Kevin Boudreau, Northeastern DMSB + NBER
Digital Platforms, Innovation & Strategy
Boudreau, K. and N. Kaushik. (2019). Gender, Tastes for Tech and for the Tech Work Environment? Large-Scale Field Experimental Evidence from an Internet of Things Platform
Miric, M., K. Boudreau, L. Jeppesen (2018). "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.
Boudreau, K. (2017) "Platform Boundary Choices & Governance: Opening-Up While Still Coordinating and Orchestrating". 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
Boudreau, K., M. Marx. (2019). "From Theory to Practice: Field Experimental Evidence on Early Exposure of Engineering Majors to Professional Work" NBER Working Paper No. 26013.
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 Practice
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.
Manuscripts under preparation:
Field experiment on diverse innovator and multidisciplinary problems
Field experiment on interdisciplinary research
Field experiment on developing applied scientists
Field experiment on platform takeoff
Field experient on early stage project evaluation
Analysis of the competitive advantage of digital competitors
Analysis of copyright and patent use in digital contexts
Analysis of the use and consequences of free 'business models' in digital
Competing for priority vs. competing for rank in contests
Analysis of behavioral economics of crowdfunding
Kevin Boudreau, Northeastern DMSB + NBER
I am an associate professor at Northeastern University and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.
I research large-scale organization and innovation around platforms. I attempt to understand how precise platform design choices (technology and technical rules, contracts, incentives, etc.) shape behavior at the micro-level--and implications for aggregate productivity. The research involves field experiments and large-scale data analysis.
Prior to Northeastern, I taught at HBS, LBS, and HEC-Paris. I studied degrees at MIT, University of Toronto, and University of Waterloo.
My research has been supported by Microsoft, Google, the Paris Chamber of Commerce, the National Bureau of Economic Research, and the Kauffman Foundation. 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.