"Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy"

Carl Shapiro
Transamerica Professor of Business Strategy, Haas School of Business University of California, Berkeley

Abstract:
Information goods--from movies and music to software code and stock quotes--have supplanted industrial goods as the key drivers of world markets. Confronted by this New Economy, many instinctively react by searching for a corresponding New Economics to guide their business decisions. The thesis of Information Rules is that today's executives crafting strategy are ill-served by the search for a New Economics. To the contrary, shelter in the current storm of technological change is best found by relying on proven economic principles, as illustrated by historical examples drawn from the information and network sectors. Whether looking at the advent of the telephone system 100 years ago or the setting of color television standards 50 years ago, the message is the same: Technology changes; economic laws do not.

Shapiro will discuss six themes from his new book with Hal R. Varian: (1) Versioning: how to design product lines for information products; (2) Rights Management: how to maximize the value, not the protection, of your intellectual property; (3) Lock-In: how to recognize and manage lock-in to information formats and systems; (4) Positive Feedback and Network Effects: how to harness positive feedback to work for you rather than against you; (5) Standards and Interconnection: how to manage standards and interconnection to your advantage; (6) Competition Policy: what antitrust rules mean for competition in the information age.

Shapiro will also draw on his extensive antitrust experience to explain the economics and law behind the current Justice Department lawsuit against Microsoft.

Biography:
Carl Shapiro is the Transamerica Professor of Business Strategy at the Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley. During 1995-96 he served as the Chief Economist in the Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice. Hal R. Varian is the Dean of the School of Information Management and Systems at U.C. Berkeley.

For info about my new book with Hal Varian, Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy, see http://www.inforules.com.