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Publications
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- 2023
- Working Paper
A Welfare Analysis of Gambling in Video Games
By: Tomomichi Amano and Andrey Simonov
In 2020, gamers worldwide spent more than $15 billion on loot boxes, a lottery of virtual items built into video games. Loot boxes are contentious, as regulators worry that they constitute gambling. In contrast, video game companies maintain that loot boxes are...
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- February 2023
- Case
Roblox: Virtual Commerce in the Metaverse
By: Ayelet Israeli and Nicole Tempest Keller
In 2022, Roblox had 58.8 million daily active users, including over half of all children and teens under the age of 16 in the United States. Roblox, a free-to-use “co-experience platform”, allowed users to come together in immersive 3D experiences to socialize, work,...
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Keywords:
Entertainment;
Games, Gaming, and Gambling;
Market Design;
Marketing;
Brands and Branding;
Marketing Channels;
Marketing Strategy;
Business Strategy;
Economics;
Economy;
Economic Systems;
Advertising;
Advertising Campaigns;
Digital Platforms;
Markets;
Price;
Innovation and Management;
Video Game Industry;
Video Game Industry;
Video Game Industry;
United States;
California;
North America;
South America;
Asia;
Europe
- September 2022
- Case
The Pokémon Company: Evolving into an Everlasting Brand
By: Tomomichi Amano and Masaki Nomura
Super Bowl 50, the fiftieth annual championship game of the American National Football League played in February 2016, featured 52 commercials, and brands spent more than six million dollars each for a 30-second commercial slot. Surprisingly, the commercial that...
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- 2022
- Working Paper
What Would It Mean for a Machine to Have a Self?
By: Julian De Freitas, Ahmet Kaan Uğuralp, Zeliha Uğuralp, Laurie Paul, Joshua B. Tenenbaum and Tomer Ullman
What would it mean for autonomous AI agents to have a ‘self’? One proposal for a minimal
notion of self is a representation of one’s body spatio-temporally located in the world, with a tag
of that representation as the agent taking actions in the world. This turns...
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- August 3, 2022
- Article
Why NFT Creators Are Going cc0
Strategies for building brands, communities, and content through intellectual property (IP) vary greatly across NFT projects. Some maintain more or less standard IP protections; others give just NFT owners rights to innovate upon the associated intellectual property;...
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- July 2022 (Revised November 2022)
- Case
Call of Fiduciary Duty: Microsoft Acquires Activision Blizzard
By: Joseph Pacelli, Jonas Heese and James Barnett
In January 2022, Microsoft announces its acquisition of the video game company Activision Blizzard, in a deal valued at $68.7 billion, which would make Microsoft the world’s third largest video game company. The deal came as Activision Blizzard faced gender pay...
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- June 2022 (Revised September 2022)
- Case
Netflix’s Culture: Binge or Cringe?
By: Hubert Joly, Leonard A. Schlesinger, James Barnett and Stacy Straaberg
In April 2022, streaming entertainment company Netflix lost customers for the first time in more than 10 years. Once a first mover in the streaming landscape, Netflix was facing competition from Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, HBO Max, and others. A key component of...
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Keywords:
Compensation and Benefits;
Employees;
Recruitment;
Resignation and Termination;
Retention;
Selection and Staffing;
Innovation and Management;
Innovation Strategy;
Leadership Style;
Business or Company Management;
Management Style;
Media;
Business Processes;
Organizational Culture;
Organizational Structure;
Performance Expectations;
Performance Productivity;
Creativity;
Business Strategy;
Motion Pictures and Video Industry;
Motion Pictures and Video Industry;
Motion Pictures and Video Industry;
Motion Pictures and Video Industry;
North America;
California;
Canada;
Europe;
Middle East;
Africa;
Asia;
Latin America
- January 2022
- Article
Artificial Intelligence, Data-Driven Learning, and the Decentralized Structure of Platform Ecosystems
By: David R. Clough and Andy Wu
Gregory, Henfridsson, Kaganer, and Kyriakou (2020) highlight the important role of data and AI as strategic resources that platforms may use to enhance user value. However, their article overlooks a significant conceptual distinction: the installed base of...
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- August 2021
- Supplement
The London 2012 Olympic Games Video Supplement
- March 2021
- Case
Astralis Group: Determining a Brand Strategy
By: Benjamin C. Esty, Mette Fuglsang Hjortshoej and Emilie Billaud
After launching a Danish esports company in July 2019, and going public in December 2019 with multiple brands associated with different games, the Astralis leadership team was contemplating a shift to a single, corporate brand. While the original arguments for...
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Keywords:
Brand Strategy;
Esports;
Video Games;
Corporate Scope;
Positioning;
Ecosystem;
Brands and Branding;
Strategy;
Business Ventures;
Business Startups;
Entrepreneurship;
Ethics;
Sports;
Competitive Strategy;
Value Creation;
Diversification;
Games, Gaming, and Gambling;
Sports Industry;
Entertainment and Recreation Industry;
Denmark;
Europe
- February 2021
- Article
Platform Diffusion at Temporary Gatherings: Social Coordination and Ecosystem Emergence
By: Tommy Pan Fang, Andy Wu and David R. Clough
Software platforms create value by cultivating an ecosystem of complementary products and services. Existing explanations for how a prospective complementor chooses platforms to join assume the complementor has rich information about the range of available platforms....
