Leaps in Innovation: The Bolt versus Bannister Effect in Algorithmic Tournaments

Working Papers

This paper explores whether innovation breakthroughs stimulate or impede future progress in individual innovation. On the one hand, one could argue that substantial improvements to the status quo might inspire advances through competition.Read More

Studying Industry Disruption Using Crowdsourced Tournaments

Funded Research Proposal

We seek to explore how individuals evaluate the uncertainty during the nascent period of industry disruption, and to identify factors that can help improve their forecasting accuracy. To do so, we will draw on a recently developed research methodology of forecasting tournaments.Read More

Crowdfunding as a Font of Entrepreneurship: Outcomes of Reward-Based Crowdfunding

Published Research

Crowdfunding allows founders of for-profit, artistic, and cultural ventures to fund their efforts by drawing on relatively small contributions from a relatively large number of individuals using the internet, without standard financial intermediaries. Crowdfunding has been drawing substantial attention from policy makers, managers, and entrepreneurs, but relatively little notice from academics.Read More

Bilateral Rating Systems in Online Marketplaces: Design and Impact

Funded Research Proposal

In recent years, digital innovations have fundamentally changed how many services and resources are put together and deployed. These include marketplaces like Uber and Airbnb that help match decentralized supply with demand. Read More

Idea Generation and the Role of Feedback: Evidence from Field Experiments with Innovation Tournaments

Published Research

In many innovation settings, ideas are generated over time and managers face a decision about if and how to provide in-process feedback to the idea generators about the quality of submissions. In this article, we use design contests allowing repeated entry to examine the effect of in-process feedback on idea generation.Read More

Using an online community for vehicle design: project variety and motivations to participate

A car partially visible with "PVMI Research" text overlayed in bold white letters against a blue tint.

Firms increasingly seek to use online communities as sources of ideas, innovations, and designs. However, many such open innovation efforts lack sustained participation and ultimately fail. This research sought to understand motivations to participate in a firm-hosted design community and how the nature of the design task influences sustained participation.Read More

Why Established Firms Should Keep an Eye on Kickstarter

Ethan Mollick

Crowdfunding has exploded in popularity since 2009, and its pace shows no signs of slowing. Funded researcher Ethan Mollick argues that this trend poses important implications for established firms as well as entrepreneurs.Read More