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  • 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
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  • 26 Feb 2018
  • Research & Ideas

The Airbnb Effect: Cheaper Rooms for Travelers, Less Revenue for Hotels

FangXiaNuo Airbnb is revolutionizing the lodging market by keeping hotel rates in check and making additional rooms available in the country's hottest travel spots during peak periods when hotel rooms often sell out and rates skyrocket, a... View Details
Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Travel
  • May 2021 (Revised August 2021)
  • Case

Airbnb During the Pandemic: Stakeholder Capitalism Faces a Critical Test

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Allison Ciechanover
As the COVID pandemic spread in early 2020, global travel ground to a halt. For Airbnb, the San Francisco-based platform for renting accommodations, the impact was both swift and severe as revenues plummeted more than 70% over the prior year. Responding to the sudden... View Details
Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Corporate Governance; Crisis Management; Leadership; Digital Platforms; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Value Creation; Decision Making; Goals and Objectives; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Travel Industry; Tourism Industry; Service Industry; United States
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  • July 2021 (Revised August 2021)
  • Supplement

Airbnb Emerges from the Pandemic: Lessons for Stakeholder Governance (B)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Allison M. Ciechanover
As the COVID pandemic spread in early 2020, global travel ground to a halt. For Airbnb, the San Francisco-based platform for renting accommodations, the impact was both swift and severe as revenues plummeted more than 70% over the prior year. Responding to the sudden... View Details
Keywords: Business and Stakeholder Relations; Corporate Governance; Crisis Management; Leadership; Two-Sided Platforms; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Value Creation; Decision Making; Goals and Objectives; Travel Industry; Tourism Industry; Service Industry; United States
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  • 25 May 2021
  • Research & Ideas

White Airbnb Hosts Earn More. Can AI Shrink the Racial Gap?

services to e-commerce platforms like eBay and Uber. “If other companies invest in building similar race-blind algorithms, that may even the playing field for users,” Zhang says. Without AI, white hosts earn more Airbnb has faced... View Details
Keywords: by Lane Lambert; Technology; Accommodations
  • December 2014 (Revised August 2024)
  • Case

HomeAway: Organizing the Vacation Rental Industry

By: Rory McDonald, Feng Zhu and Cheng Gao
In less than 10 years, cofounders Brian Sharples and Carl Shepherd had transformed HomeAway from just another Internet startup into the world's leading vacation-rental marketplace—a global online platform that links customers seeking vacation-home rentals to the... View Details
Keywords: Strategy; Innovation; Technology; Acquisitions; Operations Management; Digital Platforms; Acquisition; Entrepreneurship; Business Model; Disruptive Innovation; Disruption; Accommodations Industry
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  • 25 Apr 2023
  • Op-Ed

How SHEIN and Temu Conquered Fast Fashion—and Forged a New Business Model

fashion crowd in 2019. Today, its revenues exceed $24 billion, making it the world’s biggest fashion retailer. It offers a rapidly changing assortment of affordable clothing, shoes, accessories, and beauty products for young women and,... View Details
Keywords: by John Deighton; Fashion; Retail; Consumer Products
  • 09 Jan 2020
  • Book

Rethinking Business Strategy in the Age of AI

a traditional business—the gym—into an $8 billion digital offering that pulled in more than $700 million in revenue during the last fiscal year. Foley credits the magic of today’s technology, including software, data, and communication... View Details
Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman
  • 24 Oct 2011
  • Research & Ideas

The Yelp Factor: Are Consumer Reviews Good for Business?

reviews over professional critics, but also because of its historical database that tracks every review. Luca compared the ratings over time with revenue data from the state of Washington to gauge how reviews impacted restaurants' bottom... View Details
Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Food & Beverage
  • 22 Jul 2019
  • Book

How to Be a Digital Platform Leader

business for 20 years. Its acquisition of Jet.com, however, let Walmart aggressively expand the top line of its platform revenue and bring in a team that understood platforms. Although still far behind Amazon, Walmart’s acquisition of... View Details
Keywords: by Martha Lagace
  • 20 Sep 2019
  • Research & Ideas

Solving the Riddle of How Companies Grow Over Time

Sant’Anna; and Federico Tamagni, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna. They define growth as “a process by which organizations pursue market opportunities and the acquisition and accumulation of the resources required to exploit those opportunities.” View Details
Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Manufacturing
  • 14 Mar 2017
  • First Look

First Look at New Research, March 14

startup, which had raised over $130 million in venture capital, had seen revenue grow 100% and gross margin double. Would moving abroad expand thredUP's total addressable market and help position the company for an IPO? Or would it prove... View Details
Keywords: Sean Silverthorne
  • 17 Aug 2015
  • Research & Ideas

Who is Boss in the Sharing Economy?

the ride-hailing app). In contrast, transferable decisions can be made by either party—the type of car an Uber driver uses; the kinds of details an Airbnb host lists about an apartment offered for rent; or how a hair stylist at a salon... View Details
Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Service; Technology
  • 24 Apr 2012
  • First Look

First Look: April 24

minds of those responsible for governance. When a business is profitable and paying healthy dividends to its stockholders, fraudulent activities and accounting irregularities can go unnoticed. However, when revenue and cash flow decline,... View Details
Keywords: Carmen Nobel
  • 12 Apr 2016
  • First Look

April 12, 2016

company examples such as eBay, Lending Club, and Airbnb to offer practical advice for avoiding those hazards. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=50940 April 2016 Harvard Business Review Culture Is Not the... View Details
Keywords: Sean Silverthorne
  • 13 Dec 2016
  • First Look

December 13, 2016

protection than SOEs. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=51975 December 2016 Harvard Business Review Fixing Discrimination in Online Marketplaces By: Fisman, Ray, and Michael Luca Abstract—Online marketplaces such as eBay, Uber, and View Details
Keywords: Carmen Nobel
  • 03 Feb 2015
  • First Look

First Look: February 3

property owners and managers who supply them. The case traces HomeAway's founding and acquisition-led growth, its 2011 IPO, and the core elements of its subscription-based business model. By 2014, incumbent travel giants like TripAdvisor and high-profile startups like... View Details
Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

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