Marshall W. Van Alstyne (born March 28, 1962) is a professor at Boston University and research associate at the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy.[7] He co-developed the theory of two-sided markets with Geoffrey G. Parker.[8] His work focuses on the economics of information. This includes a sustained interest in information markets and in how information and technology affect productivity with a new emphasis on “platforms” as an extension of the work on two-sided markets.
Marshall W. Van Alstyne | |
---|---|
Marshall Van Alstyne | |
Born | 1962 (age 61–62) |
Citizenship | United States of America |
Alma mater | Yale MIT |
Known for | Two-sided markets Platform economics Cyberbalkanization Business-to-business platforms |
Awards | US Patent 7,503,070 US Patent 7,890,338 Dean's Research Award (2012)Boston University Broderick Award(2006) Research excellence, Boston University Intel Young Investigator (2003) Hugh Hampton Young (1994) innovative research MIT William L. Stuart award (1990), contributing founder of MIT $100K |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Information Systems Economics |
Institutions | Boston University MIT Sloan School of Management |
Notes | |
Early life and education
Marshall Van Alstyne was born in Columbus, Ohio. He received a B.A. in Computer Science from Yale University in 1984. He then moved to Software Systems Developer role at Martin Marietta Data Systems in Colorado and later Associate Staff at MIT Lincoln Laboratory in Massachusetts, before starting his M.S. and Doctorate programs. He obtained his MS in Management in 1991 and Ph.D. in Information Systems and Economics in 1998, both at the MIT Sloan School of Management.[8]
Career
Alstyne is a Professor at Boston University and research associate at the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy. Marshall co-organizes and co-chairs the annual MIT Platform Strategy Summit, an executive meeting on platform-centered economics and management, and he organizes and co-chairs the Platform Strategy Research Symposium, the premier conference on Platform research.[8]
After finishing his PhD, he joined as an assistant professor at the University of Michigan[9], and later joined Boston University in 2004.
Work
Van Alstyne has made substantial contributions to understanding information markets. With graduate students Loder and Wash, he was the first to prove[10] that applying a signaling and screening mechanism to email spam can, in theory, create more value for consumers than a perfect filter (see also "attention economics"). With professor Geoffrey G Parker, he contributed to the founding literature on "two-sided networks," a refinement of network effects that explains how firms can profitably price information at zero.[11] Subsidized pricing and two-sided network effects can cause markets to concentrate in the hands of a few firms. These properties inform both firms’ strategies and antitrust law.
Van Alstyne holds patents on a means of preserving communications privacy and on preventing spam as follows: Methods and Systems for Enabling Analysis of Communication Content While Preserving Privacy, United States 7,503,070;[1] Method for Managing a Whitelist, United States 7,890,338.[2]
Recent work with Sinan Aral has explored the question of which social network structures provide better access to novel information. In social networks, individuals might secure novel information by bridging two networks that are not otherwise linked. Information diversity provided by remote bridge ties, however, typically occurs at lower flow rates than among strong local ties. While information can be redundant in strong local ties, their flow rates can be so high that they provide more useful novelty. Aral and Van Alstyne termed the advantage of more diverse structure relative to the advantage of higher flow "the diversity-bandwidth tradeoff"[12] and identified the factors causing access to favor one or the other.
