Technological changes of the past decades drove the emergence of many new business models and new forms of interaction between businesses. Digital technologies connect people and firms, forming networks. Interactions within networks are facilitated through platforms, which in many cases connect further with each other and cover even wider networks, which may form business ecosystems. These firms have distinct properties that qualitatively change the nature of competition. Technological changes we are witnessing today – primarily related to AI - significantly increase the productivity of some activities. From a business perspective, this affects where value gets created and who is stronger positioned to capture it. On aggregate, this translates into changes in industry structures – but the extent and pace are likely to be very different in different industries. Strategy is an integrated set of choices that positions an organisation in its environment to achieve its vision over the long run. This new paradigm for competition implies new principles for defining such an integrated set of choices. In this course, together, we will consider the following questions: - What is a platform? What are its distinct properties? How do these properties affect the strategic choices necessary to create and maintain competitive advantage? - What is a business ecosystem? In which cases is this concept relevant? What roles can ecosystem participants perform? How does one maximise value creation and capture in each of the roles? - How does AI affect competitive dynamics? How does technological change translate into changes in industry structure? How can businesses make choices in the context of the associated uncertainty around the strategic environment?
