How can companies capture value from an innovation? : from value creation to value capture : case study Uber

This thesis examines the value creation process and how companies can capture value that they created. It particularly analyses the opportunities a company has to capture value from an innovation. The ability to monetise innovations is crucial for companies and determines whether they can establish a sustainable business. This thesis first discusses previous research and connects theories to broaden and enhance their applicability. The main part is a case study on Uber, a ride-hailing company. In the case study, the company is thoroughly examined and theories which were discussed before are applied in order to expose how Uber creates and captures value. This thesis further highlights the importance of network effects in a competitive environment within the sharing economy. Although value creation and value capturing has extensively been discussed in prior research, this thesis contributes by applying traditional and recent theories to a rising startup that has received unprecedented funding from its investors. Understanding how Uber pursues its way to the top and how it captures value provides vital implications for other similar startups and helps them in their efforts to succeed. This thesis finds that Uber needs to focus on three aspects. Firstly, it needs to diversify its portfolio and offer more services. Secondly, it needs to develop a system that prevents drivers from using competing apps, which would realise network effects that lower prices and enable faster pickups. Thirdly, it needs to further innovate, especially in the field of autonomous driving.A presente pesquisa de mestrado analisa o processo de criação de valor pelas empresas e como elas capturam o valor que criam. Mais especificamente, investiga as oportunidades que uma empresa tem de capturar valor por meio de uma inovação. A habilidade de monetizar inovações é crucial para as empresas e determina se elas podem estabelecer negócios duradouros. Primeiramente, são apresentadas pesquisas anteriores e, em seguida, o autor as conecta para expandir e melhorar sua aplicabilidade. A parte principal é o estudo de caso sobre a Uber, uma empresa de tecnologia que oferece carona remunerada. Nele, a empresa é profundamente analisada e as teorias discutidas anteriormente, aplicadas para explicar como a Uber cria e captura valor. Esta tese reforça ainda a importância do efeito de rede no competitivo ambiente da economia compartilhada. Apesar de outras pesquisas já terem discutido extensamente geração e captura de valor, este trabalho contribui para aplicar teorias tradicionais e recentes a uma startup em ascensão, que recebeu aportes sem precedentes de seus investidores. Compreender como a Uber busca estar no topo e como ela captura valor tem impacto vital para ajudar outras startups similares a alcançarem o sucesso. O resultado desta pesquisa mostra que a Uber precisa focar em três aspectos. Em primeiro lugar, deve diversificar seu portfólio, oferecendo mais serviços. Em segundo, precisa desenvolver um sistema para evitar que os motoristas usem aplicativos concorrentes, de modo a alcançar o efeito de rede, que reduz os preços e possibilita buscar os passageiros mais rapidamente. Em terceiro lugar, verificou-se que a empresa necessita inovar, especialmente na área de carros autônomos

Start-up and open innovation

Nowadays, in many industries the traditional research and development approach has become obsolete. For this reason, during the past two years companies started focusing on Startups and the Open Innovation. Firms should use internal and external relationships, ideas and paths in order to advance their organizational process and technology. Open Innovation combines all those ideas into a system and defines all the requirements for the new business model. The purpose of this thesis is to illustrate how Startups successfully organize and manage open Innovation with large and small companies and to highlights the strengths, weaknesses, challenges and barriers faced by Startups in an Open Innovation context along with its benefits. Moreover, it looks on the competitive effects of Startups in the market and their rapid grow which lead to a flexible business model

The Song Remains the Same: What Cyberlaw Might Teach the Next Internet Economy

The next stage of the digital economy will involve trillions of networked devices across every industry and sphere of human activity: The Internet of the World. Early manifestations of this evolution through on-demand services such as Uber and Airbnb raise a host of serious legal questions. The stage seems set for a decisive battle between regulation and innovation. Yet this perception is mistaken. In the end, the emerging businesses will welcome government engagement, and regulatory actors will accept creative solutions to achieve their goals. Why expect such a resolution? Because the same story played out twenty years ago, in the early days of the commercial internet. Contemporary debates recapitulate a familiar error: the artificial division of virtual and real-space activity. Now, as in the past, this “digital dichotomy” feeds both excessive skepticism about legal protections and excessive concern about the threats from technology-based innovations. The history of cyberlaw shows the importance of overcoming such perceptions and recognizing the potential of government as an enabler of innovation

In-company project: An integrated communication plan to increase the usage of the e-floater sharing service in Lisbon

This Master’s project is an in-company project about the micro mobility company Floatility that offers an electric micro scooter sharing service with its three-wheeled e-floater. The company figured out that most its e-floater trips were conducted by users who did three or more trips. In order to address these regular users and trigger more trips by them, it needs an effective integrated communication plan. As Floatility does not yet have a clear and structured communication plan for these regular users, the objective of this Master’s project is to develop an effective communication plan for the regular users of the e-floater sharing service in Lisbon. The users with the most trips during the three-month pilot project in Lisbon Carnide served as the target audience who were interviewed and surveyed in order to develop an integrated communication plan. Firstly, a situation analysis has been done incorporating the shared mobility market in Lisbon, Floatility’s competitors in Lisbon and the company’s efloater including its plans for the Lisbon market. Next, the integrated communication plan has been developed based on six steps proposed by Kotler and Armstrong (2012). They consist of identifying the target audience, determining the communication objectives, designing a message, choosing the right media, selecting the message source and collecting feedback from the users. Having analysed the results of the primary research with the regular users of the pilot project, eventually an implementation plan is recommended for Floatility’s operations in the entire city of Lisbon.Este projeto de mestrado é um projeto in company sobre a empresa de micro mobilidade Floatility que oferece um serviço de partilha de micro scooter elétrico com o seu e-floater de três rodas. A empresa descobriu que a maioria das suas viagens de e-floater foram realizadas por utilizadores que fizeram três ou mais viagens. Para atender a esses usuários regulares e desencadear mais viagens por eles, é necessário um plano de comunicação integrado e eficaz. Como a Floatility ainda não tem um plano de comunicação claro e estruturado para estes utilizadores regulares, o objectivo deste projecto de mestrado é desenvolver um plano de comunicação eficaz para os utilizadores regulares do serviço e-floater sharing em Lisboa. Os utilizadores que fizeram mais viagens durante os três meses de projeto piloto no Polo de Carnide, em Lisboa, serviram de público alvo e foram entrevistados de forma a desenvolver um plano de comunicação integrado. Em primeiro lugar, foi feita uma análise da situação incorporando o mercado de mobilidade partilhada em Lisboa, os concorrentes da Floatility em Lisboa e o e-floater da empresa incluindo os seus planos para o mercado de Lisboa. Em seguida, o plano de comunicação integrada foi desenvolvido com base em seis etapas propostas por Kotler e Armstrong (2012). Consistem em identificar o público-alvo, determinar os objetivos de comunicação, desenhar uma mensagem, escolher o meio de comunicação adequado, selecionar a fonte da mensagem e recolher o feedback dos utilizadores. Tendo analisado os resultados da investigação primária com os utilizadores regulares do projecto-piloto, recomenda-se eventualmente um plano de implementação para as operações da Floatility em toda a cidade de Lisboa

Regulation 2.0: The Marriage of New Governance and Lex Informatica

Throughout history, disruptive technologies have transformed industry and signaled the destruction or creation of regulatory structures. When crafting regulations, governments often utilize Regulation 1.0 approaches, characterized by top-down design standards that dictate exactly how the regulated must act in order to prevent market failures. Regulation 1.0 increases barriers to entry and decreases the room for business experimentation. Regulation 2.0, by contrast, is a theoretical approach for regulating companies that rely on platform-mediated networks. It marries New Governance theory and the concept of lex informatica. This marriage allows for the collaborative creation of design standards that are then enforced through mediating technologies. Regulation 2.0 is ideal for regulating the sharing economy in particular, as it is powered by technology-driven feedback loops. The shift from Regulation 1.0 to Regulation 2.0 will help regulators meaningfully collaborate with stakeholders and complete the heavy lifting required to effectively turn code into law and efficiently achieve the desired ends of regulation

Digital Platforms and Antitrust Law

This Article is about “big data” and antitrust law. Big data, for my purposes, refers to digital platforms that enable the discovery and sharing of information by consumers, and the harvesting and analysis of consumer data by the platform. The obvious example of such a platform is Google. The big platforms owe their market dominance not to anticompetitive conduct but to economies of scale. This Article discusses three types of anticompetitive conduct associated with digital platforms: kill zone expropriation, acquisition of nascent rivals, and denial of access to data. There is nothing so unusual about digital platforms that would require a reform of the antitrust laws. Some are described as two-sided markets, but this designation, even after Ohio v. American Express Co., should not present an obstacle to the application of antitrust law. I. Introduction II. Platforms III. Competition Issues ... A. Kill Zone Expropriation ... B. Acquisition of Nascent Rivals ... C. Denial of Access to Data IV. Antitrust Law V. Conclusio

The Evolution of Entrepreneurial Finance: A New Typology

There has been an explosion in new types of startup finance instruments. Whereas twenty years ago preferred stock dominated the field, startup companies and investors now use at least eight different instruments—six of which have only become widely used in the last decade. Legal scholars have yet to reflect upon the proliferation of instrument types in the aggregate. Notably missing is a way to organize instruments into a common framework that highlights their similarities and differences. This Article makes four contributions. First, it catalogues the variety of startup investment forms. I describe novel instruments, such as revenue-based financing, which remain understudied within law and entrepreneurship. Second, this Article shows the limitations of the debt vs. equity distinction as a classification method for startup financial contracts. Reliance on this traditional distinction obscures understanding of how instruments function. Third, the Article proposes a “new typology” to classify investment instruments based upon their economic, control, time, and regulatory dimensions. Three new broad categories— Payouts, Lock-in, and Park-n-ride—provide an insightful way to group these contracts. And fourth, the new typology explains how an expansion in instrument types creates complex capital structures which increase horizontal conflicts among startup investors. Further, new instruments increasingly place investors into a non-shareholder role that is outside the boundaries of corporate law’s protections. As early-stage investors increasingly fall outside the protections of corporate law, a greater burden shifts to contract law to resolve disputes arising from divergent investor interests

The Evolution of Entrepreneurial Finance: A New Typology

There has been an explosion in new types of startup finance instruments. Whereas twenty years ago preferred stock dominated the field, startup companies and investors now use at least eight different instruments—six of which have only become widely used in the last decade. Legal scholars have yet to reflect upon the proliferation of instrument types in the aggregate. Notably missing is a way to organize instruments into a common framework that highlights their similarities and differences. This Article makes four contributions. First, it catalogues the variety of startup investment forms. I describe novel instruments, such as revenue-based financing, which remain understudied within law and entrepreneurship. Second, this Article shows the limitations of the debt vs. equity distinction as a classification method for startup financial contracts. Reliance on this traditional distinction obscures understanding of how instruments function. Third, the Article proposes a “new typology” to classify investment instruments based upon their economic, control, time, and regulatory dimensions. Three new broad categories— Payouts, Lock-in, and Park-n-ride—provide an insightful way to group these contracts. And fourth, the new typology explains how an expansion in instrument types creates complex capital structures which increase horizontal conflicts among startup investors. Further, new instruments increasingly place investors into a non-shareholder role that is outside the boundaries of corporate law’s protections. As early-stage investors increasingly fall outside the protections of corporate law, a greater burden shifts to contract law to resolve disputes arising from divergent investor interests

Entrepreneurship and economic performance: a macro perspective

The present paper provides a theoretical framework of the relationship between the rate of entrepreneurship and national economic performance. The first part deals with some aspects of the recent economics literature on the relation between entrepreneurship and small business on the one hand, and economic growth on the other. In particular, it gives a summary of some work of the EIM/CASBEC research group in The Netherlands. In the second part, a framework is presented linking entrepreneurship and growth�to different levels of aggregation. The last part of the paper illustrates the framework with some historical case studies. The present paper supplements Wennekers, Uhlaner and Thurik (2002)�and is concerned with the causes of the rate of entrepreneurship.