Publications
Marshall's research has appeared in journals such as Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, Energy Economics, Information Systems Research', Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, Management Science, Production and Operations Management, and Strategic Management Journal. His work has also been featured on business news publications such as “MarketWatch” and Wired.[8][13][14][15][16]
He is the co-author of Platform Revolution: How Networked Markets Are Transforming the Economy and How to Make Them Work for You.[17] The book describes the information technologies, standards, and rules that make up platforms, and are used and developed by the biggest and most innovative global companies.[18] Forbes included it among 16 must-read business books for 2016, describing it as "a practical guide to the new business model that is transforming the way we work and live."[19]
Awards
- Thinkers 50 Digital Thinking Award (2021) – Award shared with Geoff Parker[4]
- Thinkers 50 Digital Thinking Award (2019) – Ranked #36 among management scholars globally[4]
- Best Paper, Management Science (2019)[5]
- Best paper of the profession, Association for Information Science (2017)[5]
- Best Paper, MIS Quarterly (2017)[5]
- Excellence in Teaching Award (2015)[5]
- Ph.D. Student Mentoring Award (2014)[5]
- International Conference on Information Systems Best paper award (2006 and 1996)[5]
- Broderick Award for Research Excellence (2006)[5]
- Intel Young Investigator Award (2003)[5]
- National Science Foundation Faculty Career Award (1999)[6]
Excerpts
Fortune’s Excerpt of Platform Revolution: How Networked Markets Are Transforming the Economy and How to Make Them Work for You[20]
MIT Sloan Management Review: The Intersection of Management and Technology[21]
Personal
He is the son of constitutional law scholar William Van Alstyne.[22] On September 7, 2010, he used the Heimlich maneuver to save the life of songwriter and gospel singer Ron Kenoly who was choking in a Washington, D.C. hotel.
Selected publications
For a full list see Scholar Citations[23]
- Innovation, Openness & Platform Control G. Parker, M. Van Alstyne, Management Science 64 (7), 3015–3032 (2018). [Best Paper]
- Platform Ecosystems: How Developers Invert the Firm G. Parker, M. Van Alstyne & X. Jiang, MIS Quarterly 41 (1), 255–266, (2017). [Best Paper]
- Platform Revolution: How Networked Markets Are Transforming the Economy—And How to Make Them Work for You G Parker, M Van Alstyne, S Chaudary, W.W.Norton & Company Ltd., March, 2016[3]
- Why Not Immortality? M Van Alstyne, Communications of the ACM 56 (11), 29–31, (2013)
- Money Models for MOOCs, C Dellarocas, M Van Alstyne, Communications of the ACM 56 (8), 25–28, (2013)
- Information, Technology, and Information Worker Productivity S Aral, E Brynjolfsson, M Van Alstyne, Information Systems Research 23 (3-Part-2), 849–867, (2013)
- T. Eisenmann, G. Parker, and M. Van Alstyne (2011). Platform Envelopment Strategic Management Journal.
- S. Aral and M. Van Alstyne (2011) The Diversity-Bandwidth Tradeoff American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 117, No. 1, pp. 90–171
- The Social Efficiency of Fairness, G Clarkson, M Van Alstyne, Gruter Institute Squaw Valley Conference–Innovation and Economic Growth, 2009–11, (2011)
- How to Find Answers Within Your Company, H Benbya, A Van Alstyne, MIT Sloan Management Review 52 (2), 65–75 (2010)
- D. Lazer, S. Pentland, et al. (2009). Life in the Network: The Coming Age of Computational Social Science Science.
- Opening platforms: how, when and why? Opening Platforms: How, When and Why]? T Eisenmann, G Parker, M Van Alstyne,Platforms Markets & Innovation, 131–162(2009)
- T. Eisenmann, G. Parker, and M. Van Alstyne (2006).Strategies for Two-Sided Markets Harvard Business Review.
- T. Loder, M. Van Alstyne, and R. Wash (2006). An Economic Response to Unsolicited Communication, Advances in Economic Analysis and Policy
- G. Parker and M. Van Alstyne (2005). Two-Sided Network Effects: A Theory of Information Product Design, Management Science, Vol. 51, No. 10.
- T. Loder, M. Van Alstyne, and R. Wash (2004). Information Asymmetry and Thwarting Spam, Social Science Research Network
- G. Parker and M. Van Alstyne (2000) Information Complements, Substitutes, and Strategic Product Design
- G. Parker and M. Van Alstyne (2000) Internetwork Externalities and Free Information Goods, ACM Conference on Electronic Commerce
Articles
Harvard Business Review: Pipelines, Platforms and the New Rules of Strategy[24]
Blog
Slide Shares
Books
Platform Revolution (2016) G. Parker, M. Van Alstyne & S. Choudary, New York, NY: Norton.[27]
References
- ^ a b "United States Patent 7,503,07". United States Patent and Trademark Office. 2009-03-10. Retrieved 2021-08-10.
