Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • 2023
  • Working Paper
  • HBS Working Paper Series

Learning from People Like Me: The Impact of Demographic Diversity on Invisible Knowledge Consumption and Performance in Online Knowledge Exchange Platforms

By: Laura R. Huber, Jacqueline N. Lane, Haylee Ham and Karim R. Lakhani
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:37
ShareBar

Abstract

The proliferation of online knowledge-sharing and online learning platforms with broad accessibility to participants across the globe has instigated a shift in how people acquire knowledge and new skills. These platforms bring together a demographically diverse pool of individuals, creating opportunities for individuals to tap into diverse experiences, skills, and cultures to enhance their learning experiences and improve performance. However, a persistent question is to what extent opportunities to engage and consume content from demographically diverse peers are beneficial to individuals’ performance on the platform. To address this question, we study 2.5 million online interactions among 12,000 working professionals enrolled in an online business training program offered by a large elite U.S. university over a six-year period. Our empirical strategy exploits a natural experiment setting in which participants are randomly assigned to cohorts of peers as well as fine-grained data on individuals’ knowledge consumption patterns on the course platform. Our results show that being assigned to a cohort with more demographically similar peers causally increases performance and course completion. Then turning to the impact of individuals’ knowledge consumption patterns on the platform, we find that the positive effect of demographically similar peers on performance is mediated by individuals’ tendency to consume content from individuals who are like them in terms of age, gender, and nationality. Our study makes several important contributions to the literature on online knowledge sharing and has important implications for the effective design of knowledge exchange and learning platforms.

Keywords

Homophily; Online Courses; Social Engagement; Business Skills Training; Business Education; Internet and the Web; Knowledge Sharing; Age

Citation

Huber, Laura R., Jacqueline N. Lane, Haylee Ham, and Karim R. Lakhani. "Learning from People Like Me: The Impact of Demographic Diversity on Invisible Knowledge Consumption and Performance in Online Knowledge Exchange Platforms." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 21-072, December 2020. (Revised August 2023.)
  • Read Now

About The Authors

Jacqueline Ng Lane

Technology and Operations Management
→More Publications

Karim R. Lakhani

Technology and Operations Management
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • 2023
    • Faculty Research

    Navigating the Jagged Technological Frontier: Field Experimental Evidence of the Effects of AI on Knowledge Worker Productivity and Quality

    By: Frabrizio Dell'Acqua, Edward McFowland III, Ethan Mollick, Hila Lifshitz-Assaf, Katherine C. Kellogg, Saran Rajendran, Lisa Krayer, François Candelon and Karim R. Lakhani
    • 2023
    • Faculty Research

    The Crowdless Future? How Generative AI Is Shaping the Future of Human Crowdsourcing

    By: Léonard Boussioux, Jacqueline N. Lane, Miaomiao Zhang, Vladimir Jacimovic and Karim R. Lakhani
    • April 2023
    • Research Policy

    The Subjective Expected Utility Approach and a Framework for Defining Project Risk in Terms of Novelty <i>and</i> Feasibility—A Response to Franzoni and Stephan (2023), ‘Uncertainty and Risk-Taking in Science’

    By: Jacqueline N. Lane
More from the Authors
  • Navigating the Jagged Technological Frontier: Field Experimental Evidence of the Effects of AI on Knowledge Worker Productivity and Quality By: Frabrizio Dell'Acqua, Edward McFowland III, Ethan Mollick, Hila Lifshitz-Assaf, Katherine C. Kellogg, Saran Rajendran, Lisa Krayer, François Candelon and Karim R. Lakhani
  • The Crowdless Future? How Generative AI Is Shaping the Future of Human Crowdsourcing By: Léonard Boussioux, Jacqueline N. Lane, Miaomiao Zhang, Vladimir Jacimovic and Karim R. Lakhani
  • The Subjective Expected Utility Approach and a Framework for Defining Project Risk in Terms of Novelty <i>and</i> Feasibility—A Response to Franzoni and Stephan (2023), ‘Uncertainty and Risk-Taking in Science’ By: Jacqueline N. Lane
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College