More from these Authors

• 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, offering incentives, or pooling 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 | October 2018 (Revised October 2019)

  Arlan Hamilton and Backstage Capital

  Laura Huang and Sarah Mehta

  Frustrated by an inability to convince existing venture capital firms to invest in companies led by women, people of color, and LGBT founders, Arlan Hamilton started her own firm, Backstage Capital, in 2015. Hamilton understood the untapped potential of companies run by underrepresented founders, a group historically excluded from venture capital funding, and was eager to demonstrate the significant returns on investment in such companies. This case explores Hamilton’s nontraditional VC background and her mission to fund startups where at least one founder of the company identifies as a woman, person of color, or LGBT. Now, three years after its founding, Hamilton is considering launching both an accelerator and a fund that will invest exclusively in Black women.

  Keywords: black leadership; LGBTQ; women; people of color; Entrepreneurship; Mission and Purpose; Venture Capital; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Identity; Personal Characteristics; Prejudice and Bias; Social Issues; Diversity; Gender; Race;

  Citation:

  Huang, Laura, and Sarah Mehta. "Arlan Hamilton and Backstage Capital." Harvard Business School Case 419-029, October 2018. (Revised October 2019.)  View Details

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• Teaching Note | HBS Case Collection | September 2019

  Boxed

  Laura Huang and Andy Wu

  Boxed.com (“Boxed”) is an ambitious e-commerce retailer start-up, founded by visionary CEO Chieh Huang in 2013. From starting in Huang’s garage in 2013, to winning Emerging E-Retailer of the Year in 2016, to having 4 operational distribution centers in 2018, Boxed used a variety of strategies in order to gain customers and grow its presence. This case explores the journey that the scrappy, new entrant navigated as it competed against large, goliath players in an already established retail and e-commerce industry.

  Keywords: e-commerce; entrepreneurial management; Business Startups; Leadership; Strategy; Success; Retail Industry;

  Citation:

  Huang, Laura, and Andy Wu. "Boxed." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 720-399, September 2019.  View Details

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