5 ms·

>> "Wu co-authored the study with Michael Luca, an assistant professor at Harvard Business School, and data scientists at the local reviews site Yelp, which has

>> "Wu co-authored the study with Michael Luca, an assistant professor at Harvard Business School, and data scientists at the local reviews site Yelp, which has been one of Google's primary opponents in the global antitrust fight. Wu was paid by Yelp for his work on the paper." That's a fun fact.

mda 11y ago
But it is a high profile study :)
logn 11y ago
"A 2011 Harvard study by Michael Luca found that there was no significant statistical correlation between being a Yelp advertiser and having more favorable reviews." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yelp#Alleged_manipulation_by_Yelp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yelp#Alleged_manipulation_by_Y...
- snsr 11y ago
  Skewed reviews or not, I tend to avoid Yelp search results. They intentionally degrade the web experience in favor of repeatedly promoting their native application; the opposite of useful content when searching for a restaurant etc.
littletimmy 11y ago
It is an unfortunate fact of academic life that you need a grant to complete your study. Take a look at studies that come out of HBS or Stanford GSB; more often than not they are sponsored by big banks and investment firms. I do feel as uncomfortable about this as you do. This sort of sponsoring ruins academic objectivity.
- CrazyCatDog 11y ago
  There is no need for grants in top b-schools. Whereas other academic departments pay faculty 9-months out of the year, even third-tier b-schools will pay for 2/9 or 3/9 of your salary in the summer if you publish just about anything. Larger studies? No problem, the dean has you covered. The brilliance of b-schools is that they can mint $ with certificates and exec Ed, all of which is available to them at low overhead (namely the university collects a lesser cut). It's preposterous to believe that faculty at the very top need to whore themselves out to industry for funding. What they will do to get their hands on data, however, is unspeakable. Yelp, Dropbox, eBay, etc. are merely providing data to the researchers, and more often than not, they have a say on what gets published. The truth always does eventually come out (e.g. negative company information) but it does so behind conference/seminar doors, not in print.
  - meepmorp 11y ago
    I'm just guessing here, but you don't seem like you have much familiarity with academia and how funding works.
- j_baker 11y ago
  How is this any different from when tobacco companies fund studies that say that smoking isn't bad for you?

mda 11y ago

But it is a high profile study :)

logn 11y ago

"A 2011 Harvard study by Michael Luca found that there was no significant statistical correlation between being a Yelp advertiser and having more favorable reviews." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yelp#Alleged_manipulation_by_Yelp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yelp#Alleged_manipulation_by_Y...

snsr 11y ago
Skewed reviews or not, I tend to avoid Yelp search results. They intentionally degrade the web experience in favor of repeatedly promoting their native application; the opposite of useful content when searching for a restaurant etc.

littletimmy 11y ago

It is an unfortunate fact of academic life that you need a grant to complete your study. Take a look at studies that come out of HBS or Stanford GSB; more often than not they are sponsored by big banks and investment firms. I do feel as uncomfortable about this as you do. This sort of sponsoring ruins academic objectivity.

CrazyCatDog 11y ago
There is no need for grants in top b-schools. Whereas other academic departments pay faculty 9-months out of the year, even third-tier b-schools will pay for 2/9 or 3/9 of your salary in the summer if you publish just about anything. Larger studies? No problem, the dean has you covered. The brilliance of b-schools is that they can mint $ with certificates and exec Ed, all of which is available to them at low overhead (namely the university collects a lesser cut). It's preposterous to believe that faculty at the very top need to whore themselves out to industry for funding. What they will do to get their hands on data, however, is unspeakable. Yelp, Dropbox, eBay, etc. are merely providing data to the researchers, and more often than not, they have a say on what gets published. The truth always does eventually come out (e.g. negative company information) but it does so behind conference/seminar doors, not in print.
- meepmorp 11y ago
  I'm just guessing here, but you don't seem like you have much familiarity with academia and how funding works.
j_baker 11y ago
How is this any different from when tobacco companies fund studies that say that smoking isn't bad for you?