Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy

Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy
Carl Shapiro,Hal R. Varian | 1998-11-19 00:00:00 | Harvard Business Press | 352 | MIS
In a marketplace that depends so thoroughly on cutting-edge information technology, can classic economic principles still offer any real strategic value? Yes! say Carl Shapiro and Hal Varian. In Information Rules, they reveal that many conventional economic concepts can provide the insight and understanding necessary to succeed in the information age. Shapiro and Varian argue that if managers seriously want to develop effective strategies for competing in the new economy, they must understand the fundamental economics of information technology. Whether information takes the form of software code or recorded music, is published in a book or magazine, or even posted on a website, managers must know how to evaluate the consequences of pricing, protecting, and planning new versions of information products, services, and systems. The first book to distill the economics of information and networks into practical business strategies, Information Rules is a guide to the winning moves that can help business leaders-from writers, lawyers, and finance professionals to executives in the entertainment, publishing, and hardware and software industries--navigate successfully through the information economy.
Chapter 1 of Information Rules begins with a description of the change brought on by technology at the close of the century--but the century described is not this one, it's the late 1800s. One hundred years ago, it was an emerging telephone and electrical network that was transforming business. Today it's the Internet. The point? While the circumstances of a particular era may be unique, the underlying principles that describe the exchange of goods in a free-market economy are the same. And the authors, Carl Shapiro and Hal Varian, should know. Shapiro is Professor of Business Strategy at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley and has also served as chief economist at the Antitrust Division of the Justice Department. Varian is the Dean of the School of Information Management and Systems at UC Berkeley. Together they offer a deep knowledge of how economic systems work coupled with first-hand experience of today's network economy. They write:

Sure, today's business world is different in a myriad of ways from that of a century ago. But many of today's managers are so focused on the trees of technological change that they fail to see the forest: the underlying economic forces that determine success and failure.

Shapiro and Varian go to great lengths to purge this book of the technobabble and forecasting of an electronic woo-woo land that's typical in books of this genre. Instead, with their feet on the ground, they consider how to market and distribute goods in the network economy, citing examples from industries as diverse as airlines, software, entertainment, and communications. The authors cover issues such as pricing, intellectual property, versioning, lock-in, compatibility, and standards. Clearly written and presented, Information Rules belongs on the bookshelf of anyone who has an interest in today's network economy--entrepreneurs, managers, investors, students. If there was ever a textbook written on how to do business in the information age, this book is it. Highly recommended. --Harry C. Edwards
Reviews
When I bought this book I really expected it was addressed to a very specific professional area, like Computer Scientists or Economists, or even MBA students. I was completly wrong. In fact, this well-written book clarifies many thinks about the important value of information, concepts, relationshipments and additionally rich samples. Consequently, we start to have a better comprehention about several business involved with "Information" (I mean: nowadays, everything, every commercial and non-commercion relationshipment). It is 100% recommmended, no matter what is your work or your dedicated area of studying. Information really rules...
Reviews
Information Rules: a strategic guide to the network economy (MONGI SIMELANE)

As a student majoring in MIS (Management Information Systems) I highly recommend that Information Rules: a strategic guide to the network economy by Carl Shapiro and Hal Varian is a good investment which, in my opinion is timeless. Timeless to the extent that it is exploring the culture of this new emerging phase in information technology and firms that are involved within it. At first I was quite sceptical to whether or not the trends and fore-seen issues with the growing technology age would be relevant and of course there were things mentioned that I didn't agree with, but for the most part most of what was written was relevant.

One aspect of the book which I particularly enjoyed were the recommendations for business strategies which firm could adopt. Product differentiation, consumer satisfaction (which leads to consumer loyalty), networking (which could be compared to blogs or viral marketing nowadays) and finally the support and convenience of the product/service, is what we see around us that make a clear distinction between the companies that are successful and those that are not. So therefore many firms that are well known today use some of these strategies in order to not only improve consumer satisfaction but to also gain new consumers in the process.

This just makes it seem as if this book's authors have done a lot of research in order to develop future trends and study aspects of the economy that may indeed change. So from the beginning of the first chapter Carl Shapiro and Hal Varian captivated my curiosity by mentioning the fact that this trend of the world getting "smaller: is one that was noted during the industrial revolutions, the emerging in infrastructure of electricity and telephone networks. This was all a growing trend that seems to have no end.

I highly enjoyed this book, a bit difficult to read at times but it is definitely a good buy.


Reviews
This book is the basis for so much that we already know - or should know. Re-reading it this year (2008) after so long was a shock to my senses. It showed me how on target the economic principles expressed between the covers were.



Of course, that is one of the points of the book: old economic principles still hold in "new" economies. The strategies of the most successful firms today can be held up against the principles of this book as a standard - and they will be in synch.



If you've never read it, I highly recommend it - especially if you are in or planning to enter the tech economy. Do not be fooled by some of the "dated" material, since some time has obviously passed since its first publication. There are comments about technological developments held in suspense for the authors at that time - the outcome of which we are already well aware. For example, the authors make much of Netscape's stardom of that time. Now, of course, it is a different story. Regardless, such examples do not diminish the fundamental economics lesson in this book.
Reviews
"Information Rules" is easy and very intersting to read.

I recommend it to people who are interested in internet and it's information flows.
Reviews
This book is a brilliant analysis of the information economy. If more business leaders would have picked it up in 1998 when it was published a lot less money would have been invested in internet business schemes that did not work!

Download this book!

Free Ebooks Download