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Category Archives: Uncategorized
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IN PLATFORMS WE TRUST
Introduction Many experts focus on how the sharing economy, powered by the new technologies, has transformed business practices in many industries, especially services. Others highlight the mechanisms of trust at work on a digital platform. Mölhmann and Geissinger, for instance, examine how trust is mediated by peers in the context of the sharing economy….
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“ALL IN”. NOW’S THE TIME TO LAUNCH YOUR BOAT SHARING MARKETPLACE.
Peer-to-peer boat sharing marketplaces hope to emulate Airbnb. They haven’t managed to dominate the boating market, still led by the traditional players. Rather, their achievement lies in how they’ve revitalized and rejuvenated a sector known for its elitism and exclusiveness. Before peer-to-peer marketplaces, boating used to be an expensive leisure: you either had to own…
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GLOBAL DELIVERY MODELS ARE PARAMOUNT TO THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF SERVICE COMPANIES
GMDs allow you to use time zones differences to produce a 24/7 service delivery chain. “That precioues commodity – time!” Seneca Introduction A 1st-century Roman philosopher, Seneca, would console his dear friend Lucilius of the hardships of existence in these words, still famous today: “nothing is ours, except time.” For the Stoics, time,…
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“SERVICES RESIST OFFSHORING”: COMMON SENSE OR REALITY?
If you need a new haircut or if your pet is sick and needs to see a vet, you wouldn’t book someone living thousands of miles away –not even five– would you? At least, not if you can help it. This article discusses whether services are protected from offshoring or, on the contrary, subject to…
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WHY SELLING SERVICES IS NOT LIKE SELLING PRODUCTS
Let’s start with the basics: how does selling services online compare to selling products online? It’s not as straightforward a question as it seems. On the one hand, defining “services” and “products” is quite challenging in itself. Internet’s changed the way the world does business in just a decade. A classic marketing dichotomy is the…
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WHY B2B MARKETPLACES WILL REPLACE YOUR SERVICES PROCUREMENT SOLUTIONS
In the future, you are likely to replace your Services Procurement Solutions (SPS) by a specialized B2B service marketplace. Here’s why: SPS have been treating services as if they were products. In this article, we’re going to look more closely at how B2B service marketplaces compare to Services Procurement Solutions (SPS). Are B2B service marketplaces a…
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SERVICES MARKETPLACES TOP THE UNICORN GALAXY, AND THERE’S ROOM FOR MORE
The valuation of the top 200 unicorns shows that the first three positions are held by service marketplaces. The paradox is that, service marketplaces represent only 8% of the business models adopted by unicorns. In a previous article, we’ve shown why selling services is not like selling products. In this article, we’ve examined the most recent unicorn…
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PLATFORM USERS: HOW DO THEY IMPACT THE APPROACH TO THE CHICKEN-AND-EGG PROBLEM?
Most platforms fail because they do not succeed to solve the chicken-and-egg problem in a timely manner – Google Video and Yahoo video are only two prominent examples. This central issue to the launch of digital platforms is caused by the two-sidedness of the market and cross-side network effects, due to which the value of…
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HOW DO SERVICE MARKETPLACES MAKE MONEY?
Against the talking power of money, eloquence is of no avail. Erasmus, Adagia. Introduction Even twenty years after their first successes, not everyone understands how these platforms make money. – “It’s just a website, right? Why talk about money?” Because, as always, money talks louder than the rest. In our article on Platform capitalism, we’ve…