Publications

31 Mar 2011
News

Building an Online Swap Shop

opportunity to work in derivative markets like secondhand clothing. “I wrote my final paper about thredUP,” Reinhart continued. “When I went back and read it recently, it was kind of hilarious. Once you spend a year and a half working in... View Details

Keywords: Clothing and Clothing Accessories Stores; Retail Trade

30 Nov 2016
Op-Ed

Where Could More Regulation Help Small Businesses? Online Lending.

and purviews. This leaves online small business lenders to be governed by an expensive and time-consuming patchwork of state oversight, often with inconsistent rules that can confine online lending to... View Details

Keywords: by Karen Mills and Brayden McCarthy; Financial Services

Web

Business Insights Blog | HBS Online

your company is one of them and how to approach your manager. [...] Read more 19 Feb 2025 Compete in the Digital World with HBS Online’s New 6-Month Credential Program HBS Online Author Staff tag Design Thinking and Innovation Digital... View Details

October 2009
Article

Shaping Online Consumer Choice by Partitioning the Web

By: Jolie M. Martin and Michael I. Norton

This research explores how partitioning attributes in online search interfaces changes the valuations of those attributes-and impacts subsequent choice-such that attributes that are displayed as separate categories tend to receive greater decision weight than... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Information Management; Demand and Consumers; Research; Internet and the Web; Valuation

2011
Other Unpublished Work

Functional Centralization and the Division of Labor in Management

By: Julie Wulf, Maria Guadalupe and Hongyi Li

This paper shows that the trend towards flatter hierarchies in large US firms since the mid-80's has been accompanied by increased centralization of activities at the top of the organization. In particular, the number of functional managers (e.g., Chief Financial... View Details

Keywords: Executive Compensation; Management Teams; Organizational Structure; Business Strategy; Diversification; Information Technology; United States

September 2003 (Revised May 2006)
Case

Eyeblaster: Enabling the Next Generation of Online Advertising

By: Elie Ofek

Eyeblaster management has to decide on the best course of action to sustain its momentum from enabling online rich media advertising. Pressure from competitors is forcing the company to re-evaluate its previous marketing strategy that focused primarily on getting... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Marketing Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Performance Evaluation; Digital Marketing; Growth and Development Strategy

Web

Launching Tech Ventures | HBS Online

“It’s an eye-opening course that enlightens the path for future founders, joiners, or investors.” Roman Ignatenko Launching Tech Ventures Participant Equip yourself with the skills to join an early- or growth-stage startup in a product management, business development,... View Details

Article

Preference Signaling in Matching Markets

Many labor markets share three stylized facts: employers cannot give full attention to all candidates, candidates are ready to provide information about their preferences for particular employers, and employers value and are prepared to act on this information. In this... View Details

Keywords: Signaling; Matching; Cheap Talk; Congestion; Market Design; Marketplace Matching; Communication; Job Search

September 2016
Article

Do Display Ads Influence Search?: Attribution and Dynamics in Online Advertising

By: Pavel Kireyev, Koen Pauwels and Sunil Gupta

As firms increasingly rely on online media to acquire consumers, marketing managers feel comfortable justifying higher online marketing spending by referring to online metrics such as click-through rate (CTR) and cost per acquisition (CPA). However, these standard... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Digital Marketing

Web

Global Business Course | HBS Online

Black Professor of Business Administration "In this online course, you'll learn how global events affect markets and businesses and the ways in which economics and political science can help us seize... View Details

16 Oct 2018
Working Paper Summaries

Shipping Fees and Product Assortment in Online Retail

Keywords: by Chaoqun Chen and Donald Ngwe; Retail

February 2020 (Revised April 2021)
Case

StockX: The Stock Market of Things

By: Chiara Farronato, John J. Horton, Annelena Lobb and Julia Kelley

Founded in 2015 by Dan Gilbert, Josh Luber, and Greg Schwartz, StockX was an online platform where users could buy and sell unworn luxury and limited-edition sneakers. Sneaker resale prices often fluctuated over time based on supply and demand, creating a robust... View Details

December 2006
Article

Europe vs America: Institutional Hysteresis in a Simple Normative Model

By: Rafael Di Tella and Robert MacCulloch

We show how the differences in US and European institutions can arise in a normative model. The paper focuses on the labor market and the government's decision to set unemployment benefits in response to an unemployment shock. The government balances insurance... View Details

Keywords: Optimal Unemployment Benefits; Labor Market Institutions; Hysteresis; Europe; United States

January 2020 (Revised January 2025)
Case

Freelancer, Ltd.

By: Christopher Stanton, Karim R. Lakhani, Jennifer L. Hoffman, Jin Hyun Paik and Nina Cohodes

Over the course of the 2010s, the rapid advancement of mobile technologies and the rise of online freelancing platforms seemed to portend a radical transformation of labor markets into on-demand, flexible talent pools. Even though several Fortune 500... View Details

Keywords: Freelancers; Platforms; Digital Labor; Labor; Human Resources; Management; Internet and the Web; Growth and Development Strategy; Digital Platforms; Information Industry; Australia; United States; Philippines

10 Mar 2014
News

Retail Woes: The Impact Of Online Shopping

2018
Working Paper

Shipping Fees and Product Assortment in Online Retail

By: Chaoqun Chen and Donald Ngwe

Shipping fees are an important aspect of online retail for both consumers and sellers. A common fee structure is contingent free shipping, in which consumers are granted free shipping for basket sizes above a minimum value and are charged a flat fee for orders below... View Details

Keywords: Shpping Fee; E-commerce; Multi-category Demand; Search Costs; Shipping Membership; Spending; Consumer Behavior; Retail Industry

2013
Working Paper

Do Display Ads Influence Search?: Attribution and Dynamics in Online Advertising

By: Sunil Gupta

As firms increasingly rely on online media to acquire consumers, marketing managers feel comfortable justifying higher online marketing spend by referring to online metrics such as click-through rate (CTR) and cost per acquisition (CPA). However, these standard online... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Digital Marketing