Gezinus J. Hidding, Jeff Williams and John J. Sviokla
To study successful strategies in platform industries, which are IT products that enable (a network of) users to communicate with each other, and that, consequently, exhibit…
Abstract
Purpose
To study successful strategies in platform industries, which are IT products that enable (a network of) users to communicate with each other, and that, consequently, exhibit network effects.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors studied 15 platform industries, including their first‐mover, early entrants and current leaders. Also studied were historical documents, for example to find the time of market entry.
Findings
Unlike traditional products (e.g. consumer products), platforms evolve over time by technically integrating separate platforms (“embrace and extend”). Two key patterns were found among platform leaders: follower advantage and staircase strategies. While follower advantage is also prevalent in traditional industries, staircase strategies are not. Complementary resources (i.e. resources the firm possesses outside of the product in question, for example R&D skills or customer relations) did not explain why the current leaders won.
Research limitations/implications
First‐mover advantage was largely illusionary and follower advantage prevalent. Some leaders of platform industries entered the industry early and some entered late, but it is not clear why a particular entry timing was successful in one platform industry but not in another. The authors cannot (yet) predict how a platform industry evolves, particularly in the presence of network effects.
Practice implications
To become the leader in a platform industry, do not become the first mover, but enter some time afterwards, and manage the “embrace and extend” platform evolution using staircase strategies.
Originality/ value
This study analyzed a sample of 15 platform industries, i.e. more than a few case studies.
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As an efficiency tool, I/T often creates its own inefficiencies, as Danny Kaye discovered in The Man from the Diner's Club. But the right technology—and, more important, the right…
Abstract
As an efficiency tool, I/T often creates its own inefficiencies, as Danny Kaye discovered in The Man from the Diner's Club. But the right technology—and, more important, the right strategy for using it—can propel a company ahead of the competition.
The Internet provides a fundamentally different environment for international marketing and requires a different approach. Now it is unrealistic to apply the same marketing…
Abstract
The Internet provides a fundamentally different environment for international marketing and requires a different approach. Now it is unrealistic to apply the same marketing strategies without making some modifications to be appropriate to the electronic edge. This paper touches on the effect of international Internet marketing (IIM) on the marketing mix and explains the need for a new marketing paradigm. The aim is to determine some building blocks in the new marketing paradigm.
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Andrew H. Chen, James A. Conover and John W. Kensinger
Analysis of Information Options offers new tools for evaluating investments in research, mineral exploration, logistics, energy transmission, and other information operations…
Abstract
Analysis of Information Options offers new tools for evaluating investments in research, mineral exploration, logistics, energy transmission, and other information operations. With Information Options, the underlying assets are information assets and the rules governing exercise are based on the realities of the information realm (infosphere). Information Options can be modeled as options to “purchase” information assets by paying the cost of the information operations involved. Information Options arise at several stages of value creation. The initial stage involves observation of physical phenomena with accompanying data capture. The next refinement is to organize the data into structured databases. Then bits of information are selected from storage and synthesized into an information product (such as a management report). Next, the information product is presented to the user via an efficient interface that does not require the user to be a field expert. Information Options are similar in concept to real options but substantially different in their details, since real options have physical objects as the underlying assets and the rules governing exercise are based on the realities of the physical world. Also, while exercising a financial option typically kills the option, Information Options may include multiple exercises. Information Options may involve high volatility or jump processes as well, further enhancing their value. This chapter extends several important real option applications into the information realm, including jump process models and models for valuing options to synthesize any of n information items into any of m output assets.
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Identifies a set of expectations about information technology (IT)adoption and usage in work groups, based on prior theory. Describes alongitudinal study on the adoption and usage…
Abstract
Identifies a set of expectations about information technology (IT) adoption and usage in work groups, based on prior theory. Describes a longitudinal study on the adoption and usage of asynchronous technologies in small face‐to‐face groups. Compares observations with expectations. Concludes that expectations were generally supported except in one case, where file transfer was used synchronously to support face‐to‐face interaction. Observed one use of asynchronous technology to maintain social distance because of poor relationships. Discusses the implications of the findings. Offers possible areas of future research.
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The application of information technology (IT) to corporateenvironments is now widespread. Recent years have seen IT successfullyapplied to a wide range of corporate activities…
Abstract
The application of information technology (IT) to corporate environments is now widespread. Recent years have seen IT successfully applied to a wide range of corporate activities. Artificial intelligence, in the guise of knowledge‐based systems is on the point of delivering its long awaited potential. With many successful systems developed over the past three or four years, the time is now ripe for the corporation to develop a coherent strategy to investigate and exploit this technology. In this, the second of two articles looking at knowledge‐based systems, we examine how the corporation can exploit this technology for strategic and competitive advantage. It discusses the organisational implications of KBS as well as the impact and pay‐off that can be expected.
