https://static.medium.com/embed.jsA customer service call
The last two digits of a price can signal your desperation to sell
While someone’s bargaining position can be shaped by competition, we economists know that there is a big gray area in our ability to predict negotiated prices. Competitive options for buyers and sellers can define a limit beyond which they will not go, but there is still a range of prices that fall within those limits. …
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Are we kidding ourselves on competition?
The traditional textbook model of competition in an oligopoly goes likes this. Firms choose prices and other variables (like product quality, advertising and R&D) to maximise their own profits and disregard the impact of their actions on (a) competing firms and (b) consumers; although with the latter since they want them to buy products they …
Is Tesla disruptive?
Apparently not, according to Tom Bartman, an associate with Clay Christensen’s research group at Harvard Business School. In a report from Harvard Business Review, they apply a framework to understand whether a new firm, like Tesla, will disrupt an old one, like GM or Toyota. The framework asks 5 questions: Does the product target over-served …
Amazon hacks your homeflow
Amazon just announced a new product called the Dash button. Basically, it is a button with a label like Tide or Cottonelle, connected to the internet and available only to Amazon Prime members (you know, the subscription that gives you free shipping). When you need to buy the thing associated with the button, you press …
How important is broadband competition? For some, really important
For many readers of this blog, this story in the Consumerist is a harrowing account. Only months after moving into his new home in Washington state, Consumerist reader Seth is already looking to sell his house. He didn’t lose his job or discover that the property is haunted. No, Seth can’t stay much longer because …
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What Meerkat v Periscope battle means for live mobile streaming
If you have been on Twitter this past month, you have heard of Meerkat. This is an app that allows you to stream video from your mobile phone. It’s barely a month old and already it seems there’s a “Meerkat killer.” Apparently everyone has suddenly realized there might be value in live mobile streaming. More …
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Does bankruptcy trump privacy?
If a firm goes bankrupt, do the creditors get to auction off their email list? How about names and addresses of those in a loyalty program? Welcome to the modern privacy economic dilemma. Creditors want as much money as they can get out of assets that will pay only a fraction on the dollar owed. …
Hosting Content on Facebook is about Ad Tracking
News came through recently that Facebook will host news sites’ content. Apparently, Buzzfeed and the New York Times are first off the block for this. While we don’t know precisely what it will mean, there is much consternation about news sites losing their distinctive brand and eventually being beholdent to Facebook. John Gruber even invoked …
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What happens with Disney's Magic Band System goes down?
https://static.medium.com/embed.jsAn insight into the future: What happens when Disney’s Magic Band system goes down?
Digitopoly 