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- All HBS Web
(267)
- News (47)
- Research (168)
- Events (1)
- Multimedia (1)
- Faculty Publications (130)
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- March 2020
- Module Note
Business Model Transformation in the Platform Age
By: Feng Zhu
Although some digital platforms are highly successful, most firms today are still traditional product- or service-based firms. To take advantage of the opportunities created by platform business models, traditional firms can work with existing platforms to become their... View Details
Keywords: Platforms; Platform Businesses; Platform Disruption; Internet and the Web; Business Model; Transformation; Digital Platforms
Zhu, Feng. "Business Model Transformation in the Platform Age." Harvard Business School Module Note 620-109, March 2020.
- 2022
- Article
Gender Inequality in Research Productivity During the COVID-19 Pandemic
By: Ruomeng Cui, Hao Ding and Feng Zhu
We study the disproportionate impact of the lockdown as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak on female and male academics' research productivity in social science. The lockdown has caused substantial disruptions to academic activities, requiring people to work from home.... View Details
Keywords: Gender Inequality; Research Productivity; Telecommuting; COVID-19 Pandemic; Research; Performance Productivity; Gender; Equality and Inequality; Health Pandemics
Cui, Ruomeng, Hao Ding, and Feng Zhu. "Gender Inequality in Research Productivity During the COVID-19 Pandemic." Manufacturing & Service Operations Management 24, no. 2 (March–April 2022): 707–726.
- April 2013
- Article
Business Model Innovation and Competitive Imitation: The Case of Sponsor-Based Business Models
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Feng Zhu
This paper provides the first formal model of business model innovation. Our analysis focuses on sponsor-based business model innovations where a firm monetizes its product through sponsors rather than setting prices to its customer base. We analyze strategic... View Details
Keywords: Business Model Innovation; Imitation; Sponsor-based Business Model; Strategic Revelation; Strategic Concealment; Business Model; Innovation and Invention; Price; Competitive Strategy; Adoption; Value; Duopoly and Oligopoly; Product; Customers; Market Entry and Exit; Monopoly
Casadesus-Masanell, Ramon, and Feng Zhu. "Business Model Innovation and Competitive Imitation: The Case of Sponsor-Based Business Models." Strategic Management Journal 34, no. 4 (April 2013): 464–482.
- 06 Apr 2010
- First Look
First Look: April 6
highlight the paradox that managed globalization has been a force for liberalization. Strategies to Fight Ad-sponsored Rivals Authors: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Feng Zhu Publication: Management Science... View Details
Keywords: Martha Lagace
- 17 Oct 2017
- First Look
First Look at New Research and Ideas, October 17, 2017
play in firms that seek enhanced digital agility. Download working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=52707 Multi-homing and Platform Strategies: Historical Evidence from the U.S. Newspaper Industry By: Park, K. Francis, Robert Seamans, and View Details
Keywords: Sean Silverthorne
- 04 Apr 2017
- First Look
First Look at New Research, April 4
https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=51107 Ideological Segregation Among Online Collaborators: Evidence from Wikipedians By: Greenstein, Shane, Yuan Gu, and Feng Zhu Abstract—Do online communities... View Details
Keywords: Sean Silverthorne
- 2011
- Article
Group Size and Incentives to Contribute: A Natural Experiment at Chinese Wikipedia
By: Michael Zhang and Feng Zhu
In this paper, we examine the causal relationship between group size and incentives to contribute in the setting of Chinese Wikipedia, the Chinese language version of an online encyclopedia that relies entirely on voluntary contributions. The group at Chinese Wikipedia... View Details
Keywords: Rights; Motivation and Incentives; Internet and the Web; Valuation; Groups and Teams; Knowledge Sharing; Behavior; Satisfaction; Size; Government and Politics; Economics; Information Technology Industry; Hong Kong; Taiwan; Singapore
Zhang, Michael, and Feng Zhu. "Group Size and Incentives to Contribute: A Natural Experiment at Chinese Wikipedia." American Economic Review 101, no. 4 (June 2011): 1601–1615.
