10 Service Networks

Question 1

Name several “services” integrated into AirBnB that make it a mashup

Answer 1

Searching
Rating
Mapping
Booking
Navigation

Question 2

What do Mashups rely on? (technically)

Answer 2

Mashupsrely on APIs (application programming interfaces) of the sub-services to provide its input

Question 3

How do companies make money when mashups are using their services? e.g. Google maps

Answer 3

usage of APIs gets charged
e.g.: $0,50 for 1000 excess of Google maps
+ individual rates for heavy users

On the other hand, mashups might earn money by showing ads

Question 4

Define a business network

Answer 4

• economically motivated cooperation between firms
• homogeneous or heterogeneous partners
• temporary

Question 5

Define a virtual organisation

Answer 5

• Business network with heterogeneous partners

- to achieve a goal one alone can’t master

Question 6

Define a strategic alliance

Answer 6

• Business network with homogeneous partners
• to lower risk
• to achieve economies of scale

Question 7

Define a smart business network

Answer 7

• use of ICT
• plug and play partners -> quickly connect/disconnect partners
• demand driven

Question 8

Commonalities SBN and SVN

Answer 8

• ICT as enabler
• customer driven network orchestration
• competition and cooperation

Question 9

Difference SBN and SVN

Answer 9

• Physical products are “vehicles” for service delivery in SVN
• SBN: non automated

Question 10

Draw the different types of business networks in a Venn diagram

Answer 10

see p. 21

Question 11

Definition SVN

Answer 11

SVN

• an automated on-demand composition of complex services
• steady but open pool of complementary and substitutive standardized service modules
• automated: ad hoc on customer request + optimal combination of services
• steady but open: services must be registered
• standardized: plug and playable

Question 12

What does it need for a network formation?

Answer 12

Network effects

• every participant is interested in the well-being of the network
• a growing network is beneficial for the participants

Modularization and Specialisation

• participants focus on core competencies
• providers are flexibly interchangeable

permeability

• the network is open to new entrants
• low entry barriers

customer centricity
- bundle modular products/services into complex holistic packages

Question 13

What’s a shaper?

Answer 13

• the initiator of a BVN
• produces the “system product”
• adapters circle around the shaper

Question 14

Explain the term “cooperative game”

Answer 14

• competition between coalitions of player (teams)

- individuals only win if they show a cooperative behaviour inside their team

Question 15

Explain the idea behind the Shapley value

Answer 15

“How much of the cake does every player of the winning team get?”
-> what’s the payoff?

Distribution of the total surplus generated by the coalition of players

Question 16

How to calculate the Shapley value

Answer 16

see p.33

Question 17

Name the properties of the Shapley value

Answer 17

Pareto- Efficiency:
The coalition’s value is distributed to its players
(no part of the gain is held back).

Symmetry
Players with the same marginal contribution
receive the same payoff.

Additivity:
When combining two coalition games the
distributed gains correspond to the sum.

Zero Player I Dummy:
lf a player does not add value to any coalition,
his payoff is zero.