Karen Xie

Karen Xie is the endowed Betty and Fritz Knoebel Fellow and associate professor of service analytics at the Daniels College of Business, University of Denver. She works on technology-driven innovations in the service industry, with a focus on platform economics, market design and housing markets.

Karen’s work is published at Management Science and Journal of MIS, among others. Especially notable is her research on Airbnb, which helped the Denver City Council pass game-changing legislation on vacation rentals and housing affordability in 2016. She also provides expert opinion on Airbnb and its societal impact to popular press venues including The New York Times, Forbes, NBC News and the Chicago Tribune. Her work garnered awards and/or financial support from highly prestigious organizations such as Zillow, Meta (Facebook), Marketing Science Institute, NET Institute, Wharton Customer Analytics Initiative, ICIS and I-CHRIE.

A curriculum innovator, Karen developed courses for the Revenue Management and Analytics concentration as part of the Daniels undergraduate programs in 2015. She has also served as the capstone advisor for the Master of Science in Business Analytics (MSBA) program since 2014. Both programs have placed over 100 successful graduates in data analyst positions.

Prior to pursuing her academic career, Karen was an analyst at Accenture, an IT management consulting firm. She herself is a serial entrepreneur, currently bootstrapping HomeLab Technologies, Inc. (www.home-lab.us), a vacation rental investment and analytics company.

Outside of work, Karen is an enthusiast for ski. In winters, she is often found on double-diamond ski runs of Colorado’s epic mountains. She holds a PhD from Temple University Fox School of Business, an MPhil from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and a bachelor’s from Fudan University in Shanghai, China.

Areas Of Interest

Substantive

• Platform economics
• Market design
• Housing markets

Methodological

• Econometrics
• Causal inference
• AI and machine learning

Entrepreneurial

• Vacation rental investment and analytics

Education

• Doctor of Philosophy - PhD Temple University - Fox School of Business and Management (2010 — 2013)
• Master of Philosophy - MPhil The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (2008 — 2010)
• Bachelor of Business Administration - BBA Fudan University (2004 — 2008)

Companies

• Founder HomeLab Vacation Rental Investment (2020)
• Endowed Betty and Fritz Knoebel Fellow University of Denver - Daniels College of Business (2020)
• Associate Professor of Service Analytics (with tenure) University of Denver - Daniels College of Business (2019)
• Visiting Faculty, Management Information Systems (MIS) University of Arizona, Eller College of Management (2019 — 2020)
• Assistant Professor of Service Analytics Daniels College of Business, University of Denver (2013 — 2019)
• Director of Research International CHRIE (2016 — 2018)
• Director of Education International CHRIE (2014 — 2016)
• Analyst, IT Consulting Group Accenture (2007 — 2008)