New research on the internet from Harvard Business School faculty on issues including social media strategies, online marketing, and public policy questions such as net neutrality.
Page 1 of 78 Results →With a US presidential election on the horizon, tech companies are struggling to stem misinformation on social media. Research by Scott Duke Kominers and Jesse Shapiro suggests it's time to focus on eliminating content that can lead to potential harm rather than false beliefs.
Many companies are wary of sharing proprietary information with suppliers and partners. However, Shane Greenstein and colleagues show in a study of wireless routers that being more open about technology can lead to new opportunities.
It may be tempting to write off TikTok, the highly scrutinized social media app whose cat clips and dance videos propelled it to the mainstream. However, business leaders could learn valuable lessons about engaging consumers from the world's most-used platform, says Shikhar Ghosh in a case study.
Smaller sellers' products often get lost on large online marketplaces. However, harnessing images in search can help consumers find these products faster, increasing sales and customer satisfaction, finds research by Chiara Farronato and colleagues.
Julie Owono is executive director of Internet Sans Frontières and a member of the Oversight Board, an outside entity with the authority to make binding decisions on tricky moderation questions for Meta’s companies, including Facebook and Instagram. Harvard Business School visiting professor Jesse Shapiro and Owono break down how the Board governs Meta’s social and political power to ensure that it’s used responsibly, and discuss the Board’s impact, as an alternative to government regulation, in the case, “Independent Governance of Meta’s Social Spaces: The Oversight Board.”
In early 2023, TikTok reached close to 1 billion users globally, placing it fourth behind the leading social networks: Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Meanwhile, competition in the market for videos had intensified. Can all four networks continue to attract audiences and creators? Felix Oberholzer-Gee discusses competition and imitation among social networks in his case “Hey, Insta & YouTube, Are You Watching TikTok?”
Generative AI has captured the collective imagination for the moment, eclipsing the once-hyped metaverse. However, it's not the end of virtual reality. A case study by Andy Wu and David Yoffie lays out the key challenges immersive 3D technology must overcome to be truly transformative.
Quirky amateur video clips might draw people to TikTok, but its algorithm keeps them watching. John Deighton and Leora Kornfeld explore the factors that helped propel TikTok ahead of established social platforms, and where it might go next.
Amazon has disrupted everything from grocery shopping to cloud computing, but can it transform health care with its One Medical acquisition? Amitabh Chandra discusses company's track record in health care and the challenges it might face.
We analyze total United States advertising spending from 1960 to 2018. In nominal terms, the elasticity of annual advertising outlays with respect to gross domestic product appears to have increased substantially beginning in the late 1990s, roughly coinciding with the dramatic growth of internet-based advertising.
While many countries consider implementing their own versions of privacy and data protection regulations, there are concerns about whether such regulations may negatively impact the growth of the internet and reduce technology firms’ incentives in operating and innovating. Results of this study suggest limited effects of such regulations on the internet layer.
Companies have struggled to find the right opportunities for selling the Internet of Things. Rajiv Lal says that’s all about to change. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
SUMMING UP: As companies increasingly build business models around our personal data, what can be done to fight back? James Heskett's readers suggest there are no easy answers. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
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; 0 Comments.
The internet makes distance less a problem for conducting business, but geography still matters in the digital age. Shane Greenstein explains why. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
The increasing availability of big data can improve measurement of real consumption in closer to real time. This study shows that online prices may enhance data of the International Comparisons Program, dramatically improving the frequency and transparency of purchasing power parities compared with traditional data collection methods.
Stabilizing the domain name resolution (DNS) infrastructure is critical to the operation of the internet. Single points of failure become more consequential as a larger proportion of the internet's biggest sites are managed by a small number of externally hosted DNS providers. Providers could encourage diversification by requiring domain owners to select a secondary DNS provider.
In the second part of a series on growing startups, Thales S. Teixeira explains how Uber, Etsy, and Airbnb climbed from one thousand customers to one million. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
Do companies really understand the nature of today's digital transformation? Bharat Anand's book The Content Trap offers a new view of digital strategy that shifts the focus from "produce the best content" to "create the best connections." Open for comment; 0 Comments.
Note to web marketers: Consumers won't carve out more time to visit your site. So how do you attract them? Start by understanding their online habits, reports new research by Shane Greenstein and colleagues. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
