Gordon Burtch

Dean’s Research Scholar Professor, Information Systems

I am a Professor of Information Systems, and Fellow of the Digital Business Institute at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business. My research, which focuses on the economic evaluation of information systems, employs empirical analyses rooted in econometrics and field experimentation to identify and quantify the drivers of individual participation in online social contexts. My work has been published in various leading journals, including Management Science, Information Systems Research, MIS Quarterly, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Organization Science, Production and Operations Management, the Journal of Law, Economics & Organization, and the Journal of Consumer Psychology.

I am a recipient of both the AIS Early Career Award (2017) and the INFORMS ISS Sandra A. Slaughter Early Career Award (2017). I am a recipient of the INFORMS ISR and ISS best paper award (2014). My research has been supported by more than $2 million in grants from various corporate, non-profit and government organizations, including the NSF, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the 3M Foundation, Adobe, Facebook Research and the European Commission. My work and opinions have been cited by numerous outlets in the popular press, including The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, NPR, Time Magazine, Forbes, Vice, Wired, the LA Times, Pacific Standard and PC Magazine. I am a recipient of both the Best Reviewer and Best Associate Editor Awards from Information Systems Research. I presently serve as an Associate Editor for two INFORMS journals: Management Science and ISR. I have previously served as track chair and associate editor for the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), twice as co-chair of the symposium on Statistical Challenges in eCommerce Research (SCECR), and twice as co-chair of the Workshop on Information Systems and Economics (WISE).

Prior to entering academia, I was employed as an information systems auditor, a hardware design engineer, and most recently as a technology consultant with Accenture Canada in Toronto. I teach graduate courses on data analytics and IT management. I hold a Bachelor of Engineering and a Master of Business Administration from McMaster University, as well as a PhD in Business Administration from Temple University’s Fox School of Business.

    Education
  • PhD, Temple University, 2013
  • MBA, McMaster University, 2007
  • B. Eng., McMaster University, 2005
    Publications
  • Babar, Y., Burtch, G. (In Press). "Recharging Retail: Estimating Consumer Demand Spillovers from Electric Vehicle Charging Stations", Manufacturing and Service Operations Management
  • Hassna, G., Burtch, G., Lee, C., Zhao, J. (In Press). "Understanding the Role of Lead Donor Types in Civic Crowdfunding", Journal of the Association of Information Systems
  • Forderer, J., Burtch, D. (In Press). "Estimating Career Benefits from Online Community Leadership: Evidence from Stack Exchange Moderators", Management Science
  • Zhou, M., Li, X., Burtch, D. (In Press). "Healthcare Across Boundaries: Urban-Rural Differences in the Financial and Healthcare Consequences of Telehealth Adoption", Information Systems Research
  • Malhotra, A., Burtch, D., Wareham, J. (In Press). "Knowledge Sharing between Project Creators and Backers in Rewards-Based Crowdfunding", Journal of Knowledge Management
  • Hill, S., Burtch, G., Barto, M. (In Press). "Television and Digital Advertising: Second Screen Response and Coordination with Sponsored Search", SSRN Electronic Journal
