Courses tagged with "Information environments" (172)

The doctoral seminar 15.764 focuses on theoretical work for studying operations planning and control problems. This term's special topic, "Customer-Driven Operations," considers how a number of companies have succeeded in focusing their operation systems on the customer. The class reviews the quantitative models and theoretical tools underlying some of the customer-driven operational practices of these cutting-edge companies. Students will read and present research papers on topics such as distribution systems, short life-cycle product management, and forecast evolution models.

This MIT OpenCourseWare site is dedicated to the memory of Bhuwan Singh, a member of the class.

This seminar will cover the multi-disciplinary theoretical and empirical foundations of research on work, employment, labor markets, and industrial relations. We begin by tracing the historical development of theory and research in the field, paying special attention to how the normative premises, concepts, and methodological traditions of industrial relations compare to those of other disciplines that contribute to the study of work and employment relations. Then we will review a number of current theoretical and policy debates shaping the field. This will be followed by a series of modules introducing different disciplinary perspectives used to study work and employment issues today. Emphasis will be given to recent research from different industries that illustrate the mix of methods—field work, qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis, etc.—we encourage in this field of study.

Diversity begets creativity—in this seminar we tap the amazing power of swarm creativity on the Web by studying and working together as Collaborative Innovation Networks (COINs). As interdisciplinary teams of MIT management, SCAD design, University of Cologne informatics, and Aalto University software engineering students we will explore how to discover latest trends on the Web, and how to make them succeed in online social networks. We study a wide range of methods for predictive analytics (coolhunting) and online social marketing (coolfarming), mostly based on social network analysis and the emerging science of collaboration. Students will also learn to use our own unique MIT-developed Condor tool for Web mining, social network analysis, and trend prediction.

1.040 Project Management focuses on the management and implementation of construction projects, primarily infrastructure projects. A project refers to a temporary piece of work undertaken to create a unique product or service. Whereas operations are continuous and repeating, projects are finite and have an end date. Projects bring form or function to ideas or need. Some notable projects include the Manhattan Project (developing the first nuclear weapon); the Human Genome Project (mapping the human genome); and the Central Artery Project (Boston's "Big Dig"). The field of project management deals with the planning, execution, and controlling of projects.

The course is divided into three parts:

Part 1: project finance
Part 2: project evaluation
Part 3: project organization

This course will cover the basic tools, skills, and knowledge necessary to successfully manage a project through its inception, design, planning, construction, and transition phases. There will be several guest lectures discussing current projects, and a construction site visit to MIT's Media Lab extension.

This half-semester course introduces and surveys a selection of cutting-edge topics in the field of real estate finance and investments. The course follows an informal "seminar" format to the maximum degree possible, with students expected to take considerable initiative. Lectures and discussions led by the instructors will be supplemented by several guest speakers from the real estate investment industry, who will present perspectives on current trends and important developments in the industry.

In analyzing fiscal issues, conventional public finance approaches focus mainly on taxation and public spending. Policymakers and practitioners rarely explore solutions by examining the fundamental problem: the failure of interested parties to act collectively to internalize the positive externalities generated by public goods. Public finance is merely one of many possible institutional arrangements for assigning the rights and responsibilities to public goods consumption. This system is currently under stress because of the financial crisis. The first part of the class will focus on collective action and its connection with local public finance. The second part will explore alternative institutional arrangements for mediating collective action problems associated with the provision of local public goods.

The objective of the seminar is to broaden the discussion of local public finance by incorporating collective action problems into the discourse. This inclusion aims at exploring alternative institutional arrangements for financing local public services in the face of severe economic downturn. Applications of emerging ideas to the provision of public health, education, and natural resource conservation will be discussed.

This course focuses on alternative ways in which the issues of growth, restructuring, innovation, knowledge, learning, and accounting and measurements can be examined, covering both industrialized and emerging countries. We give special emphasis to recent transformations in regional economies throughout the world and to the implications these changes have for the theories and research methods used in spatial economic analyses. Readings will relate mainly to the United States, but we cover pertinent material on foreign countries in lectures.

This course teaches students how to understand the rationality behind how organizations and their programs behave, and to be comfortable and analytical with a live organization. It thereby builds analytic skills for evaluating programs and projects, organizations, and environments. It draws on the literature of the sociology of organizations, political science, public administration, and historical experience-and is based on both developing-country and developed-country experience.

This class surveys developmental entrepreneurship via case examples of both successful and failed businesses and generally grapples with deploying and diffusing products and services through entrepreneurial action. By drawing on live and historical cases, especially from South Asia, Africa, Latin America as well as Eastern Europe, China, and other developing regions, we seek to cover the broad spectrum of challenges and opportunities facing developmental entrepreneurs. Finally, we explore a range of established and emerging business models as well as new business opportunities enabled by developmental technologies developed in MIT labs and beyond.

This course on global integration brings together matters of global markets and institutions, global strategy, organization, and leadership. Global integration, the process by which an organization with units around the world becomes united, will be presented as a link to entrepreneurship and general management. The seminar is offered only to those enrolled in the MIT Sloan Fellows Program and challenges the participants to draw upon their past managerial experiences, especially those affiliated with multinational companies.

1.464 examines the long term effects of information technology on business strategy in the real estate and construction industry. Considerations include: supply chain, allocation of risk, impact on contract obligations and security, trends toward consolidation, and the convergence of information transparency and personal effectiveness. Resources are drawn from the world of dot.com entrepreneurship and "old economy" responses.

This course explores successful approaches to delivering healthcare in challenging settings. We analyze organizations to find why some fall short while others grow in size and contribute to the health of the people they serve, and explore promising business models and social enterprise innovations.