Your Social Network: Who Has the Best Information?

Why strong ties matter more in a fast-changing environment

New Q&A: Van Alstyne on strong vs. weak ties

Image courtesy of Flickr user Loving Earth.

It has become accepted wisdom that weak ties — your acquaintances, distant colleagues — can provide more novel information than close ties. But new research by Marshall Van Alstyne, associate professor at Boston University and a visiting professor at MIT, suggests that in some cases strong ties are better.

In a new interview with MIT Sloan Management Review, Van Alstyne explains how some of his new research challenges the existing theory about the value of strong ties versus weak ties. Also, why we should beware of “interrupt-driven communication.” Read the interview »

Collaborating with customer communities: Lessons from the Lego Group

Adult Lego fans have uploaded more than 300,000 of their own Lego creations onto MOCpages.com (one of the many Lego fan sites), posted more than 4.5 million photos, drawings and instructions online and shared thousands of Lego-inspired movies on YouTube. By tapping into the knowledge and enthusiasm of these users of its products, Lego has been able to enhance its product offerings — without increasing long-term fixed costs. Read the article »

Size matters in social business adoption

In the recent survey on social business that MIT Sloan Management Review conducted in collaboration with Deloitte, respondents were asked how important social business was to their business. When we looked at which companies answered “important” it became clear that size matters. Read more »

The decline of the HPPO (Highest Paid Person’s Opinion)

The next wave of Enterprise 2.0, says MIT Sloan’s Andrew McAfee, will center around the concept of harvesting expertise, solutions and knowledge — not just from within the organization, but from anywhere that expertise can be identified and gathered. Read more »