Writing Assignment #4
The Multiple-Source Synthesis Essay:
Literature Review
Summary of assignment
• Task: The multiple-source essay asks you to synthesize the
arguments of at least 10
sources
• Length: 2000-3000 words
• Format: APA
• Sources: a total of at least 10 sources, all of which should be
from scholarly journals or
credible trade journals. You should find your sources through
library searches.
o If you cite sources from websites or popular journals, these
sources should be in
addition to the 10 sources you have cited from scholarly or
trade journals.
• Topic: Please use the same topic that you used for writing
assignment #3. It is
recommended that you focus on or expand on the essay that you
wrote for writing
assignment #3. You will continue with the topic you have
selected and will conduct

additional searches in the library databases, hopefully focus the
topic more, and
determine the 10 or more sources to use in this essay.
• Integration of Sources: At least eight sources must be cited in
the body of the essay.
You may cite sources in your introduction to help you define
terms, and you may cite
sources in your conclusion to help you direct the reader to
further inquiry. However, the
body of the essay should synthesize at least eight sources.
Strategies in Developing the Topic for this Essay
Up to this point in the semester, you have completed an
annotated bibliography. You have also
incorporated and synthesized four sources into writing
assignment #2 and six sources into
writing assignment #3. The work you have completed for these
assignments provides a solid
foundation for writing assignment #4. In this assignment you
will synthesize the ideas of at least
10 sources in a synthesis essay, or literature review.
For your annotated bibliography, you selected a topic based on
your interests and, possibly, your
major. You constructed a list of five references and summarized
and critically analyzed them in
150-200 words each. You then completed the four-source essay
and the six-source essay.

Through this process, you may have seen patterns in the
scholarly literature in the topic on which
you conducted research. For example, consider the following
examples:
•You may have researched studies in criminal justice and found
that there are varying
opinions on how to respond to criminal behavior among youth.
•You may have researched studies in psychology and found that
counseling strategies
for victims of domestic abuse tend to fall into four categories.
•You may have researched articles on gerontology and found
studies that answered
three basic questions on how older adults respond to training for
physical performance.
•You may have researched articles on environmental
management and found studies
on climate change. You noticed that various demographic
factors influence whether
individuals believe in climate change and, if so, whether they
believe it is caused by
human activity.
In the synthesis essay, you will focus your research efforts in a
particular area, perhaps as a
response to what you found while writing the annotated
bibliography and in constructing the
four-source and six-source essays. You will then conduct more
research and synthesize your
findings in this literature review.

Please note that the annotated bibliography, the four-source
essay, and the six-source essay
represent a journey in your research.
You might decide to disregard several of the articles you
analyzed in the critical annotated
bibliography or in the following two essays because they don’t
speak to the specific area on
which you have decided to write your multiple-source literature
review. You might select one
article that you analyzed in the critical annotated bibliography,
look up the articles cited in that
article, and “snowball” your research in that way.
In other words, this process is a recursive one. You might find
reasons to hone in on and narrow
your topic even further after you have written the annotated
bibliography.
For these reasons, you are strongly encouraged to write on the
same general topic on which you
wrote writing assignment #3. You might focus the topic more
for writing assignment #4. Or you
might expand on the topic for writing assignment #4.
How to organize the multiple-source essay:

You will divide the essay into categories. Each category will be
labelled with a heading.
In order for you to see this concept with a real-life example,
you can access a sample synthesis
or literature review from a psychology student by clicking here.
The student writes her paper
on the following topic: Emotional Eating: The Perpetual Cycle
of Mood-Food Influence. She
divides her literature into the following categories, which are
used as headings throughout the
paper:
•Influence of Mood on Eating Behavior
•Gender Differences
•Influence of Eating Behavior on Later Moods
•Chronic Stress Response Network
Notice how she synthesizes and integrates the research into the
different categories, labelled by
headings.
Strategies in Developing Categories
When you have focused on your topic, determine how you will
divide the literature. In other
words, consider the following examples we described above:
You may have researched studies in criminal justice and found
that there are varying opinions
on how to respond to criminal behavior among youth.
You might divide the paper as follows:

