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Here is a selection of recent research by Cutter experts you can access immediately. As a Cutter community member, you'll have access to every new piece of research on sustainability, technology, leadership, and industry, plus all of our timeless business and technology strategy insights. This includes more than 20 years of articles from our flagship journal, Amplify (formerly Cutter Business Technology Journal.)

Search our archives for a taste of all that's available once your subscription is activated.


Advisor

GenAI: A Double-Edged Sword for Cybersecurity & Data Protection

Curt Hall
GenAI appears to be lowering the barrier to entry for developing sophisticated cyberattacks and scams. However, the technology also offers solutions to help meet the threats imposed by hackers, cybercriminals, and state actors. This Advisor examines the evolving GenAI threat and solution landscape.

Advisor

Activating Transcendence & Drive to Lead DEI Efforts

Natacha Prudent, Mary Crossan
DEI has evolved from “nice to have” to a mission-critical component ensuring an organization’s progress and competitiveness in the global market. The questions in this Advisor serve as a guide to activate transcendence and drive, which are important character traits for leading DEI efforts.

Advisor

CEO Insights 2024: ESG Is Now “Business as Usual” & Approaches Have Matured

Francesco Marsella, Petter Kilefors, Maximilian Scherr, Ralf Baron, Satya Easwaran
In this Advisor, we explore a key trend revealed through ADL's CEO Insights research analysis: while a shift has occurred in ESG priorities, approaches to it have matured, and most leaders still see its importance.

Advisor

FSC’s Blockchain-Based Supply Chain: Lessons Learned & Future Features

Michael Marus, Curt Hall
Cutter Expert Curt Hall recently spoke with Michael Marus, CIO of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). FSC has been testing and applying blockchain since 2021 to enable sustainability with forest-based materials and has found that blockchain’s traceability helps it achieve integrity and credibility for its certification system. This Advisor presents an excerpt from that interview.

Advisor

CEO Insights 2024: Leaders Optimistic About the Future, Predict Positive Growth

Francesco Marsella, Petter Kilefors, Maximilian Scherr, Ralf Baron, Satya Easwaran
In this Advisor, we explore findings from ADL’s 2024 “CEO Insights” study, including the first trend uncovered by research: CEOs are positive about the medium-term economic outlook and confident about future company growth.

Advisor

Is Your Company Ready to Embark on a Nature Positive Journey?

Margaret O'Gorman
In this Advisor, Margaret O’Gorman offers some initial steps leaders can take to help their companies start a nature positive journey: raise awareness in the organization, explore the organization’s relationship to nature, assess for impacts, and plan interventions.

Executive Update

Every Business Needs a Nature Strategy — Here’s Why

Eva Zabey
This Amplify Update discusses ways to extend the momentum created by the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) — aka “The Biodiversity Plan” — and identifies business action as critical to the mission of halting and reversing nature loss by 2030.

Advisor

Digital Experience Management Rising: Practice, Issues & Platforms

Curt Hall
This Advisor explores the rise of digital experience management (DXM). When implemented successfully, DXM can facilitate better engagement with existing customers, assist in acquiring new customers, and help differentiate a brand from its competition.

Advisor

What Is Character & Why Does It Matter in Leadership?

Kimberley Young Milani
This Advisor delineates how character is defined and positioned within a leadership context. Based on extensive research conducted by the Ian O. Ihnatowycz Institute for Leadership, character can be understood through two foundational frameworks: the Effective Leader framework and the Ivey Leader Character Framework (ILCF).

Advisor

Developing a Nature-Based Strategy: 2 More Essential Steps

Sara Cook
This Advisor offers two more pieces of advice for creating intersections between corporate ambition and action for nature. These steps can help a company move from understanding its nature-related dependencies to understanding its opportunities.

Advisor

Case Study: A Nuclear Power Plant Digital Twin

Jason Radel
This Advisor examines a digital twin framework that was used to create, adjust, and deploy a digital twin of a nuclear power plant in the Middle East.

Advisor

Reframing Responsible Decision-Making

Kanina Blanchard
The course “Leading Responsibly” at the Ivey Business School in Canada teaches individuals to become more responsible by helping them unpack their lived experiences. This Advisor offers key insights gleaned from the course.

Advisor

Balancing Wind-Energy Needs with Biodiversity Goals

Rafael Sardá
This Advisor takes a closer look at how wind farm development can impact biodiversity with a focus on marine protected areas in the EU and the Mediterranean Sea.

Executive Update

Actionable Steps for Corporate Nature Positive Journeys

Margaret O'Gorman
Biodiversity as a corporate concern is in rapid flux. This Amplify Update explores the current landscape and highlights the many new developments at the intersection of business and nature since the two-part Amplify series that introduced the topic.

Article

Assessing the Potential of Lunar Resource Utilization

Matteo Ainardi, Arnaud Siraudin, Guillaume Storck
Matteo Ainardi, Arnaud Siraudin, and Guillaume Storck present a way for businesses to envision future space ecosystems and their associated value chains. A recent study, conducted by the EURO2MOON association (including Arthur D. Little), endeavored to understand demand drivers, value chains, and areas of uncertainty around lunar resource use. Propellant production was used as an illustration — the reaction engines needed to power vehicles on the lunar surface and traveling to/from Earth (and beyond) will need propellants. The study examined both the supply side and the demand side, developed scenarios of a future ecosystem, proposed a likely value chain, outlined use cases, and estimated those use cases’ likely ranges of demand. Beyond giving a peek into lunar opportunities, the article can help businesses considering lunar-economy investment better understand how to account for inherent high levels of uncertainty.

Article

Beyond Orbiting: Toward a Sustainable Space Economy — Opening Statement

Matteo Ainardi, Guillaume Storck
Although government investment still makes up the bulk of space-related funding, a combination of three main factors has resulted in a foundational evolution of the industry, often referred to as “New Space.” New Space has generated an unprecedented rise in the number of space players, rocket launches, spacecraft in orbit, and volume of space-generated data. This issue of Amplify explores the key challenges that the space industry faces in its journey toward long-term sustainable growth and value creation.

Article

The Tragedy of the Commons in Orbital Space: Toward a Circular Economy

Moriba Jah
Moriba K. Jah points to a growing concern over mankind’s ability to use orbital space for long-term benefit. Orbital space is not infinite; yet several companies are planning large-scale satellite launches in the next few years. When added to operating and abandoned satellites (and other space debris) in geostationary orbit (GEO), and low Earth orbit (LEO) orbits, there’s the potential for “a tragedy of the commons.” Jah proposes a solution guided by the tenets of traditional ecological knowledge, including recognizing space as a dynamic ecosystem in which changes in one part can impact the whole, designing satellites and spacecraft for longevity/reusability, and promoting a greater sense of accountability among spacefaring nations and commercial entities. Shifting from a linear space economy to a circular one, says Jah, would not only prevent orbital ecocide, but it would also preserve the final frontier as a resource and habitat for future generations.

Article

3D Printing & the Future of Space Exploration

Curt Hall
Curt Hall takes a look at the role 3D printing can have in space exploration. From Earth-based manufacturing of spacecraft parts to tools like wrenches on the International Space Station and metal parts during a Mars mission, space could be 3D printing’s killer app. Hall discusses a large number of technologies in development, including the ability to convert plastic waste from previously printed parts into feedstock that can be used to create new tools and parts. Similarly, there are projects underway to see if the Moon’s regolith can be used to construct the (literal) building blocks for a moon base. Printing food, medicine, and even replacement organs for long-haul space missions is also being explored using bioprinting, a technology that could come full circle to provide tissue-based patches for the outside of damaged hearts here on Earth.

Article

Cybersecurity Challenges in Space Exploration

Sylvester Kaczmarek
Sylvester Kaczmarek dives into the cybersecurity issues threatening current and future space exploration. In addition to bad actors who have targeted satellites by jamming, spoofing, and data hijacking, there’s the potential for spacecraft life-support, navigation, and propulsion systems to be hacked. Breaches that threaten communications between ground stations and their space assets are also possible, as is interference with the data streams that flow constantly between satellites and public and private entities. Kaczmarek advises a number of strategies for mitigating space-related cyber threats, including AI models that anticipate and prevent attacks before they occur, encryption methods resistant to quantum attacks, and international cooperation to harmonize regulations across countries.

Article

STAR: Shining Light on Space Supply Chain Risk

Ronald Birk, Lori Gordon, Eleanor Mitch
Ronald Birk, Lori W. Gordon, and Eleanor Mitch outline the factors behind the need for a system that dynamically updates space supply chain information. Along with higher demand, there is competition among sectors, such as medical device and auto makers, for certain commodities and many rare-earth elements. The authors propose a distributed ledger technology (DLT) system called “Space supply chain Topology for Assessing Risk (STAR)” that would create a nexus for all stakeholders in the space supply chain community. STAR would include trusted partnerships via information-sharing agreements, information wells that let partners leverage an array of structured and unstructured data, a network of cloud-based platforms that enable secure processing of data among partners across the space enterprise, data integrity via DLT, and assessments of priority items to discover weak areas in space supply chains. The article describes the four key risks STAR would identify and calls for community dialogue about a space enterprise solution that “shines a light on dynamically evolving risks.”