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The Digital, Data, and Design Institute at Harvard (D^3) aims to supercharge HBS’s research agenda by applying a lab-based model similar to that used by the scientific community for problem solving, which will both complement and expand the ways in which research is conducted at the School. The labs will drive foundational and applied research in six topical areas that address key business and societal challenges of the new digital world.

Faculty members from across Harvard, serving as principal investigators, set the vision for their labs, which focus on a particular issue or set of questions to be explored through experimentation, observation, and analysis. The principal investigators are assisted by doctoral students, postdoctoral fellows, research scientists, data scientists, visiting researchers, and cross-school colleagues, as well as business leaders. The collaborative nature of labs, with their multidisciplinary approach, encourages the pursuit of more ambitious avenues of inquiry into large-scale problems than those that can be addressed by solo researchers. Labs also enable faculty members to be more forward looking in their research and respond more quickly to emerging issues in the business world.

The launch of the Institute in July marked the opening of 12 research labs, three of which are highlighted below. Each has a multiyear agenda, and as labs complete their work, they will have the opportunity for renewal as well as reorganizing into new labs. The research conducted by HBS faculty and their colleagues from Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), and Harvard Medical School (HMS) will generate a range of output that will influence academia and practice. The labs will also help establish Harvard as a center for groundbreaking research on digital-, data-, and design-related topics.

—Edited by Jennifer Gillespie

The rapid advancement of the crypto sector has sometimes been compared to the early days of the internet. As the internet sprints toward a Web3 future (Web 3.0, the next iteration of the World Wide Web) that will enable users to actively participate in and reap the benefits of creating online content, crypto and fintech are likely to play an even bigger role.

Shai Bernstein and Marco Di Maggio (both HBS), working with Scott Duke Kominers (HBS) and David Parkes (SEAS), will focus on a range of topics related to blockchain, digital currencies, and fintech. They include a look at token systems, the influence of cryptography tools and big data on financial services, the deployment of different forms of capital into Web3 startups, and the ways in which blockchain technology will disrupt businesses. Additionally, the researchers will examine regulatory frameworks in this space, as well as opportunities to use new technologies for enhancing financial inclusion.

By working with communities of crypto business practitioners, the researchers aim to help shape the way this industry evolves, inform regulators, and improve the efficiency of these financial products by unleashing their vast potential. Research output will include papers in economics, finance, and computer science, and new case studies, data, and white papers.

As companies think about preparing their workforce for the digital age, Raffaella Sadun and Jorge Tamayo (both HBS) will examine how firms are focusing on retraining (upskilling/reskilling) initiatives aimed at either equipping “at-risk” workers with skills relevant to new digital technologies, or helping them leverage existing skills across different occupations enabled by these technologies.

Their lab will identify current major retraining initiatives within firms to understand content and purpose, how these initiatives differ across firms, and how effective they have been in terms of their impact on productivity, profits, and other areas. The researchers will draw from existing research conducted by HBS faculty and others and will expand on it by recruiting organizations interested in participating in rigorous testing of the feasibility, scalability, and effectiveness of different approaches.

The research output of the lab will be valuable to organizations interested in approaching their digital transformation efforts in an effective and equitable way. The lab’s findings will be especially relevant to large, digital-immigrant organizations and to younger organizations aiming to develop retraining services in the private and public sectors.

At the Trustworthy AI Lab, HBS and other Harvard faculty will collaboratively examine aspects of artificial intelligence (AI) that have an impact on business and society at large. Their research output will include case studies, scholarly publications, and new tools and methods that can be put into practice by various organizations.

Himabindu Lakkaraju and Marco Iansiti (both HBS) will focus on the theory and practice of responsible AI for facilitating data-driven decision-making in organizations. They will explore how people use AI tools and machine learning (ML) models in their day-to-day workflows. In addition, they will focus on improving the interpretability, fairness, and adversarial robustness of AI and ML models, i.e., how these models can be made more understandable to humans, and how they can be made more accurate, equitable to minority groups, and resistant to adversarial manipulations.

