"For too long students of networks and innovation have focused on structure at the expense of understanding process. This book offers a major correction. It lays out a compelling theory of brokerage and demonstrates how not only structure, but also skills around knowledge transfer and articulation, are essential for innovation in creative projects."
Paul Leonardi
Duca Family Professor of Technology Management at UC Santa Barbara and author of Car Crashes Without Cars and Technology Choices
"Getting New Things Done illuminates the invisible, relational work of orchestrating knowledge and network processes central to innovation. Taking no shortcuts, Obstfeld's scholarly tour de force is eminently readable and truly practical. It is a must-read for academics and professionals who are interested in audacious innovation."
Amy C. Edmondson
Harvard Business School, author of Building the Future: Big Teaming for Audacious Innovation
"Building on the award-winning work for which he is best known, Obstfeld explains how tertius iungens and knowledge articulation drive innovation in the presence―and absence―of organizational routines. This book's novel theory―rooted in already impactful organizational scholarship―deepens our understanding of networks and brokerage in particular."
Philip C. Anderson
INSEAD
"Obstfeld gets to the heart of unpacking how real work gets done. In this wonderfully textured blend of ethnography and analytics, he lays out a rich foundation for knowledge articulation and powerful extensions to our understanding of networks and brokerage. Both advances are more relevant than ever as we are increasingly moving to the project-based work Obstfeld describes in our networked, fast-paced world. This work establishes a crucial conceptual foundation for understanding the new world of exponential changes we are now navigating."
John Seely Brown
Former Chief Scientist, Xerox Corporation and co-author of The Social Life of Information and Pragmatic Imagination
"This is a fascinating, elegantly written book. Its prodigious novelty demonstrates Obstfeld's unique ability to teach us about innovation. It is exceptionally rich in the way it combines multiple intellectual traditions and grounds them in close ethnographic observation. The focus on process alongside network structure is cutting edge and sets a new research agenda for those interested in getting new things done."
Steve Borgatti
University of Kentucky and President ― International Network for Social Network Analysis
“This is a fascinating, elegantly written book — its prodigious novelty demonstrates Obstfeld’s unique ability to teach us about innovation. It is exceptionally rich in the way it combines multiple intellectual traditions and grounds them in close ethnographic observation. The focus on process alongside network structure is cutting edge and sets a new research agenda for those interested in getting new things done.“
Ted Baker
Professor and George F. Farris Chair in Entrepreneurship, Rutgers Business School
