Kevin Boudreau, Northeastern DMSB + NBER
Curriculum Vitae | Google Scholar | SSRN | @kevinjboudreau | k e v i n a t n o r t h e a s t e r n e d u
Digital Platforms, Innovation & Strategy
UPCOMING: Field Experiments in Platform Take-off, Freemium Digital Competition, Field Experiments in Multi-Disciplinary Platform-Based Problem-Solving
NEW : Kaushik, N., K. Boudreau (2018). "Gender-Based Preferences for “Tech” Work? Field Experimental Evidence from an Internet-of-Things Platform" Unpublished Manuscript.
NEW : Miric, M., K. Boudreau, L. Jeppesen (2018). "Protecting their digital assets: The use of formal & informal appropriability strategies by app developers". Research Policy
NEW : Boudreau, K. (2018) "“Crowds” of Amateurs & Professional Entrepreneurs in Marketplaces". NBER Working Paper No. 24512.
Boudreau, K. (2017) "Platform Boundary Choices". Advances in Strategic Management on “Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Platforms.” eds. Furman, Gawer, Silverman, Stern.
Boudreau, K., L. Jeppesen, T. Reichstein, F. Rullani. (2017) "Entrepreneurial Crowdfunding". Harvard Business School Strategy Unit Working Paper 16-038.
Boudreau, K., K. Lakhani, M. Menietti. (2016) "Performance Responses To Competition Across Skill-Levels In Rank Order Tournaments: Field Evidence and Implications For Tournament Design." RAND Journal of Economics.
Boudreau, K., L. Jeppesen (2015) "Unpaid Platform Complementors and the Network Effect Mirage." Strategic Management Journal.
Boudreau, K. (2013) "Does Opening a Platform Stimulate Innovation? The Effect on Systemic and Modular Innovations." MIT Sloan Research Paper No. 4611-06.
Boudreau, K. (2012) "Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom? An Early Look at Large Numbers of Software Apps Developers and Patterns of Innovation." Organization Science.
Boudreau, K., N. Lacetera and K. Lakhani (2011) "Incentives and Problem Uncertainty in Innovation Contests: An Empirical Analysis." Management Science.
Boudreau, K., K. Lakhani. (2011) "The Confederacy of Heterogeneous Software Organizations and Heterogeneous Developers: Field Experimental Evidence on Sorting and Worker Effort." J. Lerner and S. Stern (eds.), The Rate and Direction of Inventive Activity, 50th Anniversary Volume. National Bureau of Economic Research.
Boudreau, K. (2010) "Open Platform Strategies and Innovation: Granting Access vs. Devolving Control." Management Science. Management Science.
Boudreau, K., A. Hagiu. (2009) "Platforms Rules: Multi-sided Platforms as Regulators." A. Gawer, ed., Platforms, Markets and Innovation. Edward Elgar, London.
Science & Universities as Knowledge Platforms
UPCOMING: Field Experiments in Multi-Disciplinary Scientific Research
NEW : Boudreau, K., M. Marx. (2019). "The Transition from Higher Education to Professional Work: Field Experimental Evidence From Engineering Majors" Working Paper.
Lakhani, K., K. Boudreau, E. Guinan (2018) "Randomized Insights: Field Experiments in Understanding Knowledge Production in the Sciences." Science.
Boudreau, K., T. Brady, I. Ganguli, P. Gaule, E. Guinan, T. Hollenberg, K. Lakhani. (2017) "A Field Experiment on Search Costs and the Formation of Scientific Collaborations". Review of Economics and Statistics.
Boudreau, K., E. Guinan, K. Lakhani, et al. (2016) "Looking Across and Looking Beyond the Knowledge Frontier: Intellectual Distance, Novelty and Resource Allocation in Science". Management Science.
Boudreau, K., and K. Lakhani (2015) "Innovation Experiments: Researching Technical Advance, Knowledge Production and the Design of Supporting Institutions." In Innovation Policy and the Economy National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), volume 16, edited by Josh Lerner and Scott Stern. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Boudreau, K., K. Lakhani (2014) "'Open' Disclosure of Innovations, Incentives and Follow-on Reuse: Theory on Processes of Cumulative Innovation and a Field Experiment in Computational Biology." Research Policy.
Lakhani, K., K. Boudreau, C. Baldwin, A. MacCormack, E. Guinan, et al. (2013) "Prize-based contests can provide solutions to computational biology problems." Nature Biotechnology.
Boudreau, K., A. Hagiu. (2009) "Platforms Rules: Multi-sided Platforms as Regulators." A. Gawer, ed. Platforms, Markets and Innovation. Edward Elgar, London.
Translation to Practitioners
UPCOMING: Notes on Designing your Company Vol 2: A New Generation of Organizing & Competing
Boudreau, K. (2017). “A Short Guide to Strategy for Entrepreneurs”. HBR.org.
Boudreau, K. (2016). "Notes on Designing Your Company Vol 1" Harvard Business School Strategy Unit Working Paper No. 16-131
Guinan, E., K. Boudreau, K. Lakhani. (2013). "Experiments in Open Innovation at the Harvard Medical School." MIT Sloan Management Review. 54(3): 45-52.
Boudreau, K., K. Lakhani. (2013). "Using the Crowd as an Innovation Partner." Harvard Business Review. 91(4): 60-69.
Boudreau, K., K. Lakhani. (2009). "How to Manage Outside Innovation: Competitive Markets or Collaborative Communities?" MIT Sloan Management Review.
Kevin Boudreau, Northeastern DMSB + NBER
I am an associate professor at Northeastern University and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.
As a researcher, I am interested in how platforms can organize and govern large numbers of surrounding actors--whether in the format of marketplaces, crowdsourcing contests, open innovation, communities, sharing-economy platforms, social networks, or any other format. Flexible digital and information technologies have opened up a world of new design possibilities even beyond just these formats.
I attempt to understand how precise platform design choices (technology and technical rules, contracts, incentives, etc.) shape behavior at the micro-level to then infer how macroscopic performance (e.g., innovation, profitability, welfare) are shaped.
Much of the work involves field experiments and empirical analyses carried out in close collaboration with business, technology, and public institutions.
I received my Ph.D. at MIT (Behavioral and Policy Sciences), M.A. at the University of Toronto (Economics), and B.A.Sc. at the University of Waterloo (Engineering). Prior to pursuing a career in academic research, I worked in strategy consulting, M&A, tech start-ups and growth firms, and carried and engineering experiments and statistical control analysis in microchip production.