Introduction
Body
•Category 1: “A” view on responding to criminal behavior.
•Category 2: “B” view on responding to criminal behavior.
•Category 3: “C” view on responding to criminal behavior.
•Category 4: “D” view on responding to criminal behavior.
Conclusion
You may have researched studies in psychology and found that
counseling strategies for
victims of domestic abuse tend to fall into four categories.
You might divide the paper as follows:
Introduction
Body
•Category 1: “A” counseling strategy for victims of child abuse
•Category 2: “B” counseling strategy for victims of child abuse
•Category 3: “C” counseling strategy for victims of child abuse
•Category 4: “D” counseling strategy for victims of child abuse
Conclusion
You may have researched articles on gerontology and found
studies that answered three basic
questions on how older adults respond to training for physical

performance.
You might divide the paper as follows:
Introduction
Body
•Question 1
•Question 2
•Question 3
Conclusion
You may have researched articles on environmental
management and found studies on
climate change. You noticed that various demographic factors
influence whether individuals
believe in climate change and, if so, whether they believe it is
caused by human activity.
You might divide the paper as follows:
Introduction
Body
•Political affiliation and its impact on belief in climate change
•Socio-economic status and its impact on belief in climate
change
•Religious and other influences on belief in climate change
Conclusion

Point of view
For this essay, you will use third-person point of view.
Please do not use first person point of view (e.g., “I,” “me,”
“we”) in writing this essay.
In addition, please do not use second-person point of view
(“you” or “your”) in writing this
essay. For example, instead of “Smith argues that, as a director,
you have a duty to coordinate
cybersecurity efforts...” you would write, “Smith argues that
directors have a duty to coordinate
cybersecurity efforts…”
APA Style
The paper should be formatted in APA style. The video How to
format your paper according to
APA style might be helpful to watch. In summary, you should
observe the following:
• Use one-inch margins.
• Double space.
• Use size 12 Times New Roman font.
• Include a running head.
• Include page numbers.
• Include a title page.
• Include a “References” page on which you list the articles in
APA style
• Do not include an abstract. This paper is not long enough to
warrant an abstract.

Submitting the assignment:
You will submit a first draft of the essay to the assignment
folder. The first draft will not be
graded. The instructor will provide comments to it.
After receiving comments from the instructor, you will submit a
revised draft. The final draft
will be graded.
Helpful Resources
• Graff, G. and Birkenstein, C., They Say / I Say: The Moves
that Matter in Academic
Writing with Readings. This chapter in in the e-reserves of our
class. It mentions
various techniques to apply in stating what an author said and
your response to the
author. It is recommended that you read through that chapter so
that you might apply
these techniques to this essay.
Directions and Template for Team Opening Statement
DR. BARRY UNGER
ADMINISTRATIVE SCIENCES DEPARTMENT
BOSTON UNIVERSITY
rev 2-11-18

Requirements
Number of slides: 5 – 7 slides
Length of presentation: 10 – 12 minutes
Presentation without hand notes – students need to speak freely
Every team member has to speak
Add slide number with total slide number on each slide
Use a clean design (e.g. white or light backgrounds, no
transitions or special effects!)
How to submit
Submission via Blackboard by only one member of the team by
9 PM the day before class.
Electronic format is ppt. or pptx
Filename needs to be as following: Team#-Course#-
YourSection#-Name-of-topic
Example: T3-AD741-B1-
Genzyme.pptx
Learning Objectives
To reflect and use mainly the concepts highlighted in the
week’s readings (and only directly relevant concepts of
previous weeks such as value networks or business models)
To make complex concepts and cases easy to understand and

interesting for other students
Learn to create professional and clean presentations without
unnecessary information
Practice of concepts will help to understand and remember the
concepts/readings
Step-by-Step Instructions
Every member of the team needs to read all readings of the
week (including the concepts and the case)
Create a new PowerPoint and name it according the
requirements (see slide 2)
Copy the template (Team Opening Statement Template) in the
new document
Fill out the template according the instructions on each slide
Proof-read the slides to make sure they follow the template and
instructions – good flow, show the thinking and work of a
coordinated team (e.g. use consistent fonts, have the logic of
each slide build on previous slides).
Practice the presentation and check if it is within the 10 – 12
minutes
Submit the presentation by 9 PM the day before class on
Blackboard
Every member presents freely without notes
Good Luck and have fun!