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Keywords:
Innovation Ecosystems;
Technology Diffusion;
Hackathon;
Contagion;
Software Applications;
Software Development;
Software Engineering;
Technology Strategy;
Technology Adoption;
Technological Innovation;
Information Infrastructure;
Innovation Strategy;
Digital Platforms;
Network Effects;
Applications and Software;
Information Technology;
Video Game Industry;
Video Game Industry;
Video Game Industry;
Video Game Industry
- September 2020
- Case
Apple Bets on Augmented Reality
By: Rory McDonald, David Lane and Mel Martin
In 2020, augmented reality (AR) was still a nascent technology with blockbuster potential, one which Apple was actively developing as its iPhone franchise waned. But the emergence of AR was uneven, including the disappointing Google Glass and the unexpected viral...
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- September 2020
- Case
Hot Wheels: Launching The Mixed Play Experience
By: Elie Ofek, Andres Terech and Nicole Tempest Keller
Chris Down, Global Brand General Manager for Hot Wheels, and his team from the Advanced Play Group within Mattel, Inc., had developed an entirely new “mixed play” product experience that blended familiar Hot Wheels play in the physical world with breakthrough play in...
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- August 2020 (Revised June 2021)
- Case
Skillz: Esports and Skill-Based Mobile Gaming
By: Andy Wu, David B. Yoffie and George Gonzalez
Founded in 2012, Skillz offered a platform for mobile app developers to monetize skill-based games via prized tournaments. Skillz had over 20,000 registered developers that had created thousands of Skillz-powered games played by over 30 million registered users...
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- January 2020
- Case
Ninja: Which Platform Wins Esports' Biggest Star?
By: Anita Elberse and Michal T. Leszczynski
It is July 2019, and the business of esports and gaming is booming. Tyler Blevins—better known as Ninja—has risen to stardom playing the immensely popular shooter game Fortnite. He has become the most followed streamer in the world and, helped by his management company...
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- October 2019 (Revised October 2019)
- Case
Epic Games
By: Andy Wu and Christopher Zhang
Epic Games entered a stagnant market with its PC-games digital storefront in 2018, in the context of incumbent competitors such as Steam, its meteoric rise via Fortnite, and imminent industry shifts in gaming distribution. On the surface, Epic Games Store’s competitive...
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- June 2019 (Revised September 2019)
- Case
Parrot: Navigating the Nascent Drone Industry
By: Rory M. McDonald, Emilie Billaud and Vincent Dessain
In 2018, Henri Seydoux, CEO and Founder of Parrot, believed that his company was at an inflection point in its history. Parrot had been a European leader in consumer electronics since the 1990s, first developing Bluetooth kits for cars before moving on to electronic...
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Keywords:
Forecasting and Prediction;
Disruption;
Entrepreneurship;
Corporate Strategy;
Technological Innovation;
Leading Change;
Competitive Advantage;
Information Technology;
Competitive Strategy;
Motion Pictures and Video Industry;
Motion Pictures and Video Industry;
Motion Pictures and Video Industry;
Motion Pictures and Video Industry;
Motion Pictures and Video Industry;
Motion Pictures and Video Industry;
Europe;
France;
Paris
- March 2019 (Revised March 2020)
- Case
Choosing the Right Esports Business Model
By: David Collis and Alexander MacKay
Two esports entrepreneurs must choose on which business model to focus their time and money. After successfully launching an online esports coaching platform, a number of new opportunities emerge in the rapidly growing esports space that now has close to one billion...
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- November 2018
- Case
Sportradar (A): From Data to Storytelling
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Karen Elterman and Oliver Gassmann
In 2013, the Swiss sports data company Sportradar debated whether to expand from its core business of data provision to bookmakers into sports media products. Sports data was becoming a commodity, and in the future, sports leagues might reduce their dependence on...
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Keywords:
Sports Data;
Data;
Sport;
Sportradar;
Football;
Soccer;
Gambling;
Betting;
Betting Markets;
Statistics;
Odds;
Live Data;
Bookmakers;
Betradar;
Visualization;
Integrity;
Monitoring;
Gaming;
Streaming;
2013;
St.Gallen;
Algorithm;
Mathematical Modeling;
Carsten Koerl;
Betandwin;
Bwin;
Wagering;
Probability;
Sports;
Analytics and Data Science;
Mathematical Methods;
Games, Gaming, and Gambling;
Transition;
Strategy;
Media;
Sports Industry;
Technology Industry;
Information Technology Industry;
Media and Broadcasting Industry;
Europe;
Switzerland;
Asia;
Austria;
Germany;
England
- June 2018 (Revised January 2020)
- Case
Sony
By: Stefan Thomke, Atsushi Osanai and Akiko Kanno
Sony used to be synonymous with "innovation" and "cool products." The case reveals how the company lost its edge and describes the leadership initiatives to restore its former glory. In 2012, Kazuo (Kaz) Hirai becomes CEO and successfully transforms Sony, including a...
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