by Prof. Catherine Tinsley

The past decade has witnessed the emergence and growth of many new business models as firms seek to differentiate themselves on either the cost or the demand side of markets. These strategies have produced dramatic changes in the manner in which consumers acquire goods and services. They have also led to a dramatic restructuring of numerous industries, and have increasingly become the focus of US and EU antitrust authorities.

This course will examine a host of novel business strategies that have permitted so-called “high tech” firms to enter markets and revolutionize the nature of competition. These strategies include both market-based and non-market-based strategies that have enabled stunning financial success of these companies. Yet, recently a growing chorus of questions has arisen regarding whether these strategies, including “zero-pricing”, purchase of nascent competitors and “self-preferencing” are pro- or anticompetitive. The course will examine the emergence of these strategies, and their corollary policy tensions, with the goal of advancing students’ ability to discern the merits of both existing and proposed regulations governing these firms. The course will end with a “live exercise” in which students debate alternative positions regarding the merits of specific new business strategies.