Industrial Organization for Entrepreneurs (MiE)

Session 1: Introduction - What is Industrial Organization?

(October 29, 15:30 AM – 18:45 PM)

• What are the fundamental themes of industrial organization?

• What is market power and how is it related to a firm’s strategic actions?

• Is there a role for public policy regarding market power?

• Discussion of the “Big Tech Hearing” in the United States

• What are the applications of Game theory to the industrial organization studies?

• Cabral, L.M.B. (2001) Introduction to Industrial Organization. MIT Press. pp. 1-11.

• McNamee, R. (July 2020). A historic antitrust hearing in Congress has put big

  tech on notice,The Guardianhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jul/31/big-tech-house-historic- antitrust-hearing-times-have-changed

• Romm, T. July 2020. Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google grilled on Capitol Hill over their market power, The Washington Post,https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/07/29/apple-google-facebook- amazon-congress-hearing/

• Feiner, L. July 2020. Tech competitors are ‘blown away’ by Congress’ CEO grilling and hopeful for antitrust reform,https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/31/big- tech-competitors-were-blown-away-by-house-antitrust-ceo-hearing.html

Session 2: Pricing Strategies

(November 02, 13:45 PM – 17:00 PM)

• How do firms use various pricing strategies for revenue maximization?

• How does a firm with market power set its basic prices?

• Why are some customers charged higher prices for the same product than

  others?

• Why do firms offer special discounts for certain customer groups?

• Discussion of Netflixcase study

Required Readings:

• Cabral, L.M.B. (2001) Introduction to Industrial Organization. MIT Press. pp. 167-

  183.

• Netflix Case

• Why Netflix pricing could decrease as risk of subscriber losses grows,https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/28/why-netflix-pricing-may-decrease-as-risk-of-subscriber-losses-grows.html

Session 3: Technological Change, Innovation, and Digital Business Models

(November 10, 11:30 AM – 15:15 PM)

• How does innovation affect or change markets and competition?

• And how do markets influence or even incentivize innovation?

• Why do R&D expenditure vary among industries?

• How do technological change and new digital business models disrupt markets

  and competition?

• Which challenges are existing regulations facing in times of digital economy?

   

• Cabral, L.M.B. (2001) Introduction to Industrial Organization. MIT Press. pp. 291-

  308.

• Beck, Libert. 2018. Three Signals Your Industry Is About to Be Disrupted, MIT

  Sloan Management Review,https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/three-signals-your-

  industry-is-about-to-be-disrupted/

• Christensen, C. M., Raynor, M. E., and McDonald, R. 2015. What Is Disruptive Innovation?https://hbr.org/2015/12/what-is-disruptive-innovationArt

• Light, S. 2018. When Business Blows Up Policy: How to Regulate Disruptions, Wharton Podcast and article:https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/when- business-blows-up-policy-how-to-regulate-disruptions/

• Stalk, G., Stewart, S. Tempo and the Art of Disruption. BCG Henderson Institute,https://www.bcg.com/de-de/publications/2019/tempo-art-of-disruption

Session 4: Guest Lecture: Zalando (details will be provided in due course)

(November 16, 11:30 AM – 15:15PM)

Session 5: Uber Case Study

(November 23, 08:00 AM – 11:15 PM)

• How did Uber disrupt/change the industry?

• What kind of pricing mechanisms is Uber using?

• How did competitors respond to the entry of Uber?

• How do different national regulatory frameworks influence Uber? What kind of

  regulatory problems is Uber facing and what might be possible solutions?

• How effective are regulatory frameworks in times of the digital economy?

• Uber case study

• Can Uber Overcome Its Regulatory Obstacles?https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.

  edu/article/can-uber-overcome-regulatory-obstacles/

• Factbox: Uber's legal challenges around the worldhttps://www.reuters.com/article

  /us-uber-britain-factbox/factbox-ubers-legal-challenges-around-the-world-

  idUSKBN1XZ25F

• Uber and Lyft must classify drivers as employees, judge rules, in blow to gig economy, The Guardian,https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ 2020/aug/10/uber-lyft-ruling-california-judge

Session 6: Airbnb Case Study

(November 24, 15:30 AM – 18:45PM)

• How did Airbnb disrupt/change the industry?

• How do regulatory frameworks influence and threaten the success of Airbnb?

• How can Airbnb cope with the challenges?

• How should private companiesandgovernments navigate regulatory gray area

Required Readings:

• Airbnb case study

• EU court rules Airbnb does not require estate agent licence, The Guardian,

  https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/dec/19/eu-court-rules-airbnb-does-

  not-require-estate-agents-licence

• Airbnb to America’s Big Cities: See You in Court,https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2020-airbnb-ipo-challenges/

Session 7: New ventures and regulatory environments

(November 27,11:30 AM – 17:00 PM)

• Why should entrepreneurs care about regulatory environments?

• Which challenges do new businesses in the sharing economy face with existing regulations?

• How can entrepreneurs cope with these challenges?

Required Readings:

• Case study: Cooks First or Rules First? Josephine.com's Regulatory Struggles in the Shared Economy”
• Case study: “Flytenow, Inc.: Regulatory Challenges in the Sharing Economy”

Session 8: Review and Wrap up

(November 27,11:30 AM – 17:00 PM)