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- Faculty Publications (91)
- Summer 2016
- Article
Open Content, Linus' Law, and Neutral Point of View
By: Shane Greenstein and Feng Zhu
The diffusion of the Internet and digital technologies has enabled many organizations to use the open-content production model to produce and disseminate knowledge. While several prior studies have shown that the open-content production model can lead to high-quality...
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Keywords:
Prejudice and Bias;
Internet and the Web;
Balance and Stability;
Operations;
Knowledge Management;
Knowledge Dissemination
Greenstein, Shane, and Feng Zhu. "Open Content, Linus' Law, and Neutral Point of View." Information Systems Research 27, no. 3 (September 2016): 618–635.
- May 2016 (Revised March 2020)
- Case
Fasten: Challenging Uber and Lyft with a New Business Model
By: Feng Zhu and Angela Acocella
Fasten, a new ridesharing start-up in Boston, entered the scene in September 2015 hoping its unique vision of transparency for both driver and passenger and strategy to keep riders' fares low and charge drivers a flat $0.99 fee per ride as opposed to the 20-30%...
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Keywords:
Information Technology;
Transportation;
Business Startups;
Business Model;
Transportation Industry;
Boston
Zhu, Feng, and Angela Acocella. "Fasten: Challenging Uber and Lyft with a New Business Model." Harvard Business School Case 616-062, May 2016. (Revised March 2020.)
- Article
Products to Platforms: Making the Leap
By: Feng Zhu and Nathan Furr
Following the path of companies such as Apple and Amazon, more and more firms are trying to become not just product purveyors but also platform providers, facilitating direct connections between customers and other groups. Although launching a platform can generate new...
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Zhu, Feng, and Nathan Furr. "Products to Platforms: Making the Leap." Harvard Business Review 94, no. 4 (April 2016): 72–78.
- 2016
- Working Paper
The Impact of Patent Wars on Firm Strategy: Evidence from the Global Smartphone Market
By: Feng Zhu
Strategy scholars have documented in various empirical settings that firms seek and leverage stronger institutions to mitigate hazards and gain competitive advantage. In this paper, we argue that such “institution-seeking” behavior may not be confined to the pursuit of...
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Keywords:
Patent Wars;
Patent Litigation;
Intellectual Property (IP) Enforcement;
Institutions;
Smartphone;
Patent Thicket;
Digital Platforms;
Patents;
Lawsuits and Litigation;
Globalized Markets and Industries;
Business Strategy;
Telecommunications Industry
Paik, Yongwook, and Feng Zhu. "The Impact of Patent Wars on Firm Strategy: Evidence from the Global Smartphone Market." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 14-015, August 2013. (Revised March 2016.)
- November 2015
- Article
Cannibalization and Option Value Effects of Secondary Markets: Evidence from the U.S. Concert Industry
By: Victor Manuel Bennett, Robert Seamans and Feng Zhu
We examine how reducing search frictions in secondary markets affects the value appropriated by firms in primary markets. We characterize two effects on primary market firms caused by intermediaries entering secondary markets: the "cannibalization" and "option value"...
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Keywords:
Cannibalization Effect;
Option Value Effect;
Secondary Markets;
Concert Industry;
Craigslist;
Competition;
Distribution Channels;
Entertainment and Recreation Industry
Bennett, Victor Manuel, Robert Seamans, and Feng Zhu. "Cannibalization and Option Value Effects of Secondary Markets: Evidence from the U.S. Concert Industry." Strategic Management Journal 36, no. 11 (November 2015): 1599–1614.
- August 2015 (Revised January 2017)
- Technical Note
From Correlation to Causation
By: Feng Zhu and Karim R. Lakhani
To make sound business decisions, managers must be comfortable with the concepts of correlation and causation. This background note provides an overview of correlation and causation using examples and explains why the former does not imply the latter. It also describes...
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Zhu, Feng, and Karim R. Lakhani. "From Correlation to Causation." Harvard Business School Technical Note 616-009, August 2015. (Revised January 2017.)