Name or Title of the Case
Year & Semester, Course Number, Date, Team Number
Members’ names/nicknames
1 of 6
[Team Opening Statement Template]
Overview of the Case (1 slide recommended)。linrui
On this slide, present your summary of the case or reading.
Do not repeat many facts from the case; assume your audience
is familiar with the material.
2 of 6
Our Team’s Reactions (1 slide recommended)
Show your team’s impressions and personal reactions. What do
you think was striking in the readings? The impression doesn’t
need to be always positive! Be honest and say what you think.
What did your team see as the big ideas or issues?
3 of 6

Case Analysis (2 slides recommended)
In this part it is essential to use the concepts and frameworks
from the course.
The readings of the week mostly present concepts, which should
be used in the development of your team analysis.
The use of concepts will help you to explain why the
development of the company went well or turned into a disaster.
Present your further insights into the issues and choices the
company or its leaders are facing.
4 of 6
Case Analysis (2 slides recommended)
Don’t just report issues in a list – Work them into your analysis
Remember: Primarily use the concepts of the week to explain
things. Avoid the use of general strategy concepts like Porter’s
5 Forces except that business models and value networks are
frequently very relevant.
5 of 6

Recommendations (1-2 slides recommended)
End with your specific, bold and creative recommendations.
What can the company do to improve its situation? Keep in
mind in which time the case was – social media marketing is not
always the perfect solution.
Don't just make recommendations out of the blue, they should
clearly fit to the previous analysis and be directly and explicitly
linked to your conceptual analysis.
Also include any concerns, lingering questions, final
observations or conclusions you want to leave your audience
with.
6 of 6
CASE: E470
DATE: 04/12/13

This case was made possible by the generous support of Mr.
John W. Jarve.
Sara Rosenthal (MBA ’04) and Andrew Rachleff, Lecturer in
Strategic Management, prepared this case as the basis
for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or
ineffective handling of an administrative situation.
Copyright © 2013 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland
Stanford Junior University. Publically available cases are
distributed through Harvard Business Publishing at
hbsp.harvard.edu and The Case Centre at thecasecentre.org,
please contact them to order copies and request permission to
reproduce materials. No part of this publication may
be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a
spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means ––
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise –
– without the permission of the Stanford Graduate
School of Business. Every effort has been made to respect
copyright and to contact copyright holders as
appropriate. If you are a copyright holder and have concerns,
please contact the Case Writing Office at
[email protected] or write to Case Writing Office, Stanford
Graduate School of Business, Knight Management

Center, 655 Knight Way, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
94305-5015.
AIRBNB
The combination of an Aerobed and the Internet has now made
everybody into an innkeeper.
--Eric Schonfeld, TechCrunch
Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia were nothing if not creative. Two
years after graduating from the
Rhode Island School of Design in 2005, the friends moved to
San Francisco where they shared a
three-bedroom apartment in the trendy South of Market
neighborhood. When a major design
conference came to town in the fall of 2007, the aspiring
entrepreneurs recognized an
opportunity to earn a little extra rent money. Hotel rooms were
filling quickly, rates were steep,
and they had room in their own apartment to host guests.
Reasoning that a soft place to land and
a roof overhead was all they themselves needed for a good
night’s sleep, the pair built a
rudimentary website using blog software advertising an air bed

and a hot breakfast for $80 per
night (see Exhibit 1). Assuming they would attract recent
college graduates on a tight budget,
the friends were surprised at the response. Gebbia recalled,
“We had a 38-year old female who
worked at Razorfish. And then an industrial designer from Salt
Lake City who was even older.
They slept on air mattresses on our kitchen floor.”
1
Add in a design researcher from India and
Gebbia explained, “They broke every assumption we ever made
about who would stay on an air
bed at a stranger’s house.”
2
This realization, together with a fun and memorable
experience
getting to know their guests, spurred the friends to think that
their initial scheme to earn some
extra cash might have the makings of a real business.
As the pair began to dig into the logistics of developing their
idea, they looped in Nathan
Blecharczyk, a previous roommate of Joe’s and a software whiz.
Nate, the lead developer at a
small San Francisco startup at the time, agreed to work on the

technical backend of the “Airbed
1
Danielle Sacks, “The Sharing Economy,” Fast Company, April
18, 2011,
http://www.fastcompany.com/1747551/sharing-economy
(February 20, 2013).
2
Ibid.
For the exclusive use of Y. Bian, 2018.
This document is authorized for use only by Yue Bian in FALL
2018 (UNGER) THE INNOVATION PROCESS-1 taught by
BARRY UNGER, Boston University from Sep 2018 to Dec
2018.
mailto:[email protected]
http://www.fastcompany.com/1747551/sharing-economy
Airbnb E470
p. 2
and Breakfast” website as a side project in his spare time. The
threesome began to search for an
upcoming event which would draw a large number of attendees

