Publications

2023
Book

Research Handbook on Digital Strategy

By: Carmelo Cennamo, Giovanni Battista Dagnino and Feng Zhu

This state-of-the-art Research Handbook presents a comprehensive overview of the key strategic challenges that firms face when dealing with digital markets, platforms, and products and services, from old strategy questions in need of different solutions to entirely... View Details

Keywords: Digital Strategy

May 2016 (Revised March 2020)
Case

Fasten: Challenging Uber and Lyft with a New Business Model

By: Feng Zhu and Angela Acocella

Fasten, a new ridesharing start-up in Boston, entered the scene in September 2015 hoping its unique vision of transparency for both driver and passenger and strategy to keep riders' fares low and charge drivers a flat $0.99 fee per ride as opposed to the 20-30%... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Transportation; Business Startups; Business Model; Transportation Industry; Boston

Web

Placement - Doctoral

and Gary P. Pisano 2022 Tommy Pan Fang Technology & Operations Management, 2022 Placement: Rice University, Jones Graduate School of Business Dissertation: Technological Coordination of Platform Ecosystems Advisors: Feng View Details

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Technology & Operations Management Faculty - Faculty & Research

Administration Feng Zhu MBA Class of 1958 Professor of Business Administration Unit Affiliates Tina Renee Opie Visiting Scholar Sam Ransbotham Visiting Scholar Michelle A. Shell Visiting Scholar Dustin... View Details

26 May 2023
News

Harvard Business School Professors Win Wyss Awards for Excellence in Mentoring Doctoral Students

October 2018
Article

Competing with Complementors: An Empirical Look at Amazon.com

By: Feng Zhu and Qihong Liu

Platform owners sometimes enter complementors' product spaces to compete against them directly. Prior studies have offered two possible explanations for such entries: platform owners may target the most successful complementors so as to appropriate value from their... View Details

Keywords: Amazon; Complementors; Co-opetition; Entry; Platform-based Markets; Competition; Digital Platforms; Competitive Strategy

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September 2019 (Revised November 2019)
Case

Pinduoduo

By: Feng Zhu, Krishna G. Palepu, Bonnie Yining Cao and Dawn H. Lau

Founded in 2015 by serial entrepreneur, Colin Huang, Pinduoduo Inc. (PDD) had become China’s fastest-growing e-commerce platform in history. PDD pioneered a new approach to online shopping that allowed shoppers to share products, invite friends to form shopping teams,... View Details

Keywords: Digital Platforms; Business Model; Innovation and Invention; Competitive Advantage; Expansion; Strategy; E-commerce

Web

Technology & Operations Management - Faculty & Research

Bojinov , Karim R. Lakhani and David Lane 2024 Book Smart Rivals: How Innovative Companies Play Games That Tech Giants Can't Win By: Feng Zhu and Bonnie Yining Cao More Harvard Business Publishing Seminars &... View Details

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Online Business Courses & Certifications | HBS Online

Master negotiation techniques to secure maximum value for yourself and your organization. 8 weeks, 4-5 hrs/week Pay by June 12 $1,850 Certificate Winning with Digital Platforms Professor Feng View Details

October 2013
Article

Ad Revenue and Content Commercialization: Evidence from Blogs

By: Monic Sun and Feng Zhu

Many scholars argue that when incentivized by ad revenue, content providers are more likely to tailor their content to attract "eyeballs," and as a result, popular content may be excessively supplied. We empirically test this prediction by taking advantage of the... View Details

Keywords: Ad-sponsored Business Models; Media Content; Blog; Revenue Sharing; User-generated Content; Platform-based Markets; Blogs; Business Model; Digital Platforms; Commercialization; Digital Marketing

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About - Business & Environment

YUE Accelerator Philip Kuai is collaborating with Feng Zhu on projects related to tech entrepreneurship, sustainability, and emerging markets, including looking at how digitalization drives sustainability.... View Details

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Technology & Operations Management Awards & Honors - Faculty & Research

Toffel : Finalist for the 2021 MSOM Responsible Research Award from the Manufacturing and Service Operations Management Society (MSOM) for his article with Maria Ibanez, “How Scheduling Can Bias Quality Assessment: Evidence from Food Safety Inspections” ( Management... View Details

Web

Asia Pacific - Global

research, but a full range of MBA and Executive Education student programming. Through their ongoing work they have developed important links with governments, academic institutions, and corporations within a region that is assuming an increasingly vital role in the... View Details

July 2022
Case

Yinglan Tan: Scaling a Venture Capital Firm in Southeast Asia

By: Josh Lerner and Richard Zhu

Yinglan Tan considered the future of his young Singapore-based venture capital firm. On the one hand, the intuition that was behind the initial creation of Insignia in 2017 had been proven correct. The venture capital market in Southeast Asia had grown rapidly, driven... View Details

Keywords: E-commerce; Scalability; Globalized Markets and Industries; Venture Capital; International Finance; Growth and Development; Expansion

18 Dec 2018
News

Why Some Platforms Thrive and Others Don’t

June 2015 (Revised April 2018)
Case

WeChat: A Global Platform?

By: Willy Shih, Howard Yu and Feng Liu

WeChat was developed by Tencent Holdings as a lightweight messaging platform. As it grew quickly to become the most popular messaging app in China, it added a range of products and services that sat on top that were designed to appeal to a broad range of consumers and... View Details

Keywords: Online Platforms; China; WeChat; Tencent Holdings; Globalization; Internet and the Web; Applications and Software; Digital Platforms; Telecommunications Industry; Information Industry; China

July 2014 (Revised August 2015)
Case

Qihoo

By: Feng Zhu

Qihoo, one of the largest Internet companies in China today, was founded in 2005. The company started its business by offering a security software product, and quickly dominated the market in China after its unusual move of giving its product away for free in 2009.... View Details

Keywords: Platform Strategy; Business Model Innovation; Chinese Internet Market; Competitive Strategy; Information Technology; Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web; Information Technology Industry