- July 2021
- Article
Information Transparency, Multihoming, and Platform Competition: A Natural Experiment in the Daily Deals Market
By: Hui Li and Feng Zhu
Platform competition is shaped by the likelihood of multi-homing (i.e., complementors or consumers adopt more than one platform). To take advantage of multi-homing, platform firms often attempt to motivate their rivals’ high-performing complementors to adopt their own... View Details
Keywords: Platform Competition; Multi-homing; Information Transparency; Daily Deals; Groupon; LivingSocial; Digital Platforms; Information; Competition
Li, Hui, and Feng Zhu. "Information Transparency, Multihoming, and Platform Competition: A Natural Experiment in the Daily Deals Market." Management Science 67, no. 7 (July 2021): 4384–4407.
- Teaching Interest
Digital Innovation and Transformation – MBA Elective Curriculum
By: Feng Zhu
Digital Innovation and Transformation is designed to equip students to confidently help conceive, lead and execute digital innovation initiatives and develop new business models for existing and insurgent organizations. The basic premise of the course... View Details
- 2025
- Working Paper
Antitrust Platform Regulation and Entrepreneurship: Evidence from China
By: Ke Rong, D. Daniel Sokol, Di Zhou and Feng Zhu
Many jurisdictions have launched antitrust enforcement and brought in regulation of large tech platforms. The swift and strict implementation of China’s Anti-Monopoly Guidelines for the Platform Economy (Platform Guidelines) provides a quasi-natural experiment... View Details
Keywords: Platform; Antitrust; Regulation; Entrepreneurship; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Competition; Venture Capital; Market Entry and Exit; Supply and Industry; China
Rong, Ke, D. Daniel Sokol, Di Zhou, and Feng Zhu. "Antitrust Platform Regulation and Entrepreneurship: Evidence from China." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 24-039, January 2024. (Revised May 2025.)
- June 2023
- Supplement
Clash of Two Giants Simulation Exercise
By: Feng Zhu and Marco Iansiti
Many markets are organized around platforms that connect consumers with complementary applications and services. These platforms are two-sided because both sides - consumers and those providing applications or services - need access to the same platform to interact. A... View Details
- April 2020 (Revised November 2020)
- Case
Ping An: Pioneering the New Model of ‘Technology-driven Finance’
By: Feng Zhu, Anthony K. Woo and Nancy Hua Dai
In mid-December 2018, Peter Ma, Chairman and CEO of Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. was considering whether the company should grow a fifth ecosystem of Smart City Services. Established in 1988, Ping An was one of the top 10 global financial... View Details
Keywords: Business Ecosystems; Fintech; Finance; Information Technology; Business Model; Expansion; Competitive Strategy; Financial Services Industry; Technology Industry
Zhu, Feng, Anthony K. Woo, and Nancy Hua Dai. "Ping An: Pioneering the New Model of ‘Technology-driven Finance’." Harvard Business School Case 620-068, April 2020. (Revised November 2020.)
- 2007
- Working Paper
Dynamics of Platform Competition: Exploring the Role of Installed Base, Platform Quality and Consumer Expectations
By: Feng Zhu and Marco Iansiti
This paper seeks to answer three questions. First, which drives the success of a platform, installed base, platform quality or consumer expectations? Second, when does a monopoly emerge in a platform-based market? Finally, when is a platform-based market socially... View Details
Keywords: Price; Network Effects; Digital Platforms; Monopoly; Quality; Competitive Advantage; Digital Platforms
Zhu, Feng, and Marco Iansiti. "Dynamics of Platform Competition: Exploring the Role of Installed Base, Platform Quality and Consumer Expectations." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 08-031, November 2007.
