- Fulbright Canada Distinguished Research Chair of Entrepreneurship,
visiting Carleton U and Ottawa, as part of 1-year Fulbright Scholarship
- Associate Professor, Northeastern University:
Strategy, Innovation & Entrepreneurship DMSB; courtesy appointments at Khoury College of Computer Science and School of Social Science and Humanities in the dept of Economics; faculty member of College of Engineering's Institute for the Wireless Internet of Things at the Interdisciplinary Science & Engineering Complex
- Research Associate, Harvard University: Institute for Quantitative Social Science
- Research Associate, National Bureau of Economic Research: Productivity, Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Other responsibilities:
- Associate Editor of Management Science: Business Strategy, Innovation & Entrepreneurship; ad hoc associate editor for Data Science, Information Systems, Behavioral and Decision Sciences, Market Analytics departments
- Editorial board member of Strategic Management Journal
- Co-editor of Journal of Economics & Management Strategy
Contact:kevin@northeastern.edu417 Interdisciplinary Science & Engineering Complex805 Columbus Ave, Boston, MA 02118
Prior to academic research, I led multi-disciplinary teams for large M&A and telecoms infrastructure projects for Qualcomm; led the creation of The Economist Intelligence Unit's Western European and US technology and media advisory practice; and consulted on business strategy in network industries for Braxton Associates. I also advised and founded several platform and data science startups. My earliest engineering responsibilities involved designing and running engineering research randomized controlled experiments and building statistical production tools for Bell Northern Research, Canada's Bell Labs.
Organizing Digital Platforms for Innovation and Competitive Success
Digital platforms are an increasingly important approach to organizing and leveraging large numbers of actors--with considerable machine and data-driven governance and infrastructure. Where and when should we use these approaches? Which particular approach? Optimal models/designs?
Organizing Science & Universities as Knowledge Platforms
Universities can play a platform orchestration role while managing many surrounding actors (scientists, talent, industry, local economy, philanthropy). What are ways that universities can lean into their roles as orchestrators, conveners, providers of infrastructure, knowlege, and incentives?
Running "Live" Experiments to Optimize Platform Innovation & Business Models
I carry out large-scale quantitative analyses and field experiments, often in collaboration with Industry, Government, Universities and Scientific Research Organizations.
I study how to design large-scale platforms and digital infrastructure to scale up and organize large numbers of actors most productively.
I contribute to general lessons and theoretical insights by empirically studying the micro-mechanisms shaping behaviors of individual actors in these systems (incentives, knowledge, diversity, sociology, psychology, cognition). This fine-grained understanding of behavior then serves as a means to understand optimal overall optimal design at the aggregate level of organizations, platforms and industry. Thus, I build up a grounded understanding of governance, precise business model design, scaling, innovation, and competitiveness.
My research increasingly involves embedding large-scale field experiments within "live platforms" in partnership with industry and government. This results in better-designed business models for parner organizations, based on discerning data analysis and experiments, while also generating generalizable lessons for the academic literature.
I kindly thank a number of generous funders and supporters of my research: Fulbright Foundation, G.E. Corp., Google, the Kaufmann Foundation, Microsoft, the National Bureau of Economic Research, the Paris Chamber of Commerce, and the Sloan Foundation.
SELECTED CURRENT PROJECTS & DEVELOPMENT:
K. Boudreau, E. Lyons. Attention Economics in Crowdsourcing Experiment
Bana, S., K. Boudreau. AI and Online Job Platform Field Experiment
Boudreau, K., N. Kaushik. Diversity and Innovation Field Experiment
K. Boudreau, M. Menietti, K. Lakhani. Strategic and Behavioral Responses to Competition in a Tournament Experiment
K. Boudreau. Platforms & Long Tails
K. Boudreau, K. Lakhani. Artificial Intelligence
K. Boudreau, M. Marx. Educating Engineers Experiment
DOWNLOADS:
Boudreau, K., N. Kaushik. (2023) Gender Differences in Response to Competitive Organization? Differences across Fields from a Product Development Platform Field Experiment Organization Science.
Boudreau, K, L. Jeppesen, M.Miric (2022) "Competing on Freemium: Digital Competition with Network Effects" Strategic Management Journal. (preprint)
Boudreau, K, L. Jeppesen, M.Miric (2022) "Profiting from Digital Innovation: Patents, Copyright and Performance." Research Policy
Boudreau, K. (2021) "Promoting Platform Takeoff and Self-Fulfilling Expectations: Field Experimental Evidence."Management Science.
Boudreau, K., L. Jeppesen, T. Reichstein, F. Rullani, (2021) "Crowdfunding as Donations to Entrepreneurial Firms." Research Policy
Boudreau, K., N. Kaushik (2020) "The Gender Gap in Tech & Competitive Work Environments? Field Experimental Evidence from an Internet-of-Things Platform" NBER Working Paper No. 27154
Boudreau, K. J., & M. Marx (2019). From Theory to Practice: Field Experimental Evidence on Early Exposure of Engineering Majors to Professional Work NBER Working Paper No. w26013.
Miric, M., K. Boudreau, L. Jeppesen (2019). "Protecting their digital assets: The use of formal & informal appropriability strategies by App developers". Research Policy
Boudreau, K. (2018) "“Crowds” of Amateurs & Professional Entrepreneurs in Marketplaces". NBER Working Paper No. 24512.
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. (2017). “A Short Guide to Strategy for Entrepreneurs.” Harvard Business Review
Boudreau, K. (2017), "Platform Boundary Choices & Governance: Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Growth in Mobile Computing." Advances in Strategic Management on “Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Platforms. eds. Furman, Gawer, Stern, Silverman.
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.
Copeland Best Paper Award, INFORMS Best Paper Award
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. (2016). "Designing Your Company: Creating, Delivering, and Capturing Value" Vol 1" Harvard Business School Strategy Unit Working Paper No. 16-131
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, 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, L. Backstrom, C. Baldwin, P. Loh, E. Lonstein, M. Lydon, A. MacCormack, R. Arnaout and E. Guinan (2013) Prize-based contests can provide solutions to computational biology problems. Nature Biotechnology. 31(2):108
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., L. Jeppesen (2014) "Unpaid Platform Complementors and the Network Effect Mirage". Strategic Management Journal.
Boudreau, K., K. Lakhani (2013) "Using the Crowd as an Innovation Partner." Harvard Business Review. 91(4): 60-69.
Harvard Business Review McKinsey Award Best Paper Award
Boudreau, K. (2012) "Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom? An Early Look at Large Numbers of Software Apps Developers and Patterns of Innovation." `. 23: 1409-1427.
Boudreau, K., N. Lacetera and K. Lakhani (2011) "Incentives and Problem Uncertainty in Innovation Contests: An Empirical Analysis." Management Science. 57(5): 843-863.
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. 56(10): 1849-1872
Boudreau, K., A. Hagiu (2009) "Platforms Rules: Multi-sided Platforms as Regulators." A. Gawer, ed. Platforms, Markets and Innovation. Edward Elgar, London.
Boudreau, K., K. Lakhani (2009) "How to Manage Outside Innovation: Competitive Markets or Collaborative Communities?" MIT Sloan Management Review. 50(4): 69-75.
Boudreau (2007) "Does Opening a Platform Stimulate Innovation? The Effect on Systemic and Modular Innovations" MIT Sloan Working Paper.