seeking accommodations to use
as a testing ground for scaling up their concept. (See Exhibit 2
for cofounders’ bios.)
SOUTH BY SOUTHWEST
South by Southwest (SXSW), held in Austin, Texas, every
March, was one of the largest music
and film festivals in the country with over 150,000 attendees.
The Airbed and Breakfast
cofounders identified the 2008 event as the perfect opportunity
to connect festival goers with
local residents willing to offer a bed (blow up or otherwise) for
a reasonable price. Like the San
Francisco design conference, SXSW would establish a
connection and sense of trust between
guests and hosts through the shared experience of the festival.
As the cofounders strategized how to reach their target
audience—hosts willing to rent space in
their homes and festival attendees seeking lodging—they first
looked to the festival website, the
hub for all event-related information, from music venues and
transportation options to ticket
sales and restaurant recommendations. Included on the website
was a link to local hotels, which

the Airbed and Breakfast team saw as the perfect vehicle to
push traffic to their site. When
Gebbia contacted the event organizers to suggest adding Airbed
and Breakfast to SXSW’s
lodging lineup, he received a quick “No.” The festival’s event
team did not want to jeopardize
the relationships they had already established with dozens of
local hotels offering bulk discounts
by offering a competing option. If the Airbed and Breakfast
team wanted to be included in the
festival lodging lineup, they could arrange for a meeting with
the event organizers a few months
after the upcoming festival to begin discussions for the
subsequent year.
Disappointed at the outcome but determined to move on, the
team launched the second iteration
of the Airbed and Breakfast website two weeks prior to the
festival, relying on local blogs and a
variety of social media sites to advertise their service. The site
provided a list, similar to
Craigslist’s apartment postings, of the 80 lodging options they
had amassed (see Exhibit 3).
Each listing provided a brief description of the accommodation

(e.g., air bed on the living room
floor, queen bed in a guest room, couch in a trailer, etc.), the
nightly rate, and the owner’s
contact information so the guest could call or email the host
directly to make arrangements.
Chesky found his own festival accommodations through the site
and was pleased to arrive at a
conveniently located, nicely furnished house owned by a 30-
something couple, Jim and Nancy.
After exchanging niceties, Jim asked Chesky for the $240 they
had agreed upon for his three-
night stay. Somewhat embarrassed, Chesky admitted he had
forgotten to get cash but promised
he would pay the following day. When Chesky returned to the
house the next evening, Jim
pleasantly asked for the money and Chesky realized that, once
again, he had forgotten to
withdraw cash. The previously amicable host/guest relationship
quickly turned tense as Jim
grew skeptical about his guest’s willingness and ability to pay
(Chesky did pay his host the next
morning), and Chesky took note that building a pre-payment
mechanism would be one of the
team’s first order of business upon his return to San Francisco.

A Better Way to Stay
Despite Chesky’s awkward experience, the cofounders received
generally positive feedback after
the event. They had connected half a dozen festival goers with
accommodations, and a number
For the exclusive use of Y. Bian, 2018.
This document is authorized for use only by Yue Bian in FALL
2018 (UNGER) THE INNOVATION PROCESS-1 taught by
BARRY UNGER, Boston University from Sep 2018 to Dec
2018.
Airbnb E470
p. 3
of fans of the concept had subsequently asked if they could
make similar arrangements for
upcoming business and pleasure travel. The team had assumed
that an event would be needed to
build the trust required to let a stranger stay in someone else’s
home, but otherwise there was no

harm in allowing non-event related listings on the site,
particularly as they worked out the kinks
of the event-based model. The SXSW experience had brought
several key issues to light, among
the most glaring being that once the event was over, the
inventory was essentially worthless.
The team would have to generate a new pool of inventory with
each new event as dates, venues,
and circumstances changed. There were also few events
throughout the year of comparable size
and scale to SXSW, meaning they would have to gather (and re-
build) inventory for hundreds of
smaller events to build a business of any meaningful size.
The SXSW experience shed light on a number of ways in which
the team could improve the user
experience as well. One of the first actions the cofounders took
after the festival was to establish
a partnership with PayPal to allow guests to pre-pay for their
stay with a credit card, eliminating
the hassle and logistics of a face-to-face transaction. Enabling
an online payment mechanism not
only streamlined the user experience, but protected against
possible “Craigslist scams” where a

