Website - Publications - Faculty & Research

04 Nov 2011
Working Paper Summaries

Multi-Sided Platforms

Keywords: by Andrei Hagiu & Julian Wright

24 Oct 2011
Research & Ideas

The Yelp Factor: Are Consumer Reviews Good for Business?

more purchase decisions, websites must be concerned with the larger picture of all the factors that create trust between them and their users. "Reviews are one piece of the reputation puzzle, but a comprehensive reputation system... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Food & Beverage

21 Jul 2022
Research & Ideas

Did Pandemic Stimulus Funds Spur the Rise of 'Meme Stocks'?

boom. Retail investors—who buy shares directly through websites like Robinhood rather than investment firms or employer-sponsored plans—snapped up stocks that appeared to have poorer prospects under traditional metrics. Remember the... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Financial Services

10 Feb 2022
Research & Ideas

Why Are Prices So High Right Now—and Will They Ever Return to Normal?

some categories,” he says. “Those shortages are putting pressure on prices. And they're still contributing to the high levels of inflation we see now.” Shifting shortages on store shelves To examine the relationship between stockouts and inflation, the researchers... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

29 Nov 2022
Research & Ideas

Is There a Method to Musk’s Madness on Twitter?

and social graph of Twitter stays active. There are a lot of features on the surface that you can play around with—say, the blue checkmark—but most importantly, he needs to make sure the website and basic app continue to run. For... View Details

Keywords: by Christina Pazzanese, Harvard Gazette; Technology

24 Oct 2023
Research & Ideas

When Tech Platforms Identify Black-Owned Businesses, White Customers Buy

before and after Yelp introduced its “Black-owned” button in June 2020. The authors merged this with other data to identify Black-owned businesses that did and did not receive the label. Among other things, the study found that Yelp’s new feature increased platform... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald; Food & Beverage

11 Jan 2021
Research & Ideas

Is A/B Testing Effective? Evidence from 35,000 Startups

products... You make more changes overall, so [adopting A/B testing] doesn’t come at the cost of big ideas.” On average, firms that used A/B testing to select the best features for their websites had higher page views, along with visitors... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

13 Nov 2013
Research & Ideas

Should Men’s Products Fear a Woman’s Touch?

Porsche person wouldn't do that because that shows a lack of respect to the car.' " Method #2—The "Not Real" Strategy: Derogating the legitimacy of the brand extension product itself. Porsche claims on its website that... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Consumer Products; Food & Beverage; Auto

27 Jun 2016
Research & Ideas

These Management Practices, Like Certain Technologies, Boost Company Performance

that allows companies to score themselves. For those interested in creating a more in-depth picture of their strengths and weaknesses, the website includes instructions for firms to run the complete survey across all levels of their... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

July 2019 (Revised May 2021)
Case

Acelerex

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In early 2019, Randell Johnson, Founder and Chief Executive of Acelerex, was reflecting on the company’s first year of rapid growth and the challenges of scaling the business that lay ahead. Acelerex was riding the waves of change taking place in electrical power grids... View Details

Keywords: Energy; Energy Sources; Growth Management; Expansion; Global Strategy; Cash Flow; Energy Industry; Web Services Industry; Consulting Industry

Citation

Educators

Purchase

21 Oct 2015
Research & Ideas

How to Predict if a New Business Idea is Any Good

In 2008, entrepreneur Brian Chesky and his two San Francisco roommates made the rounds of Silicon Valley VC firms with what they thought was a great idea: a website and mobile app that would allow homeowners to open their homes to... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Accommodations; Financial Services

31 Aug 2015
Research & Ideas

How Ben Franklin’s ‘Way to Wealth’ Introduced American Capitalism to the World

Collections. Reinert, in conjunction with Carpenter and HBS Knowledge and Library Services, even developed a Way to Wealth website to provide students and scholars with an online, one-stop-shop that includes a database of editions of The... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

2007
Text Book

Teaching the Moral Leader: A Literature-Based Leadership Course

By: Sandra J. Sucher

This book is a comprehensive, practical manual to help instructors integrate moral leadership in their own courses, drawing from the experience and resources of the Harvard Business School course "The Moral Leader," an MBA elective taken by thousands of HBS students... View Details

Keywords: Competency and Skills; Curriculum and Courses; Moral Sensibility; Body of Literature; Books; Leadership; Personal Development and Career

Citation

Find at Harvard

23 Jan 2013
Research & Ideas

Three-Dimensional Strategy: Winning the Multisided Platform

you have to interact with both the thredUP website and its sellers." Clearing The Air A general misunderstanding of how MSPs work has hampered entrepreneurial attempts to create them and venture investments to bankroll them, says Hagiu.... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

13 Nov 2019
Research & Ideas

Don't Turn Your Marketing Function Over to AI Just Yet

factors that influence consumer behavior are so varied and complex, and the data that companies collect is so rich, just modeling how consumers search a single retail website is a monumental task. Each company’s data are so firm and... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

09 Jan 2020
Book

Rethinking Business Strategy in the Age of AI

reshaping competition? Marco Iansiti: For the first time in many years, there’s a fundamentally different way of solving the problem of meeting a customer’s needs. Airbnb is a classic example. If I want a room to spend the night, I can go on either the Marriott View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

25 Mar 2015
HBS Case

Tate’s Digital Makeover Transforms the Traditional Museum

conversation of Web 2.0, many museum websites have become increasingly antiquated, serving as little more than static virtual brochures for the institution. To remain current, museums must find new ways to digitally interact with... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Education

30 Jan 2020
Research & Ideas

The Upside of Highlighting a Product's Downsides

transactions. For five months, the bank randomly offered customers on its websites two sales pitches—one that emphasized a credit card’s features and another that also highlighted downsides that would normally only appear in the terms and... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

26 Jul 2022
Research & Ideas

Burgers with Bugs? What Happens When Restaurants Ignore Online Reviews

There’s a saying in hospitality: The customer is always right. In fact, customers might be more influential than ever, according to a study of online restaurant reviews. Yelp, the website where consumers share their service experiences,... View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin; Entertainment & Recreation; Food & Beverage; Retail

14 Jul 2014
Research & Ideas

Pay Attention To Your ‘Extreme Consumers’

everyone. Click to watch. This past year, when it came time for students in the FIELD course to perform market research in advance of their trip overseas, Avery and Norton urged them to look for their own extreme consumers in order to obtain out-of-the-ordinary... View Details