Characteristics of Economic Goods and their Social Implications
In a previous post, I wrote about how media products can be considered “misbehaving economic goods” because most don’t conform to the standard product that is individually owned and consumed in its entirety. Economics is mainly based on the assumption that when a good or service is consumed, it is used up wholly by its […]
Determining Competitive Advantages for Digital Media Firms, Part 1
In the Curse of the Mogul: What’s Wrong with the World’s Leading Media Companies, Jonathan A. Knee, Bruce C. Greenwald, and Ava Seave provide a general critique of upper media management. The authors argue these moguls are preoccupied with “fantastical factors” that do little to provide high returns on capital, market share stability or shareholder […]
Network Effects and Viral Marketing
Hotmail was one of the first companies to capitalize on network effects when founders Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith began to offer web-based free email accounts in the summer of 1996. Previously, people would access their email accounts by logging into their email accounts through a PC or mainframe terminal at a university, corporation, or […]