scammer would advertise and receive payment for a property
that did not exist. Photographs
were added to the catalog of listings, allowing site visitors to
view a snapshot of the place they
would stay. A user who found a listing he liked in New York,
for example, would be taken to a
page with three equally sized images: a photo of the interior of
the home or condo, a photo of the
host, and a map of the accommodation (see Exhibit 4). The
team created a mechanism which
enabled users to book space in someone’s house similar to the
process of reserving a hotel room
online, so the entire transaction could take place without need
for multiple back-and-forth calls
or emails. Finally, the team added a “Reviews” feature where
guests could provide a description
of their accommodation, host(s), and overall experience as a
reference to other guests seeking
lodging.
AIRBED AND BREAKFAST LAUNCHES
Chesky, Gebbia, and Blecharczyk officially launched Airbed
and Breakfast with its new and
improved website in August 2008. The threesome had high

hopes for their idea, though
Blecharczyk and Gebbia continued to work on their own side
projects to keep money flowing
while their start-up gained traction. Airbed and Breakfast’s
“coming out” was publicized by a
variety of media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal and
Tech Crunch which explained,
“The combination of the Aerobed and the Internet has now made
everybody into an innkeeper.”
3
This version of Airbed and Breakfast was marketed to business
travelers and conference goers
seeking a more affordable alternative to hotels, and the team set
its sights on the Democratic
National Convention (DNC) at the end of August as the next big
opportunity.
Democratic National Convention
3
Erick Schonfeld, “Airbed and Breakfast Takes Pad Crashing to
a Whole New Level,” August 11, 2008,
http://techcrunch.com/2008/08/11/airbed-and-breakfast-takes-

pad-crashing-to-a-whole-new-level/ (February 25,
2013).
For the exclusive use of Y. Bian, 2018.
This document is authorized for use only by Yue Bian in FALL
2018 (UNGER) THE INNOVATION PROCESS-1 taught by
BARRY UNGER, Boston University from Sep 2018 to Dec
2018.
http://techcrunch.com/2008/08/11/airbed-and-breakfast-takes-
pad-crashing-to-a-whole-new-level/
Airbnb E470
p. 4
The DNC was scheduled to take place in Denver over four days
at the end of August, and was
expected to attract 75,000 attendees to the city.
4
Airbed and Breakfast advertised its service via
local media outlets, bloggers, Twitter, and Facebook, garnering
mentions in the local, state,
national, and even international media. DNC delegates had
access to 900 lodging options

through the Airbed and Breakfast website, which were set at
prices ranging from $20 per night
for an airbed to $3,000 for an entire house.
5
Most, though not all, listings included a photo of the
host and the accommodation, along with a brief description. If
a person found a listing s/he
liked, s/he would click a “Book It” button, and then enter
her/his contact and payment details.
The host would be notified and given the opportunity to accept
or decline the reservation request
within 24 hours. If the host accepted, the guest would be
charged for the accommodation. The
company charged the guest a service fee of 6 to 12 percent for a
booked reservation, and the host
a 3 percent commission fee. For example, if a property was
listed at $100 per night, the guest
would pay $112, the host would receive $97, and Airbed and
Breakfast would receive $15 ($12
from the guest and $3 from the host).
The Airbed and Breakfast site booked 50 accepted reservations
during the convention, validating
the cofounders’ growing belief that a highly functioning
marketplace for home-based lodging

was viable. However, after the convention, the team once again
found themselves with a heap of
inventory that no longer had value, particularly in a town like
Denver which was not considered
a hot spot destination. As Blecharczyk and his partners
evaluated their position, he recalled
thinking, “We are back to square one in terms of how to attract
customers.”
6
Now that “the crickets were chirping” and their next big event,
the presidential inauguration, was
three months away, the threesome began to brainstorm
strategies to get the Airbed and Breakfast
name out in the media and in front of potential customers once
again. In a play on the
“breakfast” in Airbed and Breakfast, Chesky and Blecharczyk
put their creativity and design
skills (as well as those of a number of others whom they
convinced to help out) to work, creating
500 beautifully designed cereal boxes in two different styles,
“Obama O’s” and “Cap’n
McCain’s.” The first 100 of these were mailed directly to
political reporters around the country

who were intensely focused on the upcoming election (see
Exhibit 5). The unique and playful
advertising ploy generated much publicity for the cereal boxes
(which were sold on the website,
netting $30,000 in revenue), but less so for the company as a
provider of accommodations.
Nonetheless, the threesome could only hope that their strong
relationship with political reporters
and the upcoming inauguration in January would help push
customer acquisition to a tipping
point that would result in sustained business growth.
WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE
From September through December 2008, Airbed and
Breakfast’s revenue had been flat at
approximately $200 per week, and Blecharczyk admitted that
the three friends looked at the state
4
“Obama Launches Historic Campaign,” BBC News, August 29,
2008,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7586375.stm (February 25,
2013).
5
Schonfeld, loc. cit.

