Publications

September 2014
Case

Havas: Change Faster

By: Karim R. Lakhani and Michael L. Tushman

As of 2013, Havas was the 6th largest global advertising, digital, and communications group in the world. Headquartered in Paris, France, the group was highly decentralized, with semi-independent agencies in more than 100 countries offering a variety of services. The... View Details

Keywords: Advertising Agency; Open Innovation; Commercials; Digital Media; Digital Transition; Advertising; Digital Marketing; Advertising Campaigns; Acquisition; Change Management; Disruption; Transformation; Advertising Industry; Communications Industry

Web

Marketing Curriculum - Faculty & Research

2025 Q4 1.5 Creating Brand Value Michael Moynihan Fall 2024 Q2 1.5 Julian de Freitas Spring 2025 Q4 1.5 Digital Marketing Workshop Jacob Cook Fall 2024 Q1 1.5 Field Course: Business of the Arts (also listed... View Details

2020
Working Paper

Dog Eat Dog: Balancing Network Effects and Differentiation in a Digital Platform Merger

By: Chiara Farronato, Jessica Fong and Andrey Fradkin

Digital platforms are increasingly the subject of regulatory scrutiny. In comparison to multiple competitors, a single platform may increase consumer welfare if network effects are large or may decrease welfare due to higher prices or reduction in platform variety. We... View Details

Keywords: Platform Differentiation; Digital Platforms; Network Effects; Measurement and Metrics; Mergers and Acquisitions; Outcome or Result

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May 2020
Article

Digitizing Disclosure: The Case of Restaurant Hygiene Scores

By: Weijia (Daisy) Dai and Michael Luca

Collaborating with Yelp and the city of San Francisco, we revisit a canonical example of quality disclosure by evaluating and helping to redesign the posting of restaurant hygiene scores on Yelp.com. We implement a two-stage intervention that separately identifies... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Disclosure; Consumer Behavior; Knowledge Dissemination; Food and Beverage Industry

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June 2019
Case

Airbnb, Etsy, Uber: Expanding from One to Many Millions of Customers

By: Thales S. Teixeira

By 2019, two-sided online platforms (or marketplaces) were among the highest-growing internet startups around. These marketplaces sought to match suppliers of assets for rent, physical products, or services with customers demanding them. Among the most notable... View Details

Keywords: Airbnb; Etsy; Uber; Growth Hacking; Two-Sided Markets; Digital Marketing; Customer Acquisition; Two-Sided Platforms; Growth Management; Marketing Strategy; Customers; Acquisition; Organizational Change and Adaptation

January 2023 (Revised February 2024)
Teaching Note

Perfect Diary (完美日记)

By: Shunyuan Zhang and Sunil Gupta

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 522-030. View Details

Keywords: Digital Marketing; E-commerce; E-Commerce Strategy; Marketing; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; China

December 2022
Article

Competition, Contracts, and Creativity: Evidence from Novel Writing in a Platform Market

By: Yanhui Wu and Feng Zhu

A growing number of people today are participating in the gig economy, working as independent contractors on short-term projects. We study the effects of competition on gig workers' effort and creativity on a Chinese novel-writing platform. Authors produce and sell... View Details

Keywords: Gig Workers; Platform-based Markets; Novel Writing; Creative Production; Platform Bias; Employment; Digital Platforms; Creativity; Books; Competition; Contracts

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October 29, 2020
Article

How to Build a Digital Brand That Lasts

By: William Collis and David Collis

What makes a brand durable even as business models, technology and consumer behavior radically change? The key is that durable brands are adaptable brands—even legacy ones. To create durability, apply the MACE framework: 1) Mastery: Give your consumers... View Details

Keywords: Brands and Branding; Business Model; Adaptation; Framework

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December 2018 (Revised September 2019)
Case

Brand Activism: Nike and Colin Kaepernick

By: Jill Avery and Koen Pauwels

Nike's selection of politically polarizing Colin Kaepernick as the spokesperson for the 30th anniversary of its iconic "Just Do It" campaign catapulted the brand into the media spotlight and made it a political flashpoint for consumers across America. Would the choice... View Details

Keywords: Digital Marketing; Entertainment; Politics; Activism; Brand Equity; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Brands and Branding; Marketing Communications; Sports; Advertising; Social Media; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Sports Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States; North America

23 Jan 2024
Book

More Than Memes: NFTs Could Be the Next Gen Deed for a Digital World

open up markets and help build loyal communities of customers. In the following excerpt, the authors shed light on the value and potential of NFTs. Could digital “tokens” possibly be worth hundreds or... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Information Technology; Technology; Financial Services

December 1999 (Revised November 2000)
Background Note

Pricing and Market Making on the Internet

By: Robert J. Dolan and Youngme E. Moon

Considers the impact of the Internet on how market exchanges will take place. Discusses the role of shopping agents and alternatives to fixed prices such as negotiations, auctions, and exchanges. View Details

Keywords: Price; Marketing Strategy; Auctions; Digital Platforms; Negotiation; Internet and the Web

May–June 2023
Article

Which Firms Gain from Digital Advertising? Evidence from a Field Experiment

By: Weijia Dai, Hyunjin Kim and Michael Luca

Measuring the returns of advertising opportunities continues to be a challenge for many businesses. We design and run a field experiment in collaboration with Yelp across 18,294 firms in the restaurant industry to understand which types of businesses gain more from... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Digital Marketing; Outcome or Result

Fast Answer

Digital Innovation and Transformation: Resources useful for Course Assignments

sans-serif">LSEG Workspace Features View Details

April 12, 2023
Article

Using AI to Adjust Your Marketing and Sales in a Volatile World

By: Das Narayandas and Arijit Sengupta

Why are some firms better and faster than others at adapting their use of customer data to respond to changing or uncertain marketing conditions? A common thread across faster-acting firms is the use of AI models to predict outcomes at various stages of the customer... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; AI and Machine Learning; Consumer Behavior; Technology Adoption; Competitive Advantage

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2024
Working Paper

Capital Market Integration and Growth across the United States

By: Leonardo D'Amico and Maxim Alekseev

What drives the integration of national financial markets and what are its consequences for regional growth? We digitize and collect US state-level banking data from 1953 to 1983 and document a tight link between high nominal short rates and financial integration,... View Details

Keywords: Interest Rates; Financial Markets; Economic Growth; Banks and Banking; Analytics and Data Science

28 Jul 2020
News

Racism and Digital Design: How Online Platforms Can Thwart Racial Discrimination

Keywords: discrimination; Hospitality

March 2018
Case

TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics

By: Boris Groysberg and Katherine Connolly Baden

Manish Goel was the CEO of TrustSphere, a seven-year-old company in the data analytics industry that focused squarely on relationship analytics, a space in which TrustSphere was pioneering a unique technology and solutions in the areas of sales, risk, and people... View Details

Keywords: Data Analytics; People Analytics; Talent Management; Human Resources; Networks; Relationships; Analysis; Employee Relationship Management; Core Relationships; Applications and Software; Communication; Technology Industry; Singapore