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  • September 2015
  • Technical Note

The On-Demand Economy

By: Cynthia A. Montgomery, James Weber and Elizabeth Anne Watkins
This note describes the emerging on-demand economy, also referred to as the sharing economy. The note highlights several companies including Uber and Airbnb that exemplify this new mode of competition, a model that threatens to disrupt traditional firms. Uber provides... View Details
Keywords: Regulation; Reform; Disruption; Disruptive Innovation; Strategy; Technological Innovation; Labor; Employment; Working Conditions; Human Capital; Rights; Organizational Design; Social and Collaborative Networks; Service Industry
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  • 2020
  • White Paper

Building the On-Demand Workforce

By: Joseph B. Fuller, Manjari Raman, James Palano, Allison Bailey, Nithya Vaduganathan, Elizabeth Kaufman, Renée Laverdière and Sibley Lovett
The right talent, in the right place, at the right time, is the equation for success in today’s world. In an era of technological change, demographic shifts, and economic uncertainty, companies can enhance their ability to compete by building a flexible... View Details
Keywords: Future Of Work; On-demand Economy; Workforce; On-demand Workforce; Competitive Advantage; Human Capital; Talent and Talent Management; Recruitment
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  • 2016
  • Working Paper

Operations in the On-Demand Economy: Staffing Services with Self-Scheduling Capacity

By: Itai Gurvich, Martin Lariviere and Antonio Moreno
Motivated by recent innovations in service delivery such as ride-sharing services and work-from-home call centers, we study capacity management when workers self-schedule. Our service provider chooses capacity to maximize its profit (revenue from served customers minus... View Details
Keywords: Strategic Servers; On-demand Economy; Independent Capacity; Distributed Systems; Uber; Service Operations; Performance Capacity
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  • November–December 2020
  • Article

Rethinking the On-Demand Workforce

By: Joseph B. Fuller, Manjari Raman, Allison Bailey and Nithya Vaduganathan
As companies struggle with chronic skills shortages and changing labor demographics, a new generation of talent platforms, offering on-demand access to highly trained workers, has begun to help. These platforms include marketplaces for premium expertise (such as Toptal... View Details
Keywords: Talent Acquisition; Platforms; Skilled Labor Recruitment; Gig Economy; Talent and Talent Management; Selection and Staffing; Internet and the Web; Strategy; Digital Platforms
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  • 17 Nov 2020
  • News

Building the On-Demand Workforce (Report)

Keywords: gig workers; gig economy
  • 17 Nov 2020
  • News

High skills freelance economy surges as digital talent platforms help build new on-demand workforce.

  • March 2016 (Revised February 2017)
  • Case

Hello Alfred: Come Home Happy

By: Joseph B. Fuller and Carin-Isabel Knoop
On a mission to "automate the on-demand economy," Harvard Business School classmates Marcela Sapone and Jessica Beck launched Hello Alfred in 2013 to provide subscribers with an "Alfred" to complete various chores for a monthly fee. In early 2016, the company has built... View Details
Keywords: On-demand Economy; Sharing Economy; Technology Startup; Technology; Growth Strategy; Business Startups; Business Growth and Maturation; Entrepreneurship; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Strategic Planning; Service Industry; United States; Boston; Cambridge; New York (city, NY); California
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  • 01 Dec 2019
  • News

Accelerating a Gas-on-demand Startup

Service with a Smile: Classmates Nick Alexander (left) and Bryan Frist with one of Yoshi’s service-on-demand vehicles. (photo by Cayce Clifford) The first purpose-built, drive-in gas station opened in Pittsburgh in December 1913. The gleaming Gulf station finally made... View Details
Keywords: April White; startups; on-demand economy; entrepreneurship; Personal Services
  • March 2017
  • Teaching Note

Hello Alfred: Come Home Happy

By: Joseph B. Fuller and Carin-Isabel Knoop
Teaching Note for HBS No. 316-154. View Details
Keywords: On-demand Economy; Sharing Economy; Technology Startup; Technology; Growth Strategy; Business Startups; Business Growth and Maturation; Entrepreneurship; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Strategic Planning; Service Industry; United States; Boston; Cambridge; New York (city, NY); California
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  • November 2015 (Revised January 2017)
  • Case

Uber: Changing the Way the World Moves

By: Youngme Moon
In 2015, Uber is building what may be the largest point-to-point transportation network of its kind; it is literally changing the way the world moves. But unlike traditional transportation logistics companies like FedEx, Uber has an incredibly lightweight... View Details
Keywords: Service; Innovation; Pricing; Customer Loyalty; Uber; Taxi; Sharing Economy; On-demand Economy; Marketing; Operations; Strategy; Disruption; Customer Satisfaction; Transportation; Consumer Behavior
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    Natalie Epstein

    Natalie Epstein is a PhD Candidate in Technology and Operations Management at Harvard Business School. Her research focuses on service design strategies for on-demand operations. As the service industry accelerates, she is particularly... View Details

    • 28 Mar 2018
    • HBS Seminar

    Tim O’Reilly, O’Reilly Media

    • Web

    Managing the Future of Work

    retention while expanding the talent pool. The Gift of Global Talent: How Migration Shapes Business, Economy & Society By: William R. Kerr 27 May 2020 The global race for talent is on, with countries and businesses competing for the best... View Details
    • Web

    Students on the Job Market - Doctoral

    optimal export taxes depend on a trade-off between the good's military centrality and its distortion centrality. Military centrality is a network-adjusted sales share to the foreign military; distortion centrality reflects taxation misallocation in the domestic View Details
    • Web

    Healthy Outcomes - Managing the Future of Work

    outcomes such as higher retention and better engagement. Read the Report Featured Videos Joseph Fuller Why Employers Should Care About the Care Economy Why Employers Should Care About the Care Economy Joseph... View Details
    • Web

    Past Issues - Alumni

    of Osaka A demographic time bomb is squeezing Japan’s economy from all sides and threatening the future of its health care system. Kanoko Oishi has bet her career that she can help defuse the situation—with solutions that sound more like... View Details
    • Web

    Globalization - Faculty & Research

    practices in global organizations; cross-cultural learning and adaptation processes; the challenges of taking companies global; emerging-market companies with global potential; and international political economy and its impact on... View Details
    • 04 Jun 2001
    • What Do You Think?

    What’s the Future of the Subscription Model?

    can facilitate the transition. Is this a case in which the Internet economy is out of step with more traditional business practice? Or are we seeing an irreversible trend in some industries away from the subscription model, in part... View Details
    Keywords: by James Heskett
    • 15 Dec 2015
    • News

    The Year in Ideas 2015

    everything from cleaning to prescription pickup. But one of the biggest innovations was behind the scenes: Beck and Sapone eschewed the independent contract workers driving the on-demand economy in favor of... View Details
    Keywords: Julia Hanna, Christine Lejeune, Dan Morrell, and April White
    • 25 Aug 2022
    • News

    Full Stream Ahead

    stands out as the rare commodity that remains as lucrative in the good times as the bad, since we don’t switch off the radio—or stop watching the films or TV shows that license music and generate revenues—when the economy sours. The last... View Details
    Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; Performing Arts, Spectator Sports, and Related Industries; Arts, Entertainment