Publications

September–October 2021
Article

Frontiers: Can an AI Algorithm Mitigate Racial Economic Inequality? An Analysis in the Context of Airbnb

By: Shunyuan Zhang, Nitin Mehta, Param Singh and Kannan Srinivasan

We study the effect of Airbnb’s smart-pricing algorithm on the racial disparity in the daily revenue earned by Airbnb hosts. Our empirical strategy exploits Airbnb’s introduction of the algorithm and its voluntary adoption by hosts as a quasi-natural experiment. Among... View Details

Keywords: Smart Pricing; Pricing Algorithm; Machine Bias; Discrimination; Racial Disparity; Social Inequality; Airbnb Revenue; Revenue; Race; Equality and Inequality; Prejudice and Bias; Price; Mathematical Methods; Accommodations Industry

SSRN

07 Jan 2019
Research & Ideas

The Better Way to Forecast the Future

are broader. When Grushka-Cockayne refers to averaging the forecasts, she is not necessarily referring to a mathematical average but any number of ways to combine them. Various methods can include weighting... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Air Transportation; Transportation

Forthcoming
Article

Reputation Burning: Analyzing the Impact of Brand Sponsorship on Social Influencers

By: Mengjie Cheng and Shunyuan Zhang

The growth of the influencer marketing industry warrants an empirical examination of the effect of posting sponsored videos on influencers' reputations. We collected a novel dataset of user-generated YouTube videos created by prominent English-speaking influencers in... View Details

Keywords: Reputation; Mathematical Methods; Marketing Reference Programs; Social Media; Brands and Branding

2010
Book

The New Science of Retailing: How Analytics Are Transforming the Supply Chain and Improving Performance

By: Marshall Fisher and Ananth Raman

Retailers today are drowning in data but lacking in insight: They have huge volumes of information at their disposal. But they're unsure of how to sort through it and use it to make smart decisions. The result? They're struggling with profit-sapping supply chain... View Details

Keywords: Profit; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Logistics; Supply Chain Management; Mathematical Methods; Retail Industry

Profile

Kiran Gandhi

Berklee, HBS, and MIT students together to discuss problems in the music industry. We’ve modeled our meetings on the Socratic method seen in the HBS classroom: Everyone gets reading material in advance so they can make informed... View Details

Keywords: Entertainment/Media

October 2001 (Revised October 2017)
Case

Store24 (A): Managing Employee Retention

By: Frances X. Frei and Dennis Campbell

Provides a retailing context in which employee retention strategies are explored through analyzing detailed store-level data. View Details

Keywords: Retention; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Analytics and Data Science; Strategy; Mathematical Methods; Retail Industry

October 2000 (Revised April 2001)
Case

Cost of Capital at Ameritrade

By: Mark L. Mitchell and Erik Stafford

Ameritrade Holding Corp. is planning large marketing and technology investments to improve the company's competitive position in deep-discount brokerage by taking advantage of emerging economies of scale. In order to evaluate whether the strategy would generate... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Asset Pricing; Cash Flow; Cost of Capital; Investment; Marketing; Mathematical Methods; Competition; Information Technology; Internet and the Web; Financial Services Industry

September 2010 (Revised January 2012)
Case

OPOWER: Increasing Energy Efficiency through Normative Influence (A)

By: Amy J.C. Cuddy, Kyle Todd Doherty and Maarten W. Bos

The case profiles OPOWER, an energy efficiency software company that applies Cialdini's principles of social influence to successfully encourage consumers to reduce their energy usage. OPOWER was co-founded in 2008 by two young Harvard graduates, Dan Yates and Alex... View Details

Keywords: Mathematical Methods; Applications and Software; Attitudes; Entrepreneurship; Energy Conservation; Power and Influence; Growth and Development Strategy; Energy Industry; United States

02 Oct 2017
What Do You Think?

Do Bitcoin and Digital Currency Have a Future?

for market manipulation (and) used as payment method for online crime.” Bitcoin does not have a future as a currency, Turnbull said, because of the cost of operating sufficient computers to collectively document every single transaction.... View Details

Keywords: by James L. Heskett; Financial Services

Web

Entrepreneurial Management Awards & Honors - Faculty & Research

Development at the Federal Bureau of Investigation” with Tiona Zuzul, Ryan Raffaelli, and Jan Rivkin. Ranjay Gulati : Winner of the 2019 Strategic Management Society (SMS) Annual Conference Best Research Methods Paper Award for “Cognitive... View Details

September 2010 (Revised December 2010)
Case

Compass Maritime Services, LLC: Valuing Ships

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Albert W. Sheen

Tom Roberts, a founding partner of Compass Maritime Services, a New Jersey-based shipping research and consulting firm, has been asked by a new potential customer in May 2008 for advice on purchasing a capesize bulk carrier. After identifying a suitable ship with his... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Judgments; Price; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Negotiation Offer; Mathematical Methods; Ship Transportation; Valuation; Consulting Industry; Shipping Industry

17 Dec 2007
Research & Ideas

The Rise of Medical Tourism

India [see article], treats indigent people from neighboring countries—Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma—who suffer from heart disease and can't afford surgery. Treatment for them is free. The hospital is able to provide it because surgical View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Health; Medical Devices & Supplies

Web

Frequently Asked Questions | HBS Online

LinkedIn, please use the following: Business Analytics is an 8-week, 40-hour online certificate program from Harvard Business School. Business Analytics introduces quantitative methods used to analyze data and make better management... View Details

28 Mar 2023
Blog Post

Meet Professor Elisabeth Paulson: A Conversation on Life, Research, and Teaching

mom was a statistics professor, so a career in academia was always something that I considered. During undergrad, I started doing research and was involved in high school tutoring programs. I loved diving deep into complex problems, and helping others apply View Details

1972
Chapter

Random Walks and Technical Theories: Some Additional Evidence

By: George A. Benington and Michael C. Jensen

Keywords: Mathematical Methods

SSRN

1979
Article

An Extension and Simple Proof of a Constrained Lattice Fix-Point Theorem

By: C. Blair and A. E. Roth

Keywords: Mathematical Methods

January 1975
Article

A Lattice Fixed-Point Theorem with Constraints

By: A. E. Roth

Keywords: Mathematical Methods

2018
Working Paper

Bundling Incentives in (Many-to-Many) Matching with Contracts

By: Jonathan Ma and Scott Duke Kominers

In many-to-many matching with contracts, the way in which contracts are specified can affect the set of stable equilibrium outcomes. Consequently, agents may be incentivized to modify the set of contracts upfront. We consider one simple way in which agents may do so:... View Details

Keywords: Matching With Contracts; Contract Design; Bundling-proofness; Substitutability; Mathematical Methods