The effect of market uncertainty on the management structure for network-based services.

摘要

This thesis provides a novel approach when deciding what management structure will work best for a network service. In this thesis, the business concept of market uncertainty is linked to the technical aspects of designing and implementing network-based services. Using case studies for the telephone and Internet industry, this thesis shows that market uncertainty has influenced the management structure of network-based services. Using an option-like model to quantify the theory suggests how to maximize overall gain from the market's point-of-view while providing network-based services in highly uncertain markets. This thesis demonstrates that when market uncertainty is high, then management structure promoting parallel experimentation (such as end-2-end architecture) will better satisfy users' needs because of increased innovation. However, when market uncertainty is low, the value gained from experimentation becomes unimportant compared to the technical and business advantages of a centralized management structures. Furthermore, this thesis quantifies how service providers learn from past generations of providing the service. In sum, this thesis provides a framework for understanding the tradeoffs among the ability to experiment, market uncertainty, and business and technical advantages when comparing distributed vs. centralized management structures for network-based services.