Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Online business games'

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2007.
This thesis is a part of an exploration of how the relationships between the customers of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) shape customer experience, and can be used to diminish customer churn and improve customer life expectancy, two critical drivers for any subscription-based business model. MMOGs are a very complex product, with a massive level of interaction within the customer base - in fact those interactions constitute a significant part of the appeal. Thus, MMOGs combine aspects of particularly tough online community management, online customer service, and game design/content creation. To be successful, all of those elements need a fine understanding of the customer, their needs and their virtual 'life' and relationships within the game world. This thesis explores the usefulness of detailed, sophisticated interview to gain a fine understanding of customer needs and of the tools necessary to organize communication with, and among, customers. From this knowledge, it projects examples of strategic thrusts necessary to achieve or maintain leadership within this recent, but very powerful and lucrative, business model.
by Sébastien Andrivet.
M.B.A.

Online services such as e-marketplaces, social networking sites, online gaming environments etc have grown in popularity in the recent years. These services represent situation where participants do not get to negotiate face to face before interaction and most of the time parties to transaction remain anonymous. It is thus necessary to have a system that rightly assesses trustworthiness of the other party in order to maintain quality assurance in such systems. Recent works on Trust and Reputation in online communities have focused on identifying probable defaulters, but less effort has been put to come up with system that make cooperation attractive over defection in order to achieve cooperation without enforcement. Our work in this regard concerns design and investigation of trust assessment systems that not only filter defaulters but also promote evolution of cooperativeness in player society. Based on the concept of game theory and prisoner's dilemma, we model business games and design incentive method, compensation method, acquaintance based assessment method and decision theoretic assessment method as mechanisms to assure trustworthiness in online business environments. Effectiveness of each of these methods in promoting the evolution of cooperation in player society has been investigated. Our results show that these methods contribute positively in promoting cooperative evolution. We have further extended our trust assessment model to suit the needs of a mobile ad-hoc network setting. The effectiveness of this model has been tested against its capability to reduce packet drop rate and energy conservation. In both of these the results show promise.

En la actualidad los consumidores enfrentan problemáticas al adquirir un bien o servicio, ya sea por problemas con la disponibilidad de dinero, tiempo o algún otro tipo de limitante. Asimismo, al enfocar esta escena en el panorama digital, las variables antes descritas se mantienen, añadiendo la desconfianza a la lista. Por tal motivo, este trabajo de investigación plantea una nueva forma de adquirir bienes y servicios, de una manera novedosa que pretende eliminar las negativas mencionadas anteriormente. Esta iniciativa será llevada cabo mediante la implementación de una plataforma llamada Rifus que digitalice, casi en su totalidad, el proceso de venta de rifas. Esta se llevará a cabo mediante la adquisición de productos llamativos para el público en general y se venderá una cantidad previamente establecida de tickets virtuales para que el usuario pueda participar por ganar el producto de su agrado. Para poder conocer los atributos que el usuario valora al actuar en este entorno se realizaron investigaciones que permitieron moldear Rifus de acuerdo con lo que los usuarios consideraban pertinente. Algunas de estas fueron las motivaciones que tienen los usuarios para participar en ese tipo de sorteos, los productos por los que prefieren participar, entre otros. Finalmente, para poder conocer la viabilidad de Rifus se utilizaron diferentes indicadores financieros como el VAN y la TIR que respaldan que es rentable. Asimismo, mediante las encuestas ya mencionadas se pudo conocer la opinión de los entrevistados sobre el proyecto y se validó que la propuesta de valor es de su agrado.
Currently, people suffer from problems when they want to acquire a good or service, whether due to problems with the availability of money, time or some other type of limitation. Also, by focusing this scene on the digital landscape, the variables described above could be added, adding distrust to the list. For this reason, this research paper proposes a new way of acquiring goods and services, in a novel way that aims to eliminate the previously required refusals. This initiative will be carried out by implementing a website called Rifus that digitizes, almost entirely, the raffle sale process. This initiative will be carried out by acquiring flashy products for the general public and a previously established amount of virtual tickets will be sold so that the user can participate to win the product of their choice. In order to know the attributes that the user values in acting in this environment, research that allows Rifus to be molded according to what users consider relevant is investigated. Some of these were the motivations that users have to participate in this type of society, the products for which they prefer to participate, among others. Finally, in order to know the viability of Rifus, different financial indicators will be used, such as the NPV and the IRR that support that it is profitable. In the same way, through the surveys and the results, the opinion of the interviewees on the business model was known and the value proposal was endorsed by them.
Trabajo de investigación

El presente proyecto de investigación consta de una tienda online de juegos de mesa para personas que buscan salir de la rutina y practicar nuevas formas de recreación sana y divertida, en base a la investigación realizada en Lima Metropolitana, se detectó que algunos grupos de personas buscan nuevas formas de pasar el tiempo en familia o con amigos por lo cual muchos compran juegos de mesa para tener horas de diversión sana. Asimismo, se identificó que muchas de estas personas tienen cada vez menos tiempo para desempeñar sus actividades diarias o prefieren invertir su tiempo realizando nuevas actividades y por eso recurren o prefieren los servicios delivery al momento de comprar productos a través de páginas web o redes sociales. Por último, se identificó que muchas personas van a las tiendas de juegos de mesa para adquirir los productos, sin embargo, muchas veces pierden tiempo en ir a estos lugares por el tráfico en Lima o la distancia de sus casas a las tiendas. En base a esto, se decidió crear una tienda online para la venta exclusiva de juegos de mesa. Para poner en marcha el proyecto de la tienda online llamada Game Legend se hizo un análisis de la industria: clientes y potenciales clientes, proveedores en Lima, competencia directa e indirecta y otros factores externos como productos sustitutos. Además, se desarrollaron los siguