Thursday, July 13, 2006

Google Business Models

It was an honour to be invited as guest professor 2006 by the University of Munchen. One of the well-known online auction business models is Google. With a group of very dedicated students (related to the Center of Digital Technology & Management) different business models under development at Google Labs were analysed. The voting results with regard to the highest potential of the analysed Google Lab applications were as follows:

- Google Earth: 10 votes
- Google Talk: 3 votes
- Google Video: 2 votes
- Froogle: 2 votes
- Google Desktop: 1 vote
- Google Local for Mobile: 1 vote
- Google Pack: 1 vote

Total 20 votes

Also an interesting experience was that for the first time I was teaching a group where ALL had experience with online auctions (mostly eBay Germany).

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Networks in Auctions

The bi-annual Smart Business Networks discovery event, June 14-16, 2006 was again very successful. Executives and scientists discussed the latest on smart business networks. What are critical smart components? What type of applications? What are excellent network strategies? How to develop the business operating system?

Ulad Radkevitch, Otto Koppius and I presented research on ego-networks (suppliers that all the time come back to buyers in auctions). Our empirical analysis comes up with a typology of ego-networks in auctions: small buyers, transactional buyers, relational (small) buyers, relational (large) buyers, and diversifiers. Here is the paper.

Friday, June 9, 2006

Who Will Be World Champion Soccer 2006?

Who Will Be the World Champion Soccer? That is the question that will be asked and discussed the coming weeks by millions (even billions) of people around the world. Will it be Brazil, Germany .... or even the Netherlands!

We would like to predict who will be the winner. One way of predicting is to use a prediction market. Prediction markets create the potential to aggregate information far better than traditional ways of information aggregation and forecasting. Prediction markets are so-called double auctions. Both buyers and sellers (therefore double) buy and sell their shares in auctions.

One of our students - Jérôme Martin - has created SoccerExchange. Here you trade Brazil shares or Germany shares and try to make some money by buying and selling these shares related to the question: Who Will Be The World Champion Soccer? So, let's trade.

Monday, May 22, 2006

Students Present Business Cases

Students in the Master Program of Business Information Management at RSM present May 17, 2006 their business cases for executives of Capgemini and Cordys at the Vanenburg Castle in Putten.
The presentations included a business plan and working prototypes of web based systems developed in the elective course Designing Web-based Systems. The winners - Maarten Fokkelman, Wilco Kuyper, Mohammed Tarrahi, and Zenobie Verkijk - came up with an excellent business plan including a detailed business web, a detailed cost/benefit analysis, and a great working prototype including links to advanced web services. See RSM%2019.JPG

Tuesday, May 2, 2006

Executive Program in Jakarta


In the Advanced Leadership Program at the Executive Center for Global Leadership (ECGL) in Jakarta critical IT Leadership issues are discussed with executives (Thursday May 4 - Saturday May 6, 2006). The following topics were discussed: strategy and the role of IT, business models, extending the enterprise to smart business networks, the next generetation IT infrastructure, IT investments portfolio approach, the role of the CIO, IT outsourcing and the winner's curse, managing IT projects.
The program is designed and executed by ECGL and RSM Erasmus University.

Monday, May 1, 2006

Presentations at ANU in Canberra

On Thursday April 27 and Friday April 28, 2006 I gave three presentations at the Australian National University (ANU) College of Business and Economics in Canberra for enthusiastic audiences.

The first presentation was a PhD workshop talking about So What, How, and Why of Information Systems Research. With PhD students from the School of Accountancy and Information Systems a lively discussion was undertaken about how to develop Information Systems Theory and the do's and don'ts of PhD research.

The second presentation dealt with the topic of Online Markets and the lessons learned from a decade of research in the Dutch flower industry. The presentation title was Moving to Online Markets.

The Q&A dealt with the role of proxi-bidding in online auctions, the role of logistics and transportations costs related to the bidding costs in the flower auctions, and the role of bundling and how it will have an influence on the optimal design of the distribution network.

The third presentation was about the Emergence of Smart Business Networks organized by the National Centre for Information Systems Research (NCISR).

Q&A dealt with the role of human decision making in the technology-enabled networks, the role of security and privacy in smart business networks, and how companies could share information in complicated network settings.
One of the participants - Tom Worthington - summarized my presentation very well at his web log.

The Beginning of the Beginning

This weblog will focus on the great subject of Online Auction Markets (OAMs). It will try to answer questions like
  • what are online auction markets?
  • what is so typical?
  • why do these online auction markets exist anyway?
  • why are online auctions - think about eBay and Google - so successful?
  • what is the role of information and information technologies?
  • how can you create value with online auction markets?
It will keep you up-to-date with a mixture of business, technology, and science.