One of my longest research projects has been centered on the market for ideas — the idea that innovators can sell their ideas to others rather than take them to markets themselves. The problem is that while conceptually something like a market for ideas sounds like a good idea where exactly it is has been …
Some customer service fun with Comcast
https://static.medium.com/embed.jsA customer service call
The last two digits of a price can signal your desperation to sell
While someone’s bargaining position can be shaped by competition, we economists know that there is a big gray area in our ability to predict negotiated prices. Competitive options for buyers and sellers can define a limit beyond which they will not go, but there is still a range of prices that fall within those limits. …
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Are we kidding ourselves on competition?
The traditional textbook model of competition in an oligopoly goes likes this. Firms choose prices and other variables (like product quality, advertising and R&D) to maximise their own profits and disregard the impact of their actions on (a) competing firms and (b) consumers; although with the latter since they want them to buy products they …
Is Tesla disruptive?
Apparently not, according to Tom Bartman, an associate with Clay Christensen’s research group at Harvard Business School. In a report from Harvard Business Review, they apply a framework to understand whether a new firm, like Tesla, will disrupt an old one, like GM or Toyota. The framework asks 5 questions: Does the product target over-served …
Amazon hacks your homeflow
Amazon just announced a new product called the Dash button. Basically, it is a button with a label like Tide or Cottonelle, connected to the internet and available only to Amazon Prime members (you know, the subscription that gives you free shipping). When you need to buy the thing associated with the button, you press …
Digitopoly 