Marshall Van Alstyne
Allen and Kelli Questrom Professor in Information Systems
Professor Van Alstyne is one of the world’s foremost experts on network business models and coauthor of the international bestseller Platform Revolution. He conducts research on information economics, covering such topics as the economics of speech markets, platform economics, intellectual property, social effects of technology, and productivity effects of information. He has been a major contributor to the theory of two-sided networks
taught worldwide, and to the theory of platforms as inverted firms, applied in antitrust law. His work has received more than 27,000 citations, includes a top 50 all-time article for Harvard Business Review, and was recognized by Thinkers 50 as among the most important management contributions globally. Research impact ranks in the top two percent of all scientists.
Honors include two patents, National Science Foundation SaTC, IOC, SGER, SBIR, iCorp and Career Awards, a dozen best paper awards, as well as INFORMS IS 2020 and Herbert Simon 2021 awards for research with real world impact. Articles or commentary have appeared in Science, Nature, Management Science, Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, Strategic Management Journal, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. He is a husband and dad, who loves dogs, exercise, travel, and questions of governance.
Education
PhD, MIT Sloan School, 1997
MS, MIT Sloan School, 1991
BA, Yale University, 1984
Selected Research Presentations
Mehta, S. , Nichols, A. , Mazar, N. , Van Alstyne, M. Truth Warrants Increase Economic Value and Accelerate Product Sales in Digital Marketplaces, BU Platform Strategy Research Symposium, Boston University, Boston, MA, 2025
Swapneel, M. , Mazar, N. , Van Alstyne, M. Improving Economic Welfare in Reputation-based Marketplaces with Truth Warrants, Workshop on Information Systems and Economics (WISE), Bangkok, Thailand, 2024
Nichols, A. , Parker, T. , Pennycook, G. , Rand, D. , Mazar, N. , Van Alstyne, M. Certifiably True: The Impact of Self-Certification on Misinformation, Workshop on Information Systems and Economics (WISE), Bangkok, Thailand, 2024
Mehta, S. , Nichols, A. , Mazar, N. , Van Alstyne, M. Improving Governance of Digital Platforms with Truth Warrants, MarkTech Conference, Columbia University, NYC, NY, 2024
Mehta, S. , Nichols, A. , Mazar, N. , Van Alstyne, M. Market Design Interventions for Safer Agentic AI, 2024 Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Business Analytics, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 2024
Nichols, A. , Parker, T. , Pennycook, G. , Rand, D. , Mazar, N. , Van Alstyne, M. Certifiably True: The Impact of Self-Certification on Misinformation, SJDM Conference, NYC, NY, 2024
Van Alstyne, M. Using Markets to Combat Misinformation, USC Marshall School of Business, Los Angeles, CA, 2024
Van Alstyne, M. Regulating Platforms & Speech in an Age of Fake News, Harvard Berkman Klein Speaker Series, Cambridge, MA, 2024
Nichols, A. , Parker, T. , Pennycook, G. , Rand, D. , Mazar, N. , Van Alstyne, M. Certifiably True: The Impact of Self-Certification on Misinformation, Psychology of Technology Conference, Boston University, Boston, MA, 2024
Van Alstyne, M. Using Markets to Combat Misinformation, NSF SaTC, Pittsburgh, PA, 2024
Van Alstyne, M. AI & Platforms, Academy of Management, Chicago, IL, 2024
Van Alstyne, M. Digital Innovation, Academy of Management, 2024
Van Alstyne, M. Theories of Ecosystems, Academy of Management, Chicago, IL, 2024
