ITR: Social and Economic Implications of Information Technology: What Is Really Happening?

Massachusetts Institute Of Technology, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

This is the first year funding of a five-year continuing award. The world of business and organizations is entering a period of dramatic and rapid technology-based transformations that many people believe will be as significant as those that characterized the Industrial Revolution. This project will investigate the profound socioeconomic changes likely to be associated with such transformations through conducting empirical research that is broad-based, in-depth, and longitudinal. Using multiple theoretical and methodological approaches, a panel of strategically-selected firms in established as well as entrepreneurial and emergent businesses will be tracked over time. A comprehensive set of systematic and grounded empirical data in these organizations will be collected and analyzed over five years, and will generate deep insights and general theories about what is really happening as organizations use information technology to transform how they work and interact with the market over time.