  • Burtch, G., Ramaprasad, J. (In Press). "Assessing and Quantifying Local Network Effects in an Online Dating Market", SSRN Electronic Journal
  • Burtch, G., Ramaprasad, J. (In Press). "Assessing and Quantifying Local Network Effects in an Online Dating Market", SSRN Electronic Journal
  • Burtch, G., Hong, Y., Liu, D. (In Press). "On the Role of Provision Points in Online Crowdfunding", SSRN Electronic Journal
  • Huang, N., Burtch, G., Hong, Y., Pavlou, P. (In Press). "Unemployment and Worker Participation in the Gig Economy: Evidence from an Online Labor Platform", SSRN Electronic Journal
  • Hong, Y., Peng, J., Burtch, G., Huang, N. (In Press). "Do You Have Time for a Quick Chat? Direct Messaging System Usage and Hiring Outcomes in Online Labor Markets", SSRN Electronic Journal
  • Huang, N., Hong, Y., Burtch, G. (In Press). "Digital Social Visibility, Anonymity and User Content Generation: Evidence from Natural Experiments", SSRN Electronic Journal
  • Burtch, G., Ghose, A., Wattal, S. (In Press). "An Empirical Examination of the Antecedents and Consequences of Investment Patterns in Crowd-Funded Markets", SSRN Electronic Journal
  • Huang, N., Hong, Y., Burtch, G. (In Press). "The Nature and Effects of Distance Bias in Consumer Evaluation", SSRN Electronic Journal
  • Burtch, G., Chan, J. (In Press). "Does Medical Crowdfunding Reduce Bankruptcy Rates in the United States? An Empirical Analysis", SSRN Electronic Journal
  • Burtch, G., Ghose, A., Wattal, S. (In Press). "Cultural Differences and Geography as Determinants of Online Pro-Social Lending", SSRN Electronic Journal
  • Hong, Y., Burtch, G., Shan, W. (In Press). "Small and Nimble: A Resource-Based Analysis of Organization Capabilities Integral to the Success of Small Online Vendors", SSRN Electronic Journal
  • Burtch, G., Pavlou, P. (In Press). "Simple Design Mechanisms to Mitigate the Winner's Curse: Simultaneous Online Auctions with Rotating Bids", SSRN Electronic Journal
  • Babar, Y., Burtch, G. (In Press). "Examining the Impact of Ridehailing Services on Public Transit Use", SSRN Electronic Journal
  • Sabzehzar, A., Burtch, G., Hong, Y., Raghu, T. (In Press). "The Role of Religion in Online Pro-social Lending: An Interactional View", SSRN Electronic Journal
  • Tong, S., Zhang, Y., Burtch, G., Lin, Z. (In Press). "Buyer-Seller Social Interaction and Sales Activity in Online P2P Markets for Used Goods", SSRN Electronic Journal
  • Burtch, G., Lee, D., Chen, Z. (2024). "The consequences of generative AI for online knowledge communities.", Sci Rep, 14 (1), 10413-
  • Babar, Y., Adeli, A., Burtch, G. (2023). "The Effects of Online Social Identity Signals on Retailer Demand", Management Science, 69 (12), 7335-7346
  • Burtch, D., Zhou, M., Li, X. (2023). "There’s a Problem With the Telehealth Revolution", Slate
  • Gorbatai, A., Younkin, P., Burtch, G. (2023). "Collateral Damage: The Relationship Between High-Salience Events and Variation in Racial Discrimination", Organization Science, 34 (6), 2250-2271
  • Zamoff, M., Greenwood, B., Burtch, D. (2023). "Research Briefs in Economic Policy: Who Watches the Watchmen? Evidence of the Effect of Body-Worn Cameras on New York City Policing", CATO Institute
  • Sabzehzar, A., Burtch, G., Hong, Y., Raghu, T. (2023). "Putting Religious Bias in Context: How Offline and Online Contexts Shape Religious Bias in Online Prosocial Lending", MIS Quarterly, 47 (1), 33-62
  • Burtch, G., Greenwood, B., Ravindran, K. (2023). "Lucy and the Chocolate Factory: Warehouse Robotics and Worker Safety", SSRN Electronic Journal
  • Deodhar, S., Babar, Y., Burtch, G. (2022). "The Influence of Status on Evaluations: Evidence from Online Coding Contests", MIS Quarterly, 46 (4), 2085-2110
