Market leadership through technology – Backward compatibility in the U.S. Handheld Video Game Industry

The introduction of a new product generation forces incumbents in network industries to rebuild their installed base to maintain an advantage over potential entrants. We study if backward compatibility moderates this process of rebuilding an installed base. Using a structural model of the U.S. market for handheld game consoles, we show that backward compatibility lets incumbents transfer network effects from the old generation to the new to some extent but that it also reduces supply of new software. We examine the tradeoff between technological progress and backward compatibility and find that backward compatibility matters less if there is a large technological leap between two generations. We subsequently use our results to assess the role of backward compatibility as a strategy to sustain market leadership

Market Leadership Through Technology - Backward Compatibility in the U.S. Handheld Video Game Industry

The introduction of a new product generation forces incumbents in network industries to rebuild their installed base to maintain an advantage over potential entrants. We study if backward compatibility moderates this process of rebuilding an installed base. Using a structural model of the U.S. market for handheld game consoles, we show that backward compatibility lets incumbents transfer network effects from the old generation to the new to some extent but that it also reduces supply of new software. We examine the tradeoff between technological progress and backward compatibility and find that backward compatibility matters less if there is a large technological leap between two generations. We subsequently use our results to assess the role of backward compatibility as a strategy to sustain market leadership.backward compatibility, market leadership, network effects, video games, two-sided markets

PRODUCT STRATEGIES AND STARTUPS’ SURVIVAL IN TURBULENT INDUSTRIES: EVIDENCE FROM THE SECURITY SOFTWARE INDUSTRY

This paper seeks to explore the drivers of startups’ survival in turbulent industries, characterized by high rates of entry and exit, fragmented market shares, and a rapid pace of product innovation. Specifically, the paper aims to underscore the role played by post-entry product strategies, along with their interaction, beyond that of pre-entry conditions. Based on a sample of 270 startups that entered the Security Software Industry from 1989 till 1998, we find evidence that surviving entities are those that more aggressively adopt versioning and product portfolio strategies. Interesting enough, strategic learning seems to play a major role: Focusing on one of the two product strategies commands a higher survival probability than adopting a mixed strategy.

Why Do Some Places Succeed When Others Decline? A Social Interaction Model of Cluster Viability

One of the most convincing explanations papers generally provide concerning clusters in knowledge-based economies refers to the geographically bounded dimension of knowledge spillovers. Here we shall underline that location decision externalities precede local knowledge spillovers in the explanation of cluster aggregate efficiency, which thus requires us to focus on the sequential process of location and the nature of interdependences in location decision-making. To that end, we mean to associate cluster emergence with the formation of locational norms, and to study the critical parameters of their stability. These parameters relate to the type of decision externalities among more or less cognitively distant firms, which influences the weight and the resulting ambivalent role of knowledge spillovers at the aggregate level of clusters. We suggest two theoretical propositions which we test within a simple and general norm location dynamics modeling framework. We then proceed to discuss the results so obtained by comparing them with an emerging related literature based on the life cycle and viability of clustersclusters, location under decision externalities, cognitive distance, knowledge spillovers

Contracting Productivity Growth

In this paper, we analyze the interactions between growth and the contracting environment in the production sector.Allowing incompleteness in contracting implies that viable production relationships for firms and workers, and therefore the profitability of industries, depend on the rates of innovation and growth.The speed at which new innovations arrive in turn depends on the profitability of production, for the usual reasons examined in the endogenous growth literature.We show that these interactions can have important implications which are consistent with observed phenomena in both the micro and macro environment.In particular, we demonstrate that a technological shock (increasing productivity of research) can, through this interaction, lead to a productivity slowdown and a shift in labor market contracts away from firms providing implicit guarantees of lifetime employment and towards shorter-term "contractor" type arrangements.We show the consistency of an increase in the proportion of the labor force under short term employment, increased relative returns of workers in high productivity sectors, and increased income inequality, with a productivity slowdown of finite duration.economic growth;contracts;productivity

The Birth of a New Industry: Entry by Start-ups and the Drivers of Firm Growth. The Case of Encryption Software

The paper analyses the birth of the Encryption Software Industry (ESI), a new niche in the software industry. Using a Chandlerian perspective, this work reports the main facts about firm entry and growth, with a particular focus on start-up strategies and actions. Since scale economies do not play a major role in ESI, the paper investigates the different sources of firm competitive advantages. This work shows that innovation and product differentiation, along with investments in co-specialised assets, are variables strongly correlated to young firm probability to survive and grow. In so doing, we have collected highly detailed information on product introduction, US patents granted, worldwide alliances and biographical data of firm founders.Entry, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Software.

