How can firms profitably give away free products? This paper provides a novel answer and articulates tradeoffs in a space of information product design. We introduce a formal model of two-sided network externalities based in textbook economics - a mix of Katz & Shapiro network effects, price...

During times of emergency, private organizations as well as local, state, and federal authorities must coordinate in real time to create an effective response. When coordination is absent, failure results, as was seen after Hurricane Katrina and the Haiti Earthquake. Using primary data that the...

One of the greatest challenges to integrating renewable energy resources into power operations is the variability in electricity output from these resources. The electricity system works essentially as a supply chain with a nearly zero tolerance for delay and storage resources that remain very...

Platform-mediated networks encompass several distinct types of participants, including end users, complementors, platform providers who facilitate users' access to complements, and sponsors who develop platform technologies. Each of these roles can be opened - that is, structured to encourage...

Suppose that a firm in charge of a business ecosystem is a firm in charge of a microeconomy. To achieve the highest growth rate, how open should that economy be? To encourage third-party developers, how long should their intellectual property interests last? We develop a sequential innovation...

The US Postal Service suffered a $5B loss in FY 2013 following on a $15.9B loss the year before. One of the challenges has been the diversion of revenues from physical ad mail to online channels such as Google and Facebook. This paper articulates the design of an information market that could...