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Digital technologies allow people to change the workplace in a fundamental way. The connectivity enabled by these technologies has opened new opportunities for how, when, and…
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Digital technologies allow people to change the workplace in a fundamental way. The connectivity enabled by these technologies has opened new opportunities for how, when, and where people work. Those opportunities, when exploited, can help organisations be more effective in their use of human capital. Capturing these opportunities requires a mind shift whereby corporate real estate professionals perceive things differently‐and then act differently. That mind shift should challenge established values and assumptions about where value gets created as well as where people work and how people connect with others. The mind shift should, in turn, lead workspace professionals to rethink their approaches to workplace design, and stimulate new organisational patterns for creating, justifying and continuously improving workplaces and enterprise‐wide workplace portfolios. Pioneering work by SunMicrosystems and Hewlett Packard is showing the way. Other workplace professionals can effectively follow if they harness the connective power of technology as an integral part of workplace design. That design should begin with the work that needs to be done; create the best package of physical and cyber space to do it; and evolve as work requirements change.
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Taehee Kim, Hyomin Seo, Min Cheol Kim and Kyungro Chang
Boosting productivity in the service sector is a key priority for promoting long-term growth. To have customers perform certain tasks normally undertaken by employees is an…
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Boosting productivity in the service sector is a key priority for promoting long-term growth. To have customers perform certain tasks normally undertaken by employees is an important means to improving productivity. Technological innovation has influenced business practices for several decades and many service firms, including sports service firms, are now utilising technology extensively to reduce the use of labour. This study investigates how the user's perception of technology-based self-service (TBSS)affects customer productivity and how the customer productivity evaluated by TBSS influences the customer's intentions to reuse in relation to a virtual golf simulator - a successful and seriously played game in Korea.
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Attempts to address how organizations are responding to the growing complexities of global business, technology, and virtual organizations. Argues that organizations can…
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Attempts to address how organizations are responding to the growing complexities of global business, technology, and virtual organizations. Argues that organizations can co‐operate and compete at the same time in order to be more effective in the marketplace utilizing a relationship perspective. This is why we have integrated the concepts cooperation and effectiveness, to create the new “co‐opetive” terminology. An ecological collaborative value system (CVS) has been developed. The behaviour of the system is affected by the condition of its components, and the system components are affected by environmental conditions. CVS suggests that customers, suppliers, distributors, competitors, and other organizations are equal partners in the system. Argues that it is imperative for a successful alliance and relationship between the collaborators to communicate and cooperate in an atmosphere of frank debate, trust, interdependence, and mutual positive expectation so that the mutual benefits and interests may be achieved. This mechanism may enable each component of the system to monitor its performance and to adjust its operation to ensure uniform quality of its input‐output. In short, it may allow the system to learn, adapt and evolve.
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Neil F. Doherty and Fiona Ellis‐Chadwick
The primary aim of this paper is to critically review the literature that explicitly addresses the adoption, application and impact of internet technologies, by retailers, for the…
Abstract
Purpose
The primary aim of this paper is to critically review the literature that explicitly addresses the adoption, application and impact of internet technologies, by retailers, for the promotion and sale of merchanidise. In particular, this paper seeks to present a holistic and critical review of the early predictions, with regard to the uptake and impact of internet retailing; critically reappraise these claims in light of current trends in internet retailing; and explore where e‐tailing may be heading in the coming years.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper adopts an extensive and critical review of the literature, with regard to the adoption, uptake and impact of internet retailing, as published in the academic literature over the past 20 years.
Findings
In hindsight, it can be seen that many of the original predictions, made at the dawn of the internet era, have not become a reality: retailers are not cannibalising their own custom, virtual merchants are not dominating the market‐place, and the high street has not, as yet, been put out of business. By contrast, other predications have come to pass: electronic intermediaries are playing an increasingly important role, “one‐to‐one” marketing has become a reality, prices are more competitive, and perhaps most importantly the consumer has become more powerful.
Research limitations/implications
Providing a brief review of the past, present and future of online retailing is an extremely ambitious undertaking, especially given the vast amount of literature that has been published in this area. In attempting to provide an overall impression of the broad themes, and most important findings, to emerge from this important body of literature, it is inevitable that many important pieces of work will have been either missed or underplayed. Consequently, there is a need for follow‐up studies that aim to provide deeper and richer reviews of more narrowly defined elements of this vast landscape.
Originality/value
This study presents one of the first and most thorough reappraisals of the initial literature with regard to the likely development, implications, and impact of internet retailing. Moreover, the paper seeks to break new ground by attempting to use the current literature to help predict future directions and trends for online shopping.