Markets
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- 07 Dec 2018
- Working Paper Summaries
Oral History and Writing the Business History of Emerging Markets
Oral history is a valuable resource to explore how businesses developed and functioned in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, regions with a growing share of global economic activity and the majority of the world’s population. While oral history is not uncritical, it provides openings for opinions, voices, and judgements on events on which there was often silence.
- 28 Nov 2018
- HBS Case
On Target: Rethinking the Retail Website
Target is one big-brand retailer that seems to have survived and even thrived in the apocalyptic retail landscape. What's its secret? Srikant Datar discusses the company's relentless focus on online data. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 26 Nov 2018
- Working Paper Summaries
Demand Estimation in Models of Imperfect Competition
The study shows how knowledge about firm behavior can be modeled to better predict demand. Firms tend to raise prices in response to higher demand, so observed relationships between price and quantity can be quite misleading. The authors provide an adjustment that can be used when price experiments or instrumental variables are not available.
- 20 Nov 2018
- Cold Call Podcast
Building a Nonprofit Marketplace to Feed America
Feeding America manages a network of more than 200 food banks nationwide. Scott Duke Kominers and Canice Prendergast discuss how the organization designed a fair and efficient marketplace for food distribution. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 19 Nov 2018
- Sharpening Your Skills
E-Santa: Is Retail Ready for Digital Christmas?
The retail industry is in such a spin over multichannel strategy, mall closings, and big brand shutterings, to name a few pressures, that even Santa can't keep track of it all. Here is recent Harvard Business School research on digital trends shaping how we shop and sell. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 12 Nov 2018
- Working Paper Summaries
Product Quality and Entering Through Tying: Experimental Evidence
This study empirically explores Google’s decision to tie its new reviews product to the top of its search results, excluding competitors. Results suggest that such "tying" can facilitate dominant platforms’ entry into adjacent markets, even when the tied product is of worse quality compared to existing options.
- 08 Nov 2018
- Cold Call Podcast
Could Big Data Replace the Creative Director at the Gap?
Is it time to throw out the creative director and rely on big data to predict what consumers want to wear next? Assistant Professor Ayelet Israeli discusses how Gap CEO Art Peck considers a bold idea to boost sales. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 30 Oct 2018
- Working Paper Summaries
Design Rules, Volume 2: How Technology Shapes Organizations: Chapter 14 Introducing Open Platforms and Business Ecosystems
Platform systems have existed in various forms for centuries. Beginning in the 1980s and 1990s, newly competitive technology of open platform systems based on digital technology and modular architectures changed the structure of entire industries. This paper lays the groundwork for a comprehensive theoretical investigation of open platform systems.
- 29 Oct 2018
- Research & Ideas
Hunting for a Hot Job in High Tech? Try 'Digitization Economist'
Amazon has more economists on staff than any university economics department, and technology firms are snapping them up the minute they graduate, says Michael Luca. Why? Call it the economics of digitization. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 23 Oct 2018
- Working Paper Summaries
Opportunistic Returns and Dynamic Pricing: Empirical Evidence from Online Retailing in Emerging Markets
Dynamic pricing is widely applied in industries like airline ticketing, ride-sharing, and online retailing. This paper identifies two downsides of dynamic pricing: opportunistic returns and strategic choice of payment method. The impact can be significant and has implications for managers and researchers.
- 16 Oct 2018
- Working Paper Summaries
Shipping Fees and Product Assortment in Online Retail
This study highlights a strong link between an online retailer’s product assortment decisions and shipping policies in determining purchase outcomes and profits. Consumers are less sensitive to shipping fees than to product prices, but free shipping for orders above the minimum is a strong motivator for increasing average basket sizes.
- 10 Oct 2018
- Research & Ideas
The Legacy of Boaty McBoatface: Beware of Customers Who Vote
Companies that encourage consumers to vote online should be forewarned—they may expect more than you promise, according to research by Michael Norton, Leslie John, and colleagues. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 27 Sep 2018
- Working Paper Summaries
Large-Scale Demand Estimation with Search Data
Online retailers face the challenge of leveraging the rich data they collect on their websites to uncover insights about consumer behavior. This study proposes a practical and tractable model of economic behavior that can reveal helpful patterns of cross-product substitution. The model can be used to simulate optimal prices.
- 20 Aug 2018
- Research & Ideas
Bargain Hunters Beware: A Store's 'Original Price' Might Not Be After All
Retailers often compare a "sale" price to the original price. Donald Ngwe says consumers should be skeptical of those original prices — and so should regulators. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 16 Jul 2018
- Working Paper Summaries
The Impact of Increasing Search Frictions on Online Shopping Behavior: Evidence from a Field Experiment
With even minor changes to the design of an online store, sellers may get more full-priced sales from price-insensitive shoppers. As shoppers spend more time on the website given higher search frictions, they may also be considering a larger set of products.
- 13 Jun 2018
- Sharpening Your Skills
That Costs HOW Much?
Beyond the attributes of the product itself, price is probably the leading determinant of success in the marketplace. What does it takes to get the price right? Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 13 Jun 2018
- Working Paper Summaries
Learning to Become a Taste Expert
How should we learn to discriminate a fine wine or chocolate? Tradition says use a flavor wheel and map the taste into vocabulary. We find that works for novices, but, beyond a point, it is counterproductive. Enthusiasts perform more like experts when they abandon language and just “draw the shape” of the taste.
- 30 May 2018
- Research & Ideas
Should Retailers Match Their Own Prices Online and in Stores?
For multichannel retailers, pricing strategy can be difficult to execute and confusing to shoppers. Research by Elie Ofek and colleagues offers alternative approaches to getting the price right. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 25 May 2018
- Working Paper Summaries
Trust and Disintermediation: Evidence from an Online Freelance Marketplace
Intermediaries such as brokers, distributors, and agents all face a risk of disintermediation, when two sides circumvent the intermediary and thus avoid the intermediary’s fees. This study of a large online freelance marketplace finds that enhanced user trust increases this risk, alongside other contributing factors like being geographically near one another, having easily divisible jobs, and clients themselves having high ratings.
Marketplace Scalability and Strategic Use of Platform Investment
One well-known feature of marketplace platforms like Airbnb and eBay is their scalability. This paper identifies the strategic trade-off and implications for scalability when a platform provides services to existing and potential sellers that help reduce their fixed costs of running the business. Timing this investment is an important consideration for maximizing marketplace scalability.