  • Huang, N., Burtch, G., He, Y., Hong, Y. (2022). "Managing Congestion in a Matching Market via Demand Information Disclosure", Information Systems Research, 33 (4), 1196-1220
  • Deodhar, S., Babar, Y., Burtch, D. (2022). "The Influence of Status on Evaluations: Evidence from Online Coding Contests", MIS Quarterly, 46 (4), 2085-2110
  • Yang, M., McFowland, E., Burtch, G., Adomavicius, G. (2022). "Achieving Reliable Causal Inference with Data-Mined Variables: A Random Forest Approach to the Measurement Error Problem", INFORMS Journal on Data Science, 1 (2), 138-155
  • Dhanorkar, S., Burtch, G. (2022). "The Heterogeneous Effects of P2P Ride-Hailing on Traffic: Evidence from Uber’s Entry in California", Transportation Science, 56 (3), 750-774
  • Burtch, G., He, Q., Hong, Y., Lee, D. (2022). "How Do Peer Awards Motivate Creative Content? Experimental Evidence from Reddit", Management Science, 68 (5), 3488-3506
  • Hsieh, J., Hong, Y., Burtch, G., Zhu, H. (2022). "A Little Too Personal: Effects of Standardization versus Personalization on Job Acquisition, Work Completion, and Revenue for Online Freelancers", CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
  • Zamoff, M., Greenwood, B., Burtch, G. (2021). "Who Watches the Watchmen: Evidence of the Effect of Body-Worn Cameras on New York City Policing", The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, 38 (1), 161-195
  • Hong, Y., Peng, J., Burtch, G., Huang, N. (2021). "Just DM Me (Politely): Direct Messaging, Politeness, and Hiring Outcomes in Online Labor Markets", Information Systems Research, 32 (3), 786-800
  • Schanke, S., Burtch, G., Ray, G. (2021). "Estimating the Impact of “Humanizing” Customer Service Chatbots", Information Systems Research, 32 (3), 736-751
  • Burtch, G., Hong, Y., Kumar, S. (2021). "When Does Dispute Resolution Substitute for a Reputation System? Empirical Evidence from a Service Procurement Platform", Production and Operations Management, 30 (6), 1565-1582
  • Huang, N., Zhang, J., Burtch, G., Li, X., Chen, P. (2021). "Combating Procrastination on Massive Online Open Courses via Optimal Calls to Action", Information Systems Research, 32 (2), 301-317
  • Burtch, G., Gupta, D., Martin, P. (2021). "Referral Timing and Fundraising Success in Crowdfunding", Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 23 (3), 676-694
  • Burtch, G., Greenwood, B., McCullough, J. (2021). "Ride-Hailing Services and Alcohol Consumption: Longitudinal Analysis.", J Med Internet Res, 23 (1), e15402-e15402
  • Burtch, D., Cho, D., Liang, Y., Smith, M. (2021). "Will Movie Theaters Survive When Audiences Can Stream New Releases?", Harvard Business Review Online
  • Babar, Y., Burtch, G. (2020). "Examining the Heterogeneous Impact of Ride-Hailing Services on Public Transit Use", Information Systems Research, 31 (3), 820-834
  • Huang, N., Burtch, G., Hong, Y., Pavlou, P. (2020). "Unemployment and Worker Participation in the Gig Economy: Evidence from an Online Labor Market", Information Systems Research, 31 (2), 431-448
  • Deodhar, S., Babar, Y., Burtch, G. (2019). "Falling from Digital Grace: Participation in Online Software Contests Following Loss of Status", Academy of Management Proceedings, 2019 (1), 13956-13956
  • Gorbatai, A., Younkin, P., Burtch, G. (2019). "The More Things Change the More They Stay the SameVariability in Discrimination after Salient Events", Academy of Management Proceedings, 2019 (1), 11788-11788
  • Burtch, G., Chan, J. (2019). "Investigating the Relationship Between Medical Crowdfunding and Personal Bankruptcy in the United States: Evidence of a Digital Divide", MIS Quarterly, 43 (1), 237-262
