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• Article | Harvard Business Review | October 14, 2019

  Designing Better Online Review Systems

  Geoff Donaker, Hyunjin Kim and Michael Luca

  Online reviews are transforming the way consumers choose products and services of all sorts. We turn to TripAdvisor to plan a vacation, Zocdoc to find a doctor, and Yelp to choose a new restaurant. Reviews can create value for buyers and sellers alike, but only if they attain a critical level of quantity and quality. The authors describe principles for setting the incentives, design choices, and rules that help review platforms thrive. To address a shortage of reviews, companies can seed them by hiring reviewers or drawing reviews from other platforms; offer incentives; or pool products. To address selection bias, they can require reviews, allow private comments, and design prompts carefully. To combat fraudulent and strategic reviews, they can set rules for reviewers and call in moderators—whether employees, the community, or algorithms.

  Keywords: reviews; Web Sites; Design; Quality; Reputation;

  Citation:

  Donaker, Geoff, Hyunjin Kim, and Michael Luca. "Designing Better Online Review Systems." Harvard Business Review 97, no. 6 (November–December 2019): 122–129.  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | January 2019 (Revised October 2019)

  KITEA (A): Democratizing Furniture in Morocco

  Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Gamze Yucaoglu

  The case opens in 2013 as Amine Benkirane, founder and CEO of the leading Moroccan furniture company KITEA, contemplates the loss his company has incurred for the first time in its 20-year history. The case then describes KITEA’s origins and provides a detailed overview of the business plan that enabled Benkirane to bring affordable modern furniture in flatpacks to the Moroccan market, which had previously been dominated by unorganized artisans. At the beginning of 2010, KITEA was a market leader with a robust market share of 24%. However, Benkirane read about rumors that IKEA was planning to enter the Moroccan market. The case explores in detail KITEA’s efforts to prepare for the increased competition. In 2013, KITEA found itself in a difficult situation, facing a downturn in the economy, a slowdown in sales, a delayed store opening, and souring creditor sentiment following the news about IKEA’s entry. Would KITEA be able to bounce back and remain competitive when IKEA entered the market?

  Keywords: retail; KITEA; furniture; furniture industry; entry strategy; responding to entry; Localization; competitive interaction; Private Sector; For-Profit Firms; Business Model; Business Strategy; Strategic Planning; Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Adaptation; Corporate Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Retail Industry; Africa; Morocco;

  Citation:

  Casadesus-Masanell, Ramon, and Gamze Yucaoglu. "KITEA (A): Democratizing Furniture in Morocco." Harvard Business School Case 719-420, January 2019. (Revised October 2019.)  View Details

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• Supplement | HBS Case Collection | October 2019

  Airbus vs. Boeing (G): The Dreamliner Takes to the Skies (2011)

  Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Karen Elterman

  This case describes the first commercial flight of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner in 2011, three years after originally planned, as well as the first commercial flight of Airbus's superjumbo, the A380, in 2007. It also describes the companies' current endeavors in 2011, including Airbus's work on the A350 and A320neo and Boeing's development of the 737 MAX.

  Keywords: Product Development; Air Transportation; Projects; Competition; Air Transportation Industry; Manufacturing Industry;

  Citation:

  Casadesus-Masanell, Ramon, and Karen Elterman. "Airbus vs. Boeing (G): The Dreamliner Takes to the Skies (2011)." Harvard Business School Supplement 720-382, October 2019.  View Details

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