Determinants of firm and market organization; Analysis of market behavior; Empirical methods and results; International issues and comparision; government intervention in the Marketplace.

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2017 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 1.0, University of Applied Sciences Saarbrücken, language: English, abstract: This topic is gaining more and more relevance nowadays. Platforms are taking the business world by storm – especially Social Networks like Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter offer a revolutionary kind of communication for several online customer groups, especially for businesses. The Internet Growth pushed the globalization to a great extent which leads to markets being more transparent and competitive. The customer behavior has changed to a more active position – they want to be connected to businesses with the effect of reaching a new dimension in Customer Relationship Management. Large enterprises are doing well in social networking by staying in an ongoing communication with their customers – SMEs still struggle with this approach. Questions arise if utilization potential of social networks exists for middle-class businesses and how effectiveness and efficiency of SMEs, however, have improvement opportunities through the usage of social media channels. In terms of structure, this thesis is separated into two parts. Firstly, two-sided markets and networks effects are explained in general by analyzing focal aspects and major hurdles for platform founders. Afterwards, the focus will shift from platform pioneers to platform users regarding social networks where these platforms are analyzed to a great extent in combination with usage terms for SMEs.

Harnessing the power of software platforms: what executives and entrepreneurs must know about how to use this technology to transform industries and how to develop the strategies that will create value and drive profits. Software platforms are the invisible engines that have created, touched, or transformed nearly every major industry for the past quarter century. They power everything from mobile phones and automobile navigation systems to search engines and web portals. They have been the source of enormous value to consumers and helped some entrepreneurs build great fortunes. And they are likely to drive change that will dwarf the business and technology revolution we have seen to this point. Invisible Engines examines the business dynamics and strategies used by firms that recognize the transformative power unleashed by this new revolution—a revolution that will change both new and old industries. The authors argue that in order to understand the successes of software platforms, we must first understand their role as a technological meeting ground where application developers and end users converge. Apple, Microsoft, and Google, for example, charge developers little or nothing for using their platforms and make most of their money from end users; Sony PlayStation and other game consoles, by contrast, subsidize users and make more money from developers, who pay royalties for access to the code they need to write games. More applications attract more users, and more users attract more applications. And more applications and more users lead to more profits. Invisible Engines explores this story through the lens of the companies that have mastered this platform-balancing act. It offers detailed studies of the personal computer, video game console, personal digital assistant, smart mobile phone, and digital media software platform industries, focusing on the business decisions made by industry players to drive profits and stay a step ahead of the competition. Shorter discussions of Internet-based software platforms provide an important glimpse into a future in which the way we buy, pay, watch, listen, learn, and communicate will change forever. An electronic version of this book is available under a Creative Commons license.

Proceedings - International Academic Conference on Management, Economics and Marketing in Vienna 2015

Through three case studies, this book investigates whether digital industries are naturally monopolistic and evaluates policy approaches to market power.

Handbook of Industrial Organization, Volume Four highlights new advances in the field, with this new volume presenting interesting chapters written by an international board of expert authors. - Presents authoritative surveys and reviews of advances in theory and econometrics - Reviews recent research on capital raising methods and institutions - Includes discussions on developing countries

The economic analysis of the digital economy has been a rapidly developing research area for more than a decade. Through authoritative examination by leading scholars, this Handbook takes a closer look at particular industries, business practices, and policy issues associated with the digital industry. The volume offers an up-to-date account of key topics, discusses open questions, and provides guidance for future research. It offers a blend of theoretical and empirical works that are central to understanding the digital economy. The chapters are presented in four sections, corresponding with four broad themes: 1) infrastructure, standards, and platforms; 2) the transformation of selling, encompassing both the transformation of traditional selling and new, widespread application of tools such as auctions; 3) user-generated content; and 4) threats in the new digital environment. The first section covers infrastructure, standards, and various platform industries that rely heavily on recent developments in electronic data storage and transmission, including software, video games, payment systems, mobile telecommunications, and B2B commerce. The second section takes account of the reduced costs of online retailing that threatens offline retailers, widespread availability of information as it affects pricing and advertising, digital technology as it allows the widespread employment of novel price and non-price strategies (bundling, price discrimination), and auctions, as well as better tar. The third section addresses the emergent phenomenon of user-generated content on the Internet, including the functioning of social networks and open source. Finally, the fourth section discusses threats arising from digitization and the Internet, namely digital piracy, privacy and internet security concerns.