- ^ a b "United States Patent 7,890,338". United States Patent and Trademark Office. 2011-02-15. Retrieved 2021-08-10.
- ^ a b Eastwood, Brian (2021-07-28). "What's next for business-to-business platforms in 4 markets". MIT Management. MIT Sloan School of Management. Retrieved 2021-08-13.
- ^ a b c "Marshall Van Alstyne & Geoff Parker". Thinkers50 Limited. 26 September 2019. Retrieved 2021-11-17.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "Resume: Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Awards by State (FY 1999)" (PDF).
- ^ a b "Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Awards by State (FY 1999)".
- ^ "MIT Sloan CIO Symposium: Marshall Van Alstyne". MIT Sloan CIO Symposium. 2015-05-18. Retrieved 2015-05-30.
- ^ a b c d "Marhsall Van Alstyne". Questrom School of Business at Boston University. Retrieved 22 August 2022.
- ^ "Boston University School of Management Profile".
- ^ "Home". Archived from the original on 2009-09-08. Retrieved 2009-07-29. An Economic Response to Unsolicited Communication
- ^ Parker, Geoffrey; Van Alstyne, Marshall W. (November 8, 2000). "Information Complements, Substitutes, and Strategic Product Design" (Document).
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ignored (help) - ^ Aral, Sinan; Van Alstyne, Marshall (2011). "The Diversity-Bandwidth Trade-off". American Journal of Sociology. 117 (1): 90–171. doi:10.1086/661238. JSTOR 10.1086/661238. S2CID 222438626.
- ^ Geoffrey Parker; Marshall W. Van Alstyne (29 September 2009). "Two-Sided Network Effects: A Theory of Information Product Design". Management Science. SSRN 1177443.
- ^ Thomas Eisenmann; Geoffrey Parker; Marshall Van Alstyne (December 2011). "Platform envelopment". Strategic Management Journal. 32 (12): 1270–1285. doi:10.1002/smj.935.
- ^ "Strategies for two-sided markets". Harvard Business Review. October 2006. Retrieved 22 August 2022.
- ^ Sangeet Paul Choudary; Geoffrey Parker; Marshall Van Alstyne (10 October 2013). "What Twitter knows that Blackberry didn't". Marketwatch. Retrieved 22 August 2022.
- ^ "Platform Revolution". W. W. Norton. Retrieved 22 August 2022.
- ^ Farhad Manjoo (20 January 2016). "Tech's Frightful 5 Will Dominate Digital Life for Foreseeable Future". The New York Times. Retrieved 22 August 2022.
- ^ David Burkus (10 January 2016). "16 Must-Read Business Books For 2016". Forbes. Retrieved 22 August 2022.
- ^ "Platform Revolution Fortune article". Retrieved 2022-08-25.
- ^ "MIT Sloan Review article". Retrieved 2022-08-25.
- ^ Roberts, Sam (2019-02-05). "William Van Alstyne, 84, Dies; Often-Cited Constitutional Scholar". Retrieved 2022-08-16.
- ^ "Marshall Van Alstyne / Questrom Chair – Google Scholar Citations". scholar.google.com.
- ^ "Pipelines, Platforms & Strategy". Harvard Business Review. April 2016. Retrieved 2022-08-25.
- ^ "6 reasons platforms fail". Harvard Business Review. 31 March 2016. Retrieved 2022-08-25.
- ^ "Platform Revolution Book". wwnorton. Retrieved 2022-08-25.
External links
- Homepage
- Articles
- Platform Economics and Strategy
- @infoecon (Twitter)
- Scholar Citations