Дослідження системи операційного менеджменту організації, на прикладі Apple Computer, Inc

The object of investigation is the process of managing of operating activities of Apple, Inc. The aim of the work is to formulate theoretical approaches and to develop practical recommendations on directions of improvement of operating management at the organization. Research methods cover methods of analysis, synthesis, comparison, detailing, system approach. This master’s research paper analyzes the operational management of Apple, Inc. and provides recommendations for it’s improvement. In particular, the main directions of solving the problems of operational management of the company have been outlined, the proposals on improvement of expansion distribution network and organization of innovative activity of the Apple Inc. have been made.Об'єкт дослідження ‒ процес управління операційною діяльністю компанії Apple, Inc. Мета дослідження - формування теоретичних підходів та розробка практичних рекомендацій щодо напрямів вдосконалення системи операційного менеджменту компанії Apple, Inc. Методи дослідження: методи аналізу, синтезу, порівняння, деталізації, системний підхід. У роботі проведено аналіз операційного менеджменту Apple, Inc., а також викладені рекомендації щодо його вдосконалення. Зокрема, окреслено основні напрями вирішення проблем операційного менеджменту компанії, внесено пропозиції щодо розширення дистриб’юторської мережі, а також вдосконалення організації інноваційної діяльності Apple Inc.Introduction 6 CHAPTER 1 THE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENT 8 1.1 Meanings and definition of operational management 8 1.2 Principles and methods of operations management 12 1.3 Factors affecting the Operations activity of Apple Inc. company 21 CHAPTER 2 RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS 31 2.1 Сompany introduction 31 2.2 SWOT - analysis of Apple Inc. Company 46 2.3 Analysis of operation management at Apple Inc 50 CHAPTER 3 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR IMPROVING OF OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENT AT THE APPLE INC 63 3.1 The main directions of solving operational management problems of the company 63 3.2 Recommendations concerning improvements of Distribution in the organization 65 3.3 Recommendations concerning improvements of innovative activity at the organization 67 CHAPTER 4 SPECIAL PART 73 4.1 Current trends in the field 73 4.2 Company policy in the market 75 CHAPTER 5 RATIONALE FOR RECOMMENDATIONS 77 5.1 Statement for recommendations at Company 77 CHAPTER 6 OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY AT THE ENTERPRISE 79 6.1 The aim of occupational health 79 6.2 Organization of occupational health and safety at the enterprise 86 CHAPTER 7 ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES 92 7.1 Environmental issues in the field 92 7.2 Еnvironmental factors 94 Conclusions 96 References 98 Appendices 10

Product strategies and survival in schumpeterian environments: evidence from the US security software industry.

This paper seeks to explore the drivers of survival in environments characterized by high rates of entry and exit, fragmented market shares, rapid pace of product innovation and proliferation of young ventures. The paper aims to underscore the role played by postentry product strategies, along with their interaction, after carefully controlling for "at entry" factors and demographic conditions. Based on a population of 270 firms that entered the US security software industry between 1989 and 1998, we find evidence that surviving entities are those that are more aggressive in the adoption of versioning and portfolio broadening strategies. In particular, focusing on any one of these two strategies leads to a higher probability of survival as opposed to adopting a mixed strategy.Survival; Versioning; Portfolio broadening; Young ventures; Sotware;

Relationships between nongovernmental organizations and the main actors from their environment

NGOs can continue defend their operational independence in evolutionary conditions that imply from their behalf an important vigilant activity. The financial prosperity of big NGOs owes a lot to their conversion to direct marketing techniques, from the beginning of 1980s. This activity can be compared to a research activity of the financial partners, whose transaction costs are explicit, while they imply the forming of a folder of donors to whom there are sent messages of different form and periodicity. International financers ask from their associative partners a proved professional reputation. It is clear that an assistance action financed from public funds and meant for the assuming of tens, even hundreds of thousand persons, leaves the area of symbolic intervention in order to enter the area of complex programs of assistance. In a general way, written and audio-visual press justifies in an advantageous way NGOs action and, indissociable, their institutional image. The attitude of the great public towards the NGOs is more ambiguous. The public opinion is bad informed concerning the help for development and humanitarian action. Half private companies, half public administrations, NGOs prosper because of a reputation which, without absolving them from applying a concrete action, absolves them form producing an explicit utility. While institutions on the market prosper on an economic rent and the public institutions benefit from a statutory rent, NGOs - especially the most important – exploit a “symbolic” rent which strongly structures their administrative situation.nongovernmental organizations, donors, financers.