Nichols, A. , Mazar, N. , Pennycook, G. , Rand, D. , Van Alstyne, M. Certifiably True: The Impact of Self-Certification on Misinformation, IC2S2 10th International Conference on Computational Social Science, Philadelphia, 2024
Nichols, A. , Parker, T. , Pennycook, G. , Rand, D. , Mazar, N. , Van Alstyne, M. Certifiably True: The Impact of Self-Certification on Misinformation, International Conference on Computational Social Science (IC2S2), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2024
Mehta, S. , Wiedswang, S. , Yang, Z. , Mazar, N. , Van Alstyne, M. Improving the Governance of Digital Platforms with Interactive Marketplace Experiments, International Conference on Computational Social Science (IC2S2), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2024
Nichols, A. , Parker, T. , Pennycook, G. , Rand, D. , Mazar, N. , Van Alstyne, M. Certifiably True: The Impact of Self-Certification on Misinformation, Platform Strategy Research Symposium, Boston University, Boston, MA, 2024
Van Alstyne, M. Using Markets to Combat Misinformation, Marketplace Risk Conference, San Francisco, CA, 2024
Van Alstyne, M. Using Markets to Combat Misinformation, University of Passau, Passau, Germany, 2024
Nichols, A. , Mazar, N. , Van Alstyne, M. Truth is Warranted: The Role of Self- Certification in Information Markets, Freedom of Expression Scholars Conference (FESC), Yale University, CT, 2024
Van Alstyne, M. Truth is Warranted, Harvard Conference on Platform Regulation, Cambridge, MA, 2024
Van Alstyne, M. Using Markets to Combat Misinformation, MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy Speaker Series, Cambridge, MA, 2024
Van Alstyne, M. Free Speech & The Fake News Problem, Choice Symposium, Fontainebleau, France, 2023
Van Alstyne, M. Platform Regulation & Antitrust, Choice Symposium, Fontainebleau, France, 2023
Van Alstyne, M. Platform Regulation & Antitrust, Academy of Management, Boston, MA, 2023
Van Alstyne, M. Free Speech & The Fake News Problem, Academy of Management, Boston, MA, 2023
Van Alstyne, M. Platform Regulation & Antitrust, Chinese Economics Association, Wuhan, China, 2023
Van Alstyne, M. Platform Regulation & Antitrust, Luohan Academy, Hangzhou, China, 2023
Van Alstyne, M. Teaching Platform Strategy, IT Teaching Workshop, Boston, MA, 2023
Van Alstyne, M. Free Speech & The Fake News Problem, Yale Free Expression Scholars Conference, Yale Law School, New Haven, CT, 2023
Van Alstyne, M. Truth, Trust & Transparency, Thinkers 50 Radar Event, Cambridge, MA, 2023
Van Alstyne, M. Regulating Platforms, Harvard Platform Regulation Conference, Boston, MA, 2023
Van Alstyne, M. Free Speech & The Fake News Problem, Theory of Economics in IS, San Francisco, CA, 2023
Van Alstyne, M. Free Speech & The Fake News Problem, Winter Strategy Conference, Salt Lake City, UT, 2023
Van Alstyne, M. Herbert Simon Lecture, Herbert Simon Award Ceremony, Budapest Hungary, 2022
Van Alstyne, M. Truth, Trust, Tech & Misinformation, BU Ethics Symposium, 2022
Van Alstyne, M. Free Speech, Platforms & the Fake News Problem, UT Dallas, 2022
Van Alstyne, M. Free Speech, Platforms & The Fake News Problem, Wharton, 2022
Van Alstyne, M. Free Speech, Platforms & The Fake News Problem, Berkeley Law School, 2022
Van Alstyne, M. Platform Antitrust, Copenhagen Business School, Online, 2022
Van Alstyne, M. Hightower Lecture, Sponsored Lecture at Emory, Atlanta GA, 2022
Van Alstyne, M. Free Speech, Platforms & The Fake News Problem, Stanford University, 2022
Van Alstyne, M. Digital Markets: Big Data, Privacy Protection & AI, Competition & Regulation European Summer School & Conference (CRESSE), Heraklion, Crete (virtual)
Publications
Dellarocas, C., Van Alstyne, M. (2013). “Money Models for MOOCs”, Communications of the ACM, 56 (8), 25-28