https://www.marketingcenter.de/sites/mcm/files/downloads/research/lmm/literature/marchand_hennig-thurau_2013_jim_value_creation_in_the_video_game_industry_industry_economics_consumer_benefits_and_research_opportunities.pdf

Value Creation in the Video Game Industry: Industry Economics, Consumer Benefits, and Research Opportunities

Understanding Contemporary Society: Theories of the Present

Publisher's Presentation Neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran is internationally renowned for uncovering answers to the deep and quirky questions of human nature that few scientists have dared to address. His bold insights about the brain are matched only by the stunning simplicity of his experiments -using such low-tech tools as cotton swabs, glasses of water and dime-store mirrors. In Phantoms in the Brain, Dr. Ramachandran recounts how his work with patients who have bizarre neurological disorders has shed new light on the deep architecture of the brain, and what these findings tell us about who we are, how we construct our body image, why we laugh or become depressed, why we may believe in God, how we make decisions, deceive ourselves and dream, perhaps even why we're so clever at philosophy, music and art. Some of his most notable cases:

Phantoms in the brain: Probing the mysteries of the human mind

Managers of emerging platforms must decide what level of platform performance to invest in at each product development cycle in markets that exhibit two-sided network externalities. High performance is a selling point for consumers, but in many cases it requires developers to make large investments to participate. Abstracting from an example drawn from the video game industry, we build a strategic model to investigate the trade-off between investing in high platform performance versus reducing investment in order to facilitate third party content development. We carry out a full analysis of three distinct settings: monopoly, price-setting duopoly, and price taking duopoly. We provide insights on the optimum investment in platform performance and demonstrate how conventional wisdom about product development may be misleading in the presence of strong cross-network externalities. In particular, we show that, contrary to the conventional wisdom about "winner-take-all" markets, heavily investing in the core performance of a platform does not always yield a competitive edge. We characterize the conditions under which offering a platform with lower performance but greater availability of content can be a winning strategy.

Platform Performance Investment in the Presence of Network Externalities

Whether we're buying a pair of jeans, ordering a cup of coffee, selecting a long-distance carrier, applying to college, choosing a doctor, or setting up a 401(k), everyday decisions-both big and small-have become increasingly complex due to the overwhelming abundance of choice with which we are presented. As Americans, we assume that more choice means better options and greater satisfaction. But beware of excessive choice: choice overload can make you question the decisions you make before you even make them, it can set you up for unrealistically high expectations, and it can make you blame yourself for any and all failures. In the long run, this can lead to decision-making paralysis, anxiety, and perpetual stress. And, in a culture that tells us that there is no excuse for falling short of perfection when your options are limitless, too much choice can lead to clinical depression. In The Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz explains at what point choice-the hallmark of individual freedom and self-determination that we so cherish-becomes detrimental to our psychological and emotional well-being. In accessible, engaging, and anecdotal prose, Schwartz shows how the dramatic explosion in choice-from the mundane to the profound challenges of balancing career, family, and individual needs-has paradoxically become a problem instead of a solution. Schwartz also shows how our obsession with choice encourages us to seek that which makes us feel worse. By synthesizing current research in the social sciences, Schwartz makes the counter intuitive case that eliminating choices can greatly reduce the stress, anxiety, and busyness of our lives. He offers eleven practical steps on how to limit choices to a manageable number, have the discipline to focus on those that are important and ignore the rest, and ultimately derive greater satisfaction from the choices you have to make.

The Paradox of Choice : Why More is Less (Mengapa Lebih Itu Justru Kurang)

Why quality may not always win: the impact of product generation life cycles on quality and network effects in high-tech markets.

This paper analyzes competition between multiple proprietary and incompatible hardware systems when indirect network effects are present and software is provided competitively by third party developers. A discrete-choice demand structure is employed within a game theoretic setting to allow for a continuum of market share possibilities. Empirical evidence supports the claim that excess inertia is not a pervasive problem. Two data sets covering the life of the home video game industry (yearly from 1976 to 2003 and monthly January 1995 to October 2007) yield three main results: (1) market share is 11.4 times more sensitive to hardware quality than network size, (2) the number of available games is 3.69 times more sensitive to hardware quality than network size, and (3) hardware quality has a larger impact than network size on the probability of hardware success.

Hardware quality vs. network size in the home video game industry

https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/23383/1/2003-08.pdf

Richard T. Gretz

Papers

Why quality may not always win: the impact of product generation life cycles on quality and network effects in high-tech markets.

Hardware quality vs. network size in the home video game industry

Strategic innovation and technology adoption in an evolving industry

When the green in green packaging backfires: Gender effects and perceived masculinity of environmentally friendly products

Rejoinder to “Endogeneity bias in marketing research: Problem, causes and remedies”