6
Interview with Nathan Blecharczyk, January 9, 2013. All
subsequent quotations are from this interview unless
otherwise noted.
For the exclusive use of Y. Bian, 2018.
This document is authorized for use only by Yue Bian in FALL
2018 (UNGER) THE INNOVATION PROCESS-1 taught by
BARRY UNGER, Boston University from Sep 2018 to Dec
2018.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7586375.stm
Airbnb E470
p. 5
of the company and asked whether it was time to give up.
However, the inauguration in January
2009 was rapidly approaching, and was anticipated to draw 2 to
5 million visitors to the
Washington D.C. area. Hotel rooms had been sold out months
in advance, offering the perfect
opportunity for a much-needed infusion of cash and customers.
Through the Airbed and

Breakfast-sponsored website, www.crashtheinauguration.com,
people could secure lodging
ranging from $10 for a couch in Silver Springs, Maryland, to a
few thousand dollars to rent an
apartment in the heart of D.C.
7
As with previous events, the cofounders were able to generate
publicity through local media and blogging sites, ultimately
posting over 1,000 listings on the
site and successfully booking about 150 reservations.
Despite their success at the inauguration, the company was not
able to sustain its momentum (see
Exhibit 6). The inventory they had generated to date retained
little value once the artificial
driver of demand (the event) was gone. With a final bit of
resolve, they decided that if this
company truly had a chance to succeed, they would need to put
their heads down, stop work on
any unrelated projects, and dedicate 100 percent of their time to
the effort over the next six
months. On the advice of a mentor at the time, they applied to
and were accepted to Y-
Combinator, a start-up incubator which provided seed funding,

access to investors, and
mentoring to help start-up teams refine and launch their idea.
Blecharczyk had moved to Boston
earlier in the year to be with his girlfriend (soon-to-be fiancée),
but he packed up his belongings
and moved back to San Francisco so that the team could be in
one location for this next, and
possibly final, push.
Y-Combinator
With the inauguration over, the team looked forward to the 13-
week Y-Combinator experience
as an opportunity to evaluate the business and develop a
strategy to jump start its growth. The
program began in January 2009, and one of the very first things
they did was change the
company’s name to Airbnb, a catchy play on the original. They
also met with Paul Graham, one
of Y-Combinator’s cofounders and a well-known investor,
technologist, and entrepreneur.
Among Graham’s first questions was, “Where are your users?”
The team’s response:
“Everywhere.” The organic nature of customer acquisition

meant that the company had one or
two users in a multitude of cities around the world, though a
few dozen listings were
concentrated in New York City. Based on Graham’s belief that
sometimes it was necessary to
“do things that don’t scale,” he advised the threesome to fly to
New York to meet with users and
in doing so, perhaps find answers to what would drive sustained
engagement and growth.
More is More or Less is More?
As Chesky, Gebbia, and Blecharczyk evaluated the state of the
company in preparation for their
trip to New York, one thing was undeniably clear—their current
model was flawed. Despite
three successful events over the past year—South by Southwest,
the Democratic National
Convention, and the presidential inauguration—they could not
achieve enough post-event
momentum to keep the company in business. General travel-
related listings, on the other hand,
7

Jayne Clark and Laura Bly, “Start your campaign ASAP to be
in D.C. for the inauguration,” November 11, 2008,
USA Today,
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2008-11-20-
inauguration_N.htm (March 4, 2013).
For the exclusive use of Y. Bian, 2018.
This document is authorized for use only by Yue Bian in FALL
2018 (UNGER) THE INNOVATION PROCESS-1 taught by
BARRY UNGER, Boston University from Sep 2018 to Dec
2018.
http://www.crashtheinauguration.com/
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2008-11-20-
inauguration_N.htm
Airbnb E470
p. 6
had grown steadily over the last few months, indicating an
opportunity to build inventory in this
sector and perhaps expand offerings beyond space in someone’s
home to vacation rentals,
houses, and apartments. What was not yet clear was whether
they should continue accumulating

