds with its prospective, current, and past students. This three-part case study covers (1) the inception of the CRM project as one of strategic relevance to HEC Montréal, (2) the decisions that had to be made with regard to the implementation strategy - namely whether to adopt a plan-driven or an agile approach and whether to deploy the CRM on-premises or through a software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider - and (3) the unfolding of the first phases of the implementation.

This case recounts the implementation of a customer relationship management (CRM) system in what is considered a non-traditional use case for this category of enterprise system. In the early 2010s, HEC Montréal, a leading Canadian business school in Montreal, Quebec, had to devise new strategies to respond to profound changes taking place in the labour market as well as within the higher education sector. To that end, the school embarked on a project to implement a CRM system to build and maintain strong bonds with its prospective, current, and past students. This three-part case study covers (1) the inception of the CRM project as one of strategic relevance to HEC Montréal, (2) the decisions that had to be made with regard to the implementation strategy - namely whether to adopt a plan-driven or an agile approach and whether to deploy the CRM on-premises or through a software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider - and (3) the unfolding of the first phases of the implementation.

Beyond Wireless (BW) is an IoT remote temperature monitoring equipment and services company headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa. At the time of writing the case, Ian Lester, BW's CEO, is exploring approaches to growing the organization. The case demonstrates the strategic, operational, cultural, and technological challenges with scaling IoT businesses, particularly in low and middle-income countries. The case specifically examines: 1. The benefits and challenges of leveraging existing technology infrastructure to grow a business beyond a single offering 2. The expansion of IoT services to multiple industry verticals 3. The design of digital platforms to achieve demand-side economies of scale The case asks students to suggest strategies for growing BW considering the state of the company and its technologies, competitive challenges, and opportunities to transforming its business model and serving new market segments.

With digital technologies shaping competition in many industries, predicting the future of potentially disruptive technologies becomes an essential task of business leaders concerned with the survival and success of their organizations. Looking into the future of disruptive technologies requires a philosophical stance and a practical method that accommodates the inherent uncertainty and nonlinearity of the path of disruptive innovations. Unfortunately, much of the current thinking in relation to adoption and diffusion of innovations is rather linear and deterministic. This article proposes a set of philosophical principles, together with a practical brainstorming method, for glimpsing into the future of disruptive technologies. The method of alternative histories is based on the traditional brainstorming techniques and the philosophical ideas of Imre Lakatos, Roy Bhaskar, Bruno Latour, and Nassim Taleb.

With the rapid development of digital technologies, many supply chain professionals are wondering how to move forward. Three technologies are poised to change supply chain business processes: robotic process automation (RPA), artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and blockchain. Based on interviews with supply chain professionals in 14 large, mature manufacturing and service organizations, we outline the promise of each process and forecast their broad-scale adoption potential. Organizations should take the following measures to ensure their readiness to adopt and effectively use one or more of these technologies: (1) identify a supply chain technology visionary who can lead through the maze of technologies and the changing digital landscape, (2) develop a digital technology roadmap for their supply chain processes, and (3) update foundational information systems.

Due to its intrinsic characteristics, artificial intelligence (AI) can be considered a general-purpose technology (GPT) in the digital era. Most studies in the field focus on the ex-post recognition and classification of GPT but in this article, we look at a GPT design ex-ante by reviewing the extreme and inspiring example of IBM's Watson. Our objective is to shed light on how companies can create value through AI. In particular, our longitudinal case study highlights the strategic decisions IBM took to create value in two dimensions: internal development and external collaborations. We offer relevant implications for practitioners and academics eager to know more about AI in the digital world.