Nowadays platforms are ubiquitous and range from social media to e-commerce, payment networks, and operating systems. The platforms operate as intermediaries (e.g. Booking.com, Amazon, iOS, Tinder) in business-to-business and business-to-consumer environments as well as among individuals. The drivers of platform markets’ success are complex, and they can be generally summarized into network effects, technology diffusion, and users’ switching costs. In addition, platforms markets introduced new business models and novel pricing structures, which reshaped both the competition between firms and their relationship with consumers.
The course addresses these fundamental and contemporary issues and organizes around five main questions:
- What are the characteristics that define a platform market?
- How do firms design or re-design their strategies to succeed in a platform market?
- How do platforms’ characteristics influence competition across industries and between newly born and established firms?
- How do users behave in this new environment?
- How do the regulators respond to changes introduced by platforms to preserve consumers’ interest and healthy competition?
- Teacher: Stephan Böhmer-Horländer
- Teacher: Lea Holzemer
- Teacher: Ambre Nicolle
- Teacher: Giulia Solinas