- September 2018
- Article
Do Experts or Crowd-Based Models Produce More Bias? Evidence from Encyclopædia Britannica and Wikipedia
By: Shane Greenstein and Feng Zhu
Organizations today can use both crowds and experts to produce knowledge. While prior work compares the accuracy of crowd-produced and expert-produced knowledge, we compare bias in these two models in the context of contested knowledge, which involves subjective,... View Details
Keywords: Online Community; Collective Intelligence; Wisdom Of Crowds; Bias; Wikipedia; Britannica; Knowledge Production; Knowledge Sharing; Knowledge Dissemination; Prejudice and Bias
Greenstein, Shane, and Feng Zhu. "Do Experts or Crowd-Based Models Produce More Bias? Evidence from Encyclopædia Britannica and Wikipedia." MIS Quarterly 42, no. 3 (September 2018): 945–959.
- Article
DEA Model with Shared Resources and Efficiency Decomposition
By: Yao Chen, Juan Du, H. David Sherman and Joe Zhu
Data envelopment analysis (DEA) has proved to be an excellent approach for measuring performance of decision making units (DMUs) that use multiple inputs to generate multiple outputs. In many real world scenarios, DMUs have a two-stage network process with shared input... View Details
Chen, Yao, Juan Du, H. David Sherman, and Joe Zhu. "DEA Model with Shared Resources and Efficiency Decomposition." European Journal of Operational Research 207, no. 1 (November 2010): 339–349.
- June 2023
- Simulation
Clash of Two Giants: Competing in the Age of Platforms Simulation
By: Feng Zhu and Marco Iansiti
- April 2018 (Revised November 2019)
- Case
JD: Envisioning the Future of Retail (A)
By: Feng Zhu and Shirley Sun
JD, China’s second largest e-commerce company by gross merchandise volume (GMV) after Alibaba, had expanded rapidly from 2012 to 2016. When the company celebrated its 13th birthday in 2017, Richard Liu, its founder, deliberated on the company’s growth strategies. The... View Details
Zhu, Feng, and Shirley Sun. "JD: Envisioning the Future of Retail (A)." Harvard Business School Case 618-051, April 2018. (Revised November 2019.)
- Article
Entry into Platform-based Markets
By: Feng Zhu and Marco Iansiti
This paper examines the relative importance of platform quality, indirect network effects, and consumer expectations on the success of entrants in platform-based markets. We develop a theoretical model and find that an entrant's success depends on the strength of... View Details
Keywords: Platform-based Markets; Winnter-take-all; First-mover Advantage; Indirect Network Effects; Video Game Industry; Quality; Network Effects; Market Entry and Exit; Digital Platforms; Motion Pictures and Video Industry
Zhu, Feng, and Marco Iansiti. "Entry into Platform-based Markets." Strategic Management Journal 33, no. 1 (January 2012): 88–106.
- February 2021
- Article
Trust and Disintermediation: Evidence from an Online Freelance Marketplace
By: Grace Gu and Feng Zhu
As an intermediary improves trust between the two sides of its market to facilitate matching and transactions, it faces an increased risk of disintermediation: with sufficient trust, the two sides may circumvent the intermediary to avoid the intermediary’s fees. In... View Details
Keywords: Disintermediation; Intermediaries; Online Marketplace; Platform Strategy; Trust; Marketplace Matching; Digital Platforms
Gu, Grace, and Feng Zhu. "Trust and Disintermediation: Evidence from an Online Freelance Marketplace." Management Science 67, no. 2 (February 2021): 794–807.
- June 2007
- Article
What Is the Impact of Software Patent Shifts? Evidence from Lotus v. Borland
By: Josh Lerner and Feng Zhu
Economists have debated the extent to which strengthening patent protection spurs or detracts from technological innovation. This paper examines the reduction of software copyright protection in the Lotus v. Borland decision. If patent and copyright protections are... View Details
Keywords: Applications and Software; Patents; Information Technology; Information Technology Industry
Lerner, Josh, and Feng Zhu. "What Is the Impact of Software Patent Shifts? Evidence from Lotus v. Borland." International Journal of Industrial Organization 25, no. 3 (June 2007): 511–529. (Earlier version distributed as National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. 11168.)