- August 2015 (Revised May 2017)
- Case
TSG Hoffenheim: Football in the Age of Analytics
By: Feng Zhu, Karim R. Lakhani, Sascha L. Schmidt and Kerry Herman
In 2015, Dietmar Hopp, owner of Germany's Bundesliga football team TSG Hoffenheim and co-founder of the global enterprise software company SAP, was considering how to ensure long-term sustainability and competitiveness for TSG Hoffenheim. While historically a small...
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Zhu, Feng, Karim R. Lakhani, Sascha L. Schmidt, and Kerry Herman. "TSG Hoffenheim: Football in the Age of Analytics." Harvard Business School Case 616-010, August 2015. (Revised May 2017.)
- August 2015 (Revised February 2020)
- Teaching Note
Qihoo
By: Feng Zhu
- August 18, 2015
- Article
Microsoft's Bid to Make Outlook More Than Email
By: Feng Zhu
Zhu, Feng. "Microsoft's Bid to Make Outlook More Than Email." Harvard Business Review (website) (August 18, 2015).
- July 2015 (Revised July 2016)
- Case
SF Express: From Delivery to E-Commerce
By: Feng Zhu and David Lane
Shunfeng Express (SF), China's leading express delivery firm, in May 2014 opened the first 500 of several thousand Heike stores, which allowed consumers to buy and try out SF's own e-commerce offerings, in addition to other services. As an example of China's...
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Keywords:
Shunfeng Express;
Heike;
Express Delivery;
Alibaba;
Tencent;
JD.com;
China;
O2O;
Logistics;
Strategy;
Service Delivery;
China
Zhu, Feng, and David Lane. "SF Express: From Delivery to E-Commerce." Harvard Business School Case 616-003, July 2015. (Revised July 2016.)
- June 2015 (Revised April 2018)
- Case
WeChat: A Global Platform?
By: Willy Shih, Howard Yu and Feng Liu
WeChat was developed by Tencent Holdings as a lightweight messaging platform. As it grew quickly to become the most popular messaging app in China, it added a range of products and services that sat on top that were designed to appeal to a broad range of consumers and...
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Keywords:
Online Platforms;
China;
WeChat;
Tencent Holdings;
Globalization;
Internet and the Web;
Applications and Software;
Digital Platforms;
Telecommunications Industry;
Information Industry;
China
Shih, Willy, Howard Yu, and Feng Liu. "WeChat: A Global Platform?" Harvard Business School Case 615-049, June 2015. (Revised April 2018.)
- March 2015 (Revised September 2016)
- Technical Note
Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent: The Three Kingdoms of the Chinese Internet
By: Feng Zhu and Aaron Smith
This note provides an overview of the Chinese Internet by describing its leading three companies: Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent (BAT). While BAT had previously focused their respective businesses on distinct sectors of the online economy—Baidu for search, Alibaba for...
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Zhu, Feng, and Aaron Smith. "Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent: The Three Kingdoms of the Chinese Internet." Harvard Business School Technical Note 615-039, March 2015. (Revised September 2016.)
- December 2014
- Case
HomeAway: Organizing the Vacation Rental Industry
By: Rory McDonald, Feng Zhu and Cheng Gao
In less than 10 years, cofounders Brian Sharples and Carl Shepherd had transformed HomeAway from just another Internet startup into the world's leading vacation-rental marketplace—a global online platform that links customers seeking vacation-home rentals to the...
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Keywords:
Strategy;
Innovation;
Entrepreneurship;
Technology;
Acquisitions;
Operations Management;
Digital Platforms;
Acquisition
McDonald, Rory, Feng Zhu, and Cheng Gao. "HomeAway: Organizing the Vacation Rental Industry." Harvard Business School Case 615-036, December 2014.
- July 2014 (Revised August 2015)
- Case
Qihoo
By: Feng Zhu
Qihoo, one of the largest Internet companies in China today, was founded in 2005. The company started its business by offering a security software product, and quickly dominated the market in China after its unusual move of giving its product away for free in 2009....