inventory through organic, if somewhat scattered, growth, or
undertake a more methodical, city-
by-city approach, starting with a popular tourist destination like
New York, for example, before
moving on to Boston, Chicago, or San Francisco. They also
considered their target audience—
they had heard from numerous people that there still existed a
level of discomfort with the
concept of hosting or bunking up with a stranger. Perhaps they
should reach out to property
managers and/or boutique hotels, and bombard the site with a
handful of more traditional lodging
options as a way to create momentum. Alternatively, they could
initiate a guerrilla marketing
campaign to educate and familiarize the general public with the
concept, illustrating real-life
stories that de-stigmatized the experience. Whatever the
answer, growing inventory and driving
traffic was only part of the equation—they also needed to
explore facets of their existing
inventory to identify anything and everything that might be
impeding their growth.
New York, New York

Despite approximately 40 properties listed in New York,
bookings were low at around 15 per
month, begging the question were users looking for a broader
selection or were the listings
themselves poor quality? If the latter, could they develop a
more rigorous process for
determining the types of accommodations they wanted to post
on their website? For example,
should they require an in-person meeting or onsite visit for
every listing, at least in this early
stage of the company’s growth? Or perhaps they could institute
ratings for accommodations
similar to eBay’s ratings for sellers so that buyers could to
weed out lower quality listings?
Alternatively, it could be that the homes themselves were fine
but that the website presentation
was less than stellar. Some listings simply included a brief
narrative about the property, with no
photo at all, while others included a photo of the host and the
interior of the accommodation
which was posted, along with a map, on the listing’s main page.
Photos were typically taken by
the host, often with a camera phone, though a handful of listings
posted professionally shot

photos which tended to increase booking rates two to three
times. It was a fine line between
gathering quality data and demanding too much from hosts, and
the Airbnb team evaluated
which criteria should be required for a listing to make it on to
the site.
Like the photos, hosts had complete discretion over the written
description of the property. As a
result, the content and length ranged from a three-paragraph
write-up about the host’s well-
appointed studio sublet to “Queen bed in two-bedroom
apartment.” If the “Queen bed” listing
was also not accompanied by a photo or a guest’s review, there
was little information on which a
prospective guest could make their decision. Though the data
was inconclusive, it seemed clear
that the more information presented about the property the
better, and perhaps the Airbnb team
could facilitate the process, either by creating an online form
with mandatory fields or simply by
editing the description with the host’s approval.
After the stay, guests were encouraged to write up reviews of

the property which other guests
used as a basis for evaluating the various aspects of their
experience, from the friendliness of the
hosts to the comfort of the bed. Reviews were not a required
portion of the listing and, like the
property descriptions, were highly variable if they existed at all.
Guests’ write-ups could be as
brief as “Very nice guy. The perfect host!” to a colorful half-
page description of the property’s
For the exclusive use of Y. Bian, 2018.
This document is authorized for use only by Yue Bian in FALL
2018 (UNGER) THE INNOVATION PROCESS-1 taught by
BARRY UNGER, Boston University from Sep 2018 to Dec
2018.
Airbnb E470
p. 7
amenities and hot pancake breakfast. As Airbnb looked to
strategically expand beyond event-
based accommodations, the team believed reviews would
become critically important for

establishing a host’s credibility and trust with prospective
guests, particularly among first-time
users. The cofounders began to think through ways to
incentivize users to write descriptive,
colorful, and honest reviews that would add richness to the
listing and value to the site.
The last major issue which the Airbnb team wrestled with was
the pricing itself. The nightly rate
for each listing was based solely on the host’s determination of
value, with no maximum,
minimum, or guidance as to what an appropriate price might be.
There was the possibility that
the company was losing potential revenue through underpriced
listings, or conversely, losing
potential customers who were turned off by inflated nightly
rates. With few competitors in the
space at the time, and a limited data set of comparable property
types, it was difficult to assess
exactly where the problem lay.
CONCLUSION
As Chesky, Gebbia, and Blecharczyk returned to the Bay Area

in March 2009 after a week of
meetings with their New York-based users, both hosts and
guests, they thought through the
questions, big and small, they now must answer. Should they
focus all their energies on building
up a large number of diverse listings with the assumption that
more options would attract more
users to the site? Or should they create a more rigorous process
for filtering the listings that did
end up on their site to ensure they did not become an
overwhelming dumping ground for any
shack that had a bed? Was it time to take more control over
every aspect of their listings, or
should they let the users of the site continue to drive the content
as they had to date? Inevitably,
every question they asked only spurred more, as they evaluated
which issues to attack first in
their quest to revive the company.
For the exclusive use of Y. Bian, 2018.
This document is authorized for use only by Yue Bian in FALL
2018 (UNGER) THE INNOVATION PROCESS-1 taught by
BARRY UNGER, Boston University from Sep 2018 to Dec
2018.

