Spotlight
Preference Signaling in Matching Markets
Peter Coles, Alexey Kushnir, and Muriel Niederle. American Economic Journal: Microeconomics (forthcoming)
In this paper we study how a signaling mechanism, where each worker can send a signal of interest to one employer, facilitates matches in such markets. We find that introducing a signaling mechanism increases the welfare of workers and the number of matches, while the change in firm welfare is ambiguous.
Interactivity's Unanticipated Consequences for
Marketers and Marketing
John Deighton, Journal of Interactive Marketing, 23 (2009) 4-10.
The digital take-over of marketing is not following the model of classical direct marketing - ever deeper and more intrusive penetration into the lives of consumers. Instead many digital technologies do just the opposite - they equip consumers to defend themselves against intrusion and surveillance.
Pricing and Efficiency in the Market for IP Addresses
Benjamin Edelman and Michael Schwarz, Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 12-020, September 2011. (Revised November 2012.)
We examine the burgeoning market for IP addresses, numeric identifiers needed by all computers connected to the Internet. We evaluate market mechanisms to ensure that addresses are used efficiently, and we predict price trends in this unusual market.
Platform Envelopment
Thomas Eisenmann, Geoffrey Parker, Marshall Van Alstyne. Strategic Management Journal 32, no. 12 (December 2011): 1270-1285.
Platform providers can use bundling to envelop adjacent platform markets in which incumbents are otherwise sheltered by network effects.
Angry Birds
Sunil Gupta and Dharmishta Rood. Harvard Business School Case 512-033, March 2012.
Within months of its launch in December 2009, Angry Birds, a mobile game created by a small Finnish company, Rovio Entertainment Ltd., became an international hit. With the goal of making Rovio the next Disney, Mikael Hed, CEO of Rovio, was planning to create an Angry Birds movie -was Angry Birds a fad that would fade away or was Rovio on a path to build a media empire?
Entry into Platform-Based Markets
Feng Zhu and Marco Iansiti, Strategic Management Journal, forthcoming
This paper examines the relative importance of platform quality, indirect network effects, and consumer expectations on the success of entrants in platform-based markets.
The Novelty Paradox & Bias for Normal Science: Evidence from Randomized Medical Grant Proposal Evaluations
Kevin J. Boudreau, Eva C. Guinan, Karim R. Lakhani, and Christoph Riedl. Havard Business School Working Paper, No. 13-053, December 2012.
Central to any innovation process is the evaluation of proposed projects and allocation of resources. We investigate whether novel research projects, those deviating from existing research paradigms, are treated with a negative bias in expert evaluations.
Reviews, Reputation, and Revenue: The Case of Yelp.com
Mike Luca. Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 12-016, September 2011. (Revise and Resubmit at the American Economic Journal - Applied Economics.)
Do online consumer reviews affect restaurant demand? This paper analyzes this question, combining data from Yelp and the Washington State Department of Revenue to quantify the impact of Yelp on restaurant sales.
Wikipedia: Project Esperanza
Mikołaj Jan Piskorski, Andreea Gorbatai, and Tiona Zuzul. Harvard Business School Case 712-493, May 2012.
Just as Jimmy Donal Wales, the co-founder of the largest volunteer-run on-line encyclopedia - Wikipedia - was stepping down, the editor community was collecting opinions to decide whether to close down an informal association of Wikipedia editors called Esperanza. Observers could not help but wonder what effect the decision will have on the types of editors Wikipedia will attract and the content they will produce.