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- February 2014
- Article
Responses to Entry in Multi-Sided Markets: The Impact of Craigslist on Local Newspapers
By: Robert Seamans and Feng Zhu
How do firms respond to entry in multi-sided markets? We address this question by studying the impact of Craigslist, a website providing classified-advertising services, on local U.S. newspapers. We exploit temporal and geographical variation in Craigslist's entry to...
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Keywords:
Digital Platforms;
Market Entry and Exit;
Internet and the Web;
Newspapers;
Advertising;
Advertising Industry;
Journalism and News Industry
Seamans, Robert, and Feng Zhu. "Responses to Entry in Multi-Sided Markets: The Impact of Craigslist on Local Newspapers." Management Science 60, no. 2 (February 2014): 476–493.
- October 2013
- Article
Ad Revenue and Content Commercialization: Evidence from Blogs
By: Monic Sun and Feng Zhu
Many scholars argue that when incentivized by ad revenue, content providers are more likely to tailor their content to attract "eyeballs," and as a result, popular content may be excessively supplied. We empirically test this prediction by taking advantage of the...
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Keywords:
Ad-sponsored Business Models;
Media Content;
Blog;
Revenue Sharing;
User-generated Content;
Platform-based Markets;
Blogs;
Business Model;
Digital Platforms;
Commercialization;
Digital Marketing
Sun, Monic, and Feng Zhu. "Ad Revenue and Content Commercialization: Evidence from Blogs." Management Science 59, no. 10 (October 2013): 2314–2331.
- April 2013
- Article
Business Model Innovation and Competitive Imitation: The Case of Sponsor-Based Business Models
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Feng Zhu
This paper provides the first formal model of business model innovation. Our analysis focuses on sponsor-based business model innovations where a firm monetizes its product through sponsors rather than setting prices to its customer base. We analyze strategic...
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Keywords:
Business Model Innovation;
Imitation;
Sponsor-based Business Model;
Strategic Revelation;
Strategic Concealment;
Business Model;
Innovation and Invention;
Price;
Competitive Strategy;
Adoption;
Value;
Duopoly and Oligopoly;
Product;
Customers;
Market Entry and Exit;
Monopoly
Casadesus-Masanell, Ramon, and Feng Zhu. "Business Model Innovation and Competitive Imitation: The Case of Sponsor-Based Business Models." Strategic Management Journal 34, no. 4 (April 2013): 464–482.
- Article
Entry into Platform-based Markets
By: Feng Zhu and Marco Iansiti
This paper examines the relative importance of platform quality, indirect network effects, and consumer expectations on the success of entrants in platform-based markets. We develop a theoretical model and find that an entrant's success depends on the strength of...
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Keywords:
Platform-based Markets;
Winnter-take-all;
First-mover Advantage;
Indirect Network Effects;
Video Game Industry;
Quality;
Network Effects;
Market Entry and Exit;
Digital Platforms;
Motion Pictures and Video Industry
Zhu, Feng, and Marco Iansiti. "Entry into Platform-based Markets." Strategic Management Journal 33, no. 1 (January 2012): 88–106.
- Article
Is Wikipedia Biased?
By: Shane Greenstein and Feng Zhu
Greenstein, Shane, and Feng Zhu. "Is Wikipedia Biased?" American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings 102, no. 3 (May 2012): 343–348.
- 2011
- Article
Group Size and Incentives to Contribute: A Natural Experiment at Chinese Wikipedia
By: Michael Zhang and Feng Zhu
In this paper, we examine the causal relationship between group size and incentives to contribute in the setting of Chinese Wikipedia, the Chinese language version of an online encyclopedia that relies entirely on voluntary contributions. The group at Chinese Wikipedia...
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Keywords:
Rights;
Motivation and Incentives;
Internet and the Web;
Valuation;
Groups and Teams;
Knowledge Sharing;
Behavior;
Satisfaction;
Size;
Government and Politics;
Economics;
Information Technology Industry;
Hong Kong;
Taiwan;
Singapore
Zhang, Michael, and Feng Zhu. "Group Size and Incentives to Contribute: A Natural Experiment at Chinese Wikipedia." American Economic Review 101, no. 4 (June 2011): 1601–1615.