Airbnb E470
p. 8
Exhibit 1
Original Concept
October 2007
Source: Airbnb.
For the exclusive use of Y. Bian, 2018.
This document is authorized for use only by Yue Bian in FALL
2018 (UNGER) THE INNOVATION PROCESS-1 taught by
BARRY UNGER, Boston University from Sep 2018 to Dec
2018.
Airbnb E470

p. 9
Exhibit 2
Cofounders’ Bios
Brian Chesky, CEO & Co-Founder
Brian drives the company's vision, strategy and growth. Always
pushing the status quo, Brian
aims to disrupt the industry with ideas that change the way
people live. To grasp the full impact
and experience of Airbnb, Brian rid himself of an apartment and
has been living in the homes of
the Airbnb community since June of 2010. He is committed to
assembling a passionate, top tier
team to deliver on this promise.
Before Airbnb, Brian ran an industrial design shop in Los
Angeles; even these days he is rarely
seen without a drafting pen and sketch book in hand. Brian
holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in
industrial design from the Rhode Island School of Design.
Nathan Blecharczyk, CTO & Co-Founder
Nathan is the technical architect behind Airbnb. A pragmatist

who translates vision and design
into tangible product through fast iterations, Nathan uses data to
identify and pursue high-growth
opportunities. Under his leadership, the engineering team has
developed a robust, secure
marketplace which now facilitates a massive amount of
commerce each day.
Nathan got an early start in business and technology when he
founded an online marketing
company while still in high school. Since then he has worked as
a program manager at
Microsoft, engineer at OPNET Technologies, and lead developer
at Batiq. Nathan graduated
with a degree in Computer Science from Harvard University.
Joe Gebbia, CPO & Co-Founder
Joe defines the Airbnb experience. He is dedicated to creating
an inspiring and effortless user
experience through sharp, intuitive design, and crafts the
product roadmap to make it so. Joe
values products that simplify life and have a positive impact on
the environment, and ensures
that the company adheres to these tenets.

Prior to Airbnb, Joe was employed by Chronicle Books, co-
founded a green design website, and
developed several consumer products. An alumni of the Rhode
Island School of Design, Joe
earned dual degrees in Graphic Design and Industrial Design.
He also founded the school's
basketball team and led as student body president.
Source: Airbnb.
For the exclusive use of Y. Bian, 2018.
This document is authorized for use only by Yue Bian in FALL
2018 (UNGER) THE INNOVATION PROCESS-1 taught by
BARRY UNGER, Boston University from Sep 2018 to Dec
2018.
Airbnb E470
p. 10
Exhibit 3

Screenshot from Airbed and Breakfast website for South by
Southwest
March 2008
Source: Airbnb.
For the exclusive use of Y. Bian, 2018.
This document is authorized for use only by Yue Bian in FALL
2018 (UNGER) THE INNOVATION PROCESS-1 taught by
BARRY UNGER, Boston University from Sep 2018 to Dec
2018.
Airbnb E470
p. 11
Exhibit 4
Screenshot from Airbed and Breakfast website
August 2008
Source: Airbnb.

For the exclusive use of Y. Bian, 2018.
This document is authorized for use only by Yue Bian in FALL
2018 (UNGER) THE INNOVATION PROCESS-1 taught by
BARRY UNGER, Boston University from Sep 2018 to Dec
2018.
Airbnb E470
p. 12
Exhibit 5
Cereal Box Campaign
Source: Airbnb.
For the exclusive use of Y. Bian, 2018.
This document is authorized for use only by Yue Bian in FALL
2018 (UNGER) THE INNOVATION PROCESS-1 taught by
BARRY UNGER, Boston University from Sep 2018 to Dec
2018.

Airbnb E470
p. 13
Exhibit 6
Airbnb Revenue
August 2008 – January 2009

Source: Airbnb.
Inauguration
Weeks
$0
Regular Travel
For the exclusive use of Y. Bian, 2018.
This document is authorized for use only by Yue Bian in FALL
2018 (UNGER) THE INNOVATION PROCESS-1 taught by
BARRY UNGER, Boston University from Sep 2018 to Dec
2018.