  • Huang, N., Burtch, G., Gu, B., Hong, Y., Liang, C., Wang, K., Fu, D., Yang, B. (2019). "Motivating User-Generated Content with Performance Feedback: Evidence From Randomized Field Experiments", Management Science, 65 (1), 327-345
  • Deodhar, S., Babar, Y., Burtch, G. (2019). "Falling from Digital Grace: Participation in Online Software Contests Following Loss of Status", Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
  • Burtch, G., Carnahan, S., Greenwood, B. (2018). "Can You Gig It? An Empirical Examination of the Gig Economy and Entrepreneurial Activity", Management Science, 64 (12), 5497-5520
  • Hong, Y., Hu, Y., Burtch, G. (2018). "EMBEDDEDNESS, PROSOCIALITY, AND SOCIAL INFLUENCE: EVIDENCE FROM ONLINE CROWDFUNDING", MIS QUARTERLY, 42 (4), 1211-+
  • Huang, N., Zhang, J., Burtch, G., Li, X., Chen, P. (2018). "Combating Procrastination on MOOCs via Optimal Calls-to-Action: Evidence from a Field Experiment", Academy of Management Proceedings, 2018 (1), 14171-14171
  • Gorbatai, A., Younkin, P., Burtch, G. (2018). "Racist on Tuesdays: The Relationship between High-Salience Events and Variation in Discrimination", Academy of Management Proceedings, 2018 (1), 10596-10596
  • Burtch, G., Hong, Y., Bapna, R., Griskevicius, V. (2018). "Stimulating Online Reviews by Combining Financial Incentives and Social Norms", Management Science, 64 (5), 2065-2082
  • Yang, M., Adomavicius, G., Burtch, G., Ren, Y. (2018). "Mind the Gap: Accounting for Measurement Error and Misclassification in Variables Generated via Data Mining", Information Systems Research, 29 (1), 4-24
  • Burtch, G., Hong, Y., Liu, D. (2018). "The Role of Provision Points in Online Crowdfunding", Journal of Management Information Systems, 35 (1), 117-144
  • Hong, Y., Hu, Y., Burtch, D. (2018). "Embeddedness, Pro-Sociality and Fundraising Response: Evidence from Crowdfunding Platforms", MIS Quarterly, 42 (4), 1211-1224
  • Greenwood, B., Burtch, G., Carnahan, S. (2017). "Unknowns of the gig-economy", Communications of the ACM, 60 (7), 27-29
  • Sen, S., Burtch, G., Gupta, A., Rill, R. (2017). "Incentive design for ad-sponsored content: Results from a randomized trial", 2017 IEEE Conference on Computer Communications Workshops (INFOCOM WKSHPS)
  • Huang, N., Hong, Y., Burtch, G. (2017). "Social Network Integration and User Content Generation: Evidence from Natural Experiments", MIS Quarterly, 41 (4), 1035-1058
  • Huang, N., Gu, B., Burtch, G., Hong, Y., Chen, L., Wang, K., Fu, D., Yang, B., Lan, W. (2017). "Designing Effective Performance Feedback Notification Systems to Stimulate Content Contribution: Evidence from a Crowdsourcing Recipe Platform", Proceedings of the 50th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (2017)
  • Hong, Y., Huang, N., Burtch, G., Li, C. (2016). "Culture, Conformity, and Emotional Suppression in Online Reviews", Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 17 (11), 737-758
  • Huang, N., Burtch, G., Hong, Y., Polman, E. (2016). "Effects of multiple psychological distances on construal and consumer evaluation: A field study of online reviews", Journal of Consumer Psychology, 26 (4), 474-482
  • Burtch, G., Ghose, A., Wattal, S. (2016). "Secret Admirers: An Empirical Examination of Information Hiding and Contribution Dynamics in Online Crowdfunding", Information Systems Research, 27 (3), 478-496
  • Burtch, G., Carnahan, S., Greenwood, B. (2016). "Can You Gig It? An Empirical Examination of the Gig-Economy and Entrepreneurship", Academy of Management Proceedings, 2016 (1), 14466-14466