Seth Neel (HBS) and Salil Vadhan (SEAS) will focus on the development of privacy-preserving algorithms, with a particular emphasis on ML systems. These algorithms help safeguard personal data while extracting valuable insights across domains like statistical genetics, personalized medicine, criminal justice, and financial services—areas where decisions made by algorithms have a critical impact on the lives of individuals, who also have a legal or moral right to privacy. They will explore as well the connections between privacy and other areas of responsible AI, such as fairness and interpretability.

Research Labs	Topical Focus	Principal Investigators
Blackbox Lab	How do we ensure that Black entrepreneurs and creative professionals leverage digital technologies and platforms to transform and grow their businesses?	HBS: James Riley, Assistant Professor of Business Administration Advisor: James Cash, James E. Robison Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus at HBS
Climate and Sustainability Impact Lab	How can we help companies better use data, metrics, and AI/ML tools to decarbonize and build resilience to address the climate crisis?	HBS: George Serafeim, Charles M. Williams Professor of Business Administration Michael Toffel, Senator John Heinz Professor of Environmental Management Peter Tufano, Baker Foundation Professor
Crypto, Fintech, and Web3 Lab	How will crypto shape the future of finance and platform design?	HBS: Shai Bernstein, Marvin Bower Associate Professor Marco Di Maggio, Ogunlesi Family Associate Professor of Business Administration Scott Duke Kominers, Professor of Business Administration SEAS: David Parkes, George F. Colony Professor of Computer Science
Customer Data Lab	How can we create value (for customers, organizations, or society) by leveraging customer data fairly and transparently?	HBS: Ayelet Israeli, Marvin Bower Associate Professor Eva Ascarza, Jakurski Family Associate Professor of Business Administration
Digital Emotions Lab	How can we capture, predict and change emotions using digital methods?	HBS: Amit Goldenberg, Assistant Professor of Business Administration
Digital Reskilling Lab	How do we ensure that workers and citizens are not left behind by digital transition?	HBS: Raffaella Sadun, Charles Edward Wilson Professor of Business Administration Jorge Tamayo, Assistant Professor of Business Administration
Digital Value Lab	How will finance and accounting functions need to change in the digital and AI age?	HBS: Suraj Srinivasan, Philip J. Stomberg Professor of Business Administration
Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard	How do organizations understand innovation in a digitally connected world?	HBS: Karim R. Lakhani, Dorothy & Michael Hintze Professor of Business Administration Kyle Myers, Assistant Professor of Business Administration Alberto Cavallo, Edgerley Family Associate Professor Alexander MacKay, Assistant Professor of Business Administration Iavor Bojinov, Assistant Professor of Business Administration and the Richard Hodgson Fellow Edward McFowland III, Assistant Professor of Business Administration Frank Nagle, Assistant Professor of Business Administration Jacqueline Ng Lane, Assistant Professor of Business Administration HMS: Dr. Eva Guinan, Professor of Radiation Oncology at Harvard Medical School SEAS: David Parkes, George F. Colony Professor of Computer Science
LIFE Lab	How can we effectively craft our lives and continue to learn from each other’s experiences as part of our lifelong learning journey?	HBS: Leslie Perlow, Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership
Platform Lab	How are platforms transforming businesses and industries, and how can we ensure that such transformation benefits all?	HBS: Feng Zhu, Professor of Business Administration Chiara Farronato, Assistant Professor of Business Administration Michael Luca, Lee J. Styslinger III Associate Professor of Business Administration
Tech for All Lab	How can firms across the globe use digital tools, AI, and data to build for the underserved?	HBS: Rembrand Koning, Assistant Professor of Business Administration Tarun Khanna, Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor
Trustworthy AI Lab	How will companies realize the value from deploying AI in an ethical way?	HBS: Himabindu Lakkaraju, Assistant Professor of Business Administration Marco Iansiti, David Sarnoff Professor of Business Administration Seth Neel, Assistant Professor of Business Administration SEAS: Salil Vadhan, Vicky Joseph Professor of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering & Applied Sciences

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