Network industries in the new economy

In this paper we discuss two propositions: the supply and demand of knowledge, and network externalities. We outline the characteristics that distinguish knowledge- intensive industries from the general run of manufacturing and service businesses. Knowledge intensity and knowledge specialisation has developed as markets and globalisation have grown, leading to progressive incentives to outsource and for industries to deconstruct. The outcome has been more intensive competition. The paper looks at what is potentially the most powerful economic mechanism: positive feedback, alternatively known as demand-side increasing returns, network effects, or network externalities. We present alternative demand curves that incorporate positive feedback and discuss their potential economic and strategic consequences. We argue that knowledge supply and demand, and the dynamics of network externalities create new situations for our traditional industrial economy such that new types of economies of scale are emerging and "winner takes all" strategies are having more influence. This is the first of a pair of papers. A second paper will take the argument further and look at the nature of firms' strategies in the new world, arguing that technology standards, technical platforms, consumer networks, and supply chain strategies are making a significant contribution to relevant strategies within the new economy

Collaborative knowledge management - A construction case study

Due to the new threats and challenges faced by the construction industry today, construction companies must seek new solutions in order to remain ahead of the competition. Knowledge has been identified to be a significant organisational resource, which if used effectively can provide competitive advantage. A lot of emphasis is being put on how to identify, capture and share knowledge in today's organisations. It has been argued over the years that due to the fragmented nature of the construction industry and ad-hoc nature of the construction projects, capture and reuse of valuable knowledge gathered during a construction project pose a challenge. As a result critical mistakes are repeated on projects and construction professionals have to kee

An Ontology for Formalising Agreement Patterns in Auction Markets

Knowledge and best practices on auction systems are cur- rently disseminated across the research literature, which limits its access, reuse, evaluation and feedback by practitioners. This article presents a systematic approach to collect this knowledge as design patterns, in order to provide assistance to software developers. An ontology has been de- _ned for formalising design patterns in auction systems, with the aim of improving its searchability by software developers. Finally, a case study illustrates how the proposed pattern ontology provides assistance in the development of a dynamic pricing model for an e-commerce servic

Governance in Hospitals - The Case of Business Process Alignment

Nowadays, health care organizations are situated in a highly competitive and selective market. They are forced to guarantee high quality and cost-efficient care. On the one hand, process management in health care is linked to the economical aspect, which means the reduction of time and cost efforts. On the other hand, it is also touched by the issue of governance of health care process according to the evidence medicine. The paper contributes to this second aspect. The research question is, how hospitals can be supported in building evidence based clinical processes. A method is presented, which is based on the two central instruments in this context, the Clinical Practice Guideline (CPG) that aggregates evident medical knowledge, and the Clinical Pathway (CP) that describes the clinic-specific processes for defined patient groups. The paper demonstrates the role and potential conceptual modeling for clinical process governance using CPG and CPs

Scarcity in IP addresses: IPv4 Address Transfer Markets and the Regional Internet Address Registries

We are running out of Internet addresses. This paper evaluates address transfer policies that Internet governance agencies are considering as a response to the depletion of the IPv4 address space. The paper focuses on proposals to allow organizations holding IPv4 addresses to sell address blocks to other organizations willing to buy them. This paper analyzes the economics of the proposed transfer policies, and conducts a systematic comparison of the policies proposed in the three main world Internet regions

Patent Scope and Innovation in the Software Industry

Software patents have received a great deal of attention in the academic literature. Unfortunately, most of that attention has been devoted to the problem of whether software is or should be patentable subject matter. With roughly eighty thousand software patents already issued, and the Federal Circuit endorsing patentability without qualification, those questions are for the history books. The more pressing questions now concern the scope to be accorded software patents. In this Article, we examine the implications of some traditional patent law doctrines for innovation in the software industry. We argue that patent law needs some refinement if it is to promote rather than impede the growth of this new market, which is characterized by rapid sequential innovation, reuse and re-combination of components, and strong network effects that privilege interoperable components and products