  • Deodhar, S., Burtch, G., Subramani, M. (2016). "Status and User Participation in Competitive Crowdsourcing", Academy of Management Proceedings, 2016 (1), 10355-10355
  • Burtch, G., Ghose, A., Wattal, S. (2015). "The Hidden Cost of Accommodating Crowdfunder Privacy Preferences: A Randomized Field Experiment", Management Science, 61 (5), 949-962
  • Burtch, G., Kashkooli, K., Kotha, S., Swart, R., Younkin, P. (2014). "Crowdfunding State of the Union and the Related Research Horizon", Academy of Management Proceedings, 2014 (1), 16413-16413
  • Burtch, G., Ghose, A., Wattal, S. (2014). "Cultural Differences and Geography as Determinants of Online Prosocial Lending", MIS Quarterly, 38 (3), 773-794
  • Burtch, G., Ghose, A., Wattal, S. (2013). "An Empirical Examination of the Antecedents and Consequences of Contribution Patterns in Crowd-Funded Markets", Information Systems Research, 24 (3), 499-519
    Research Presentations
  • Burtch, D. Generative AI Degrades Online Communities, BU Platforms Seminar Series, 2023
  • Burtch, D. Recommending What to Search: How a Query Recommender System Affects Mobile Shopping, Harvard University, 2023
  • Burtch, D. The effects of online social identity signals on retailer demand, Tulane University, 2023
  • Burtch, D. The effects of online social identity signals on retailer demand, Virginia Tech, 2023
  • Burtch, D. The Effects of Online Social Identity Signals on Retailer Demand, MIT, 2022
  • Burtch, D. The Effects of Online Social Identity Signals on Retailer Demand, George Mason University, 2022
  • Burtch, D. Recharging Retail: Estimating Consumer Demand Spillovers from Electric Vehicle Charging Stations, Nanyang Technological University, 2022
  • Burtch, D. An Empirical Investigation of Warehouse Automation and Worker Injury, Tilburg University, 2022
  • Burtch, D. An Empirical Investigation of Warehouse Automation and Worker Injury, Telecom Paris, 2022
  • Burtch, D. Personal Social Networks, Technology Skills, and Worker Performance Under Telework, Copenhagen Business School, 2022
  • Burtch, D. Comments on Social Media Ads, Meta, 2022
  • Burtch, D. Personal Social Networks, Technology Skills, and Worker Performance Under Telework, University of Rochester, 2022
  • Burtch, D. Personal Social Networks, Technology Skills, and Worker Performance Under Telework, UT Austin, 2022
  • Burtch, D. Managing Congestion in a Matching Market via Demand Information Disclosure, University of Illinois-Chicago, 2021
  • Burtch, D. Managing Congestion in a Matching Market via Demand Information Disclosure, Georgia State University, 2021
  • Burtch, D. Personal Social Networks, Technology Skills, and Worker Performance Under Telework: Evidence from Portugal, Erasmus University, 2021
  • Burtch, D. With a Little Help From My Friends: Career Benefits from Online Community Engagement, University of Hawaii, 2021
  • Burtch, D. Healthcare Across Boundaries: Urban-Rural Differences in the Financial and Healthcare Consequences of Telehealth Adoption, University of Minnesota, 2021
  • Burtch, D. Peer Awards Increase Content Generation and Reduce Content Novelty, Facebook Research, Queen's University, 2021
  • Burtch, D. Designing Demand Information Disclosure in the Presence of Capacity Constraints: A Large-Scale Randomized Field Experiment on a Matching Platform, New York University, 2021
    Awards and Honors
  • 2023, Best Paper Award
  • 2023, Best Associate Editor Award
  • 2023, Best Associate Editor Award
  • 2022, Best Paper Award
  • 2021, Distinguished Member - Cum Laude
  • 2020, Award for Best Published Paper in Prior 3 Years
  • 2019, Best Associate Editor Award
  • 2018, McKnight Presidential Fellowship