Suchmaschinen - Eine industrieökonomische Analyse der Konzentration und ihrer Ursachen

The main topic of this doctoral thesis is to investigate the concentration in search engine markets. It is investigated, whether the structural characteristics of the market, favors a natural concentration (monopoly/oligopoly) or if an abuse of a dominant position are responsible for this. Further the (qualitative) efficiency of the providers is examined based on surveys of quality and satisfaction. In succession to the introduction, Chapter 2 depicts background information to support a better understanding of the analysis. The 3rd Chapter describes the structure and operation of a search engine. The service is split into sub-processes and particular functions are analyzed regarding their contribution to the search engine quality. The 4th chapter analyzes the demand side characteristics. The focuses are: possible switching costs, network effects, and platform properties. The hypothesis is supported by behavioral studies. The service side of a search engine is considered in the 5th chapter. Especially the cost structure to maintain a search engine service is being investigated. In chapter 6, the high concentration of the search engine market is empirically analyzed. The Chapter 7 addresses whether the concentration can be justified by the search engines quality or by the determined economic characteristics. The barriers to entry and the concentration process (winner takes it all) are distinguished. In the final analytical section, the concentration factors are analyzed in chronological sequence and the search engines are examined within the framework of the theory of contestable markets. The thesis concludes with a summary and a discussion of the regulatory proposals.Hauptinteresse der vorliegenden Arbeit besteht darin, die bestehende hohe Konzentration der Suchmaschinenmärkte zu ergründen. Vor allem wird untersucht, ob diese auf die strukturellen Eigenschaften der Märkte zurückzuführen ist und somit eine natürliche Konzentration (Monopol/Oligopol) darstellt oder ob diese auf missbräuchliche Verhaltensweisen der etablierten Suchmaschinenbetreiber zurückzuführen ist. Als weiterer Erklärungsansatz der Konzentration wird anhand der Qualitäts- und Zufriedenheitsstudien eine höhere (qualitative) Effizienz der Betreiber untersucht.Im Anschluss an eine Einleitung werden im 2. Kapitel Hintergrundinformationen für das bessere Verständnis der durchgeführten Untersuchung dargestellt. Im 3. Kapitel werden der Aufbau und die Funktionsweise einer Suchmaschine beschrieben. Die Zerlegung der Dienstleistung einer Suchmaschine in Teilprozesse (Wertschöpfungsstufen) sowie die Ermittlung der Bedeutung einzelner Funktionen für die Suchmaschinenqualität bilden die Grundlagen für die Analyse der ökonomischen Eigenschaften in den Kapiteln 4 und 5.Das 4. Kapitel befasst sich mit den nachfrageseitigen Eigenschaften. Die wichtigsten Untersuchungspunkte sind hierbei: die möglichen Wechselbarrieren der Nachfragegruppen; die zwischen den und innerhalb der Nachfragegruppen bestehenden Netzwerkeffekte sowie die auf den Netzwerkeffekten aufbauende Analyse der Plattformeigenschaften. Zur Untermauerung der argumentativen Untersuchung werden Verhaltensstudien verwendet.Im 5. Kapitel der Arbeit wird die Angebotsseite einer Suchmaschine betrachtet. Hierbei wird die Kostenstruktur zur Unterhaltung einer Suchmaschine analysiert, um unter anderem mögliche Betriebsgrößen- oder Verbundvorteile zu erfassen. Im 6. Kapitel wird die hohe Konzentration der Suchmaschinenmärkte empirisch analysiert. Daran anschließend wird im 7. Kapitel die Konzentration anhand von Studien zur Qualität von Suchmaschinen sowie anhand der ermittelten ökonomischen Eigenschaften begründet. Hierbei werden die Markteintrittsbarrieren und der Konzentrationsprozess (Winner takes all) unterschieden. Im letzten analytischen Abschnitt werden die Konzentrationsfaktoren im zeitlichen Ablauf sowie die Suchmaschinen auf bestreitbare natürliche Monopole analysiert.Die Arbeit schließt mit einer Schlussbetrachtung, in der die Erkenntnisse zusammengefasst sowie Regulierungsvorhaben diskutiert werden

A production network approach

News publishers in the industrialized world are experiencing a fundamental challenge to their business models because of the changing modes of consumption, competition, and production of their offerings that are associated with the emergence of the networked information society. The erosion of the traditional business models poses an existential threat to news publishing and has given rise to a continuing struggle among news publishers to design digital business models that will be sustainable in the future. This dissertation argues that a central and underresearched aspect of digital news publishing business models concerns the production networks that support the co-production of digital news offerings. To fill this knowledge gap, this dissertation explores the strategic design of the digital news publishing production networks that are associated with HTML-based news offerings on the open Web. In order to do so, a theoretical model is developed that is suited for the analysis of the strategic design of business models, including the production networks that support them, in the sectors of the economy that are affected by networked informatization in general and in digital news publishing specifically. The theoretical model includes a business model construct that enables a detailed analysis of production networks and an integrated strategy theory that combines networked-based approaches to value creation and capture with Emerson’s power-dependence theory in order to conceptualize both collaboration and competition strategies. In addition, a novel method is developed that can be used to collect and analyze very large amounts of data on the resource exchanges that take place between news publishers and their business partners. The method allows for systematic mapping of the flows of resources in digital news publishing ecologies and of the production networks that are associated with the co-production of digital news offerings. The theoretical model and methodology developed in the dissertation are used to explore the American digital news publishing ecology and the strategies that 41 different leading American news publishers use to design their production networks. In the analysis, the activities carried out by and resource flows between a total of 1,356 business partners and news publishers in the American digital news publishing ecology are identified and visualized. In addition, a fundamental architecture that is shared by all digital news publishing production networks and a typology of 9 different types of production networks are identified. Furthermore, it is found that the structure of the American digital news publishing ecology is highly asymmetric and gives rise to a number of specific strategic dilemmas for news publishers. Finally, 9 different types of strategies that news publishers use to design their production networks, each of which mediates the dilemmas they face in different ways, are identified. In the conclusion to the dissertation, the findings of the dissertation are discussed, put into perspective, and connected to the existing research on other elements in digital news publishing business models in order to bring us closer to a holistic theory of the strategic design of digital news publishing business models

Offshoring of R&D activities by Multinational Corporations

This thesis attempts to extend the current understanding of the R&D offshoring process with specific focus on determinants of location choice for R&D activities. The literature dealing with the determinants of location choice is largely fragmented and hence this thesis attempts to integrate the different prevailing perspectives. Based on transactional cost economics, resource-based view and eclectic paradigm, this thesis adopts a multi-level approach to examine country, firm and project level factors of location choice decision. Moreover, this study investigates the difference between the degree of innovativeness and routineness of R&D activities offshored to developed and emerging countries. Furthermore, it also looks at the difference between the degree of innovativeness and routineness of R&D activities offshored to foreign affiliate and non-integrated suppliers

Digital convergence in broadcasting TV, pay TV and telephony services : companies resources in competitive strategies

Orientador: Ruy de Quadros CarvalhoTese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de GeociênciasResumo: Esta tese busca analisar e entender como as empresas que prestam serviços de televisão (aberta e paga) e de telefonia (fixa e móvel) no Brasil estão utilizando os recursos por elas acumulados, bem como adquirindo novos recursos, tendo em vista tornarem-se competitivas na exploração de novos modelos de negócio possibilitados pelo fenômeno em curso da convergência digital, com foco na produção, distribuição e entrega de conteúdo audiovisual de entretenimento (CAE). Esta análise tomou como base as contribuições do referencial teórico conhecido como a Visão Baseada em Recursos (RBV, na sigla em Inglês) a partir das definições de recursos, competências essenciais e capacidades dinâmicas de Barney, Prahalad e Hamel e Teece, Pisano e Shuen, bem como seus desdobramentos com relação às estratégias das empresas. A análise com base na RBV foi complementada com a literatura sobre inovações em serviços de Gallouj e outros, como um caminho para identificar recursos. Uma ampla pesquisa qualitativa realizada em empresas representativas de TV: Globo, SBT, Band e Net Serviços e de telefonia: Oi, Telefônica, TIM e Claro; somada ao referencial teórico escolhido permitiu a elaboração de um modelo de análise (categorias de recursos) e a aplicação do mesmo a partir de um modelo de transferência de recursos do período pré-convergência digital para a atual fase da convergência. Esses elementos permitiram concluir que as estratégias dessas empresas não são só de adaptação às condições desse novo mercado, mas uma estratégia que está criando o que será o mercado futuro do serviço de CAE. Um mercado em pleno processo de criação e desenvolvimento, o que aumenta o grau de complexidade da análise e tomada de decisão por parte dos gestores das empresas desses dois segmentos na identificação de oportunidades e ameaças nesse contextoAbstract: This thesis aims to analyse and understand how do service companies that offer free-on the air and pay TV and telephony operators (fixed and mobile) are using their accumulated resources and acquiring new ones in order to be competitive in the exploration of new business models. The latter are becoming possible owing to the present phenomenon of the digital convergence, focusing on the production, distribution and delivery of audiovisual content for entertainment (ACE). This analysis was based on the theoretical contribution of the Resource Based View (RBV), built by the concepts of resources, core competencies and dynamic capabilities from Barney, Prahalad and Hamel, and Teece, Pisano and Shuen, as well as their developments related with firms' strategies. The RBV analysis was supplemented by theoretical approaches about innovation in services from Gallouj and others as a way to identify resources. A broad qualitative research led in important TV operators - Globo, SBT, Band and Net Serviços - and telephony operators - Oi, Telefônica, TIM and Claro - as well as the theoretical approach chosen, have allowed the development of a model of analysis (categories of resources) and its application. It has started with the resources transfer framework of the pre-convergence period, until the present stage. These elements helped to reach the conclusion that these firms' strategies are not only adaptative with respect to this new market, but they are paving the way for the future market of ACE services. This is a market which is being created and developed, increasing the complexity of analysis and decision making processes of their companies' managers, when it refers to the identification of opportunities and threatsDoutoradoPolitica Cientifica e TecnologicaDoutor em Política Científica e Tecnológic

Literacia, media e cidadania - Livro de atas do 3.º Congresso

[Excerto] A terceira edição do Congresso sobre Literacia, Media e Cidadania (LMC) teve lugar nos dias 17 e 18 de abril de 2015, em Lisboa, no Pavilhão do Conhecimento. Organizado pelo GILM – Grupo Informal sobre Literacia para os Media, o evento, que contou com a participação de cerca de 250 profissionais, teve como eixo central a temática “Literacia Mediática e Leituras Críticas do Mundo”. Durante dois dias de trabalho, procurou-se pro-mover uma reflexão crítica sobre a atualidade e o mundo, e o modo como os media a representam, com o objetivo de aprender a olhar e a ler criticamente os ecrãs e as mensagens e textos que produzem, o modo como os cidadãos os usam, como se apropriam deles e como produzem e partilham informação. Estes e outros tópicos relacionados foram apresentados e debatidos em 4 sessões plenárias, 16 sessões de comunicações livres e 4 workshops, acompanhados de uma mostra de projetos, produtos e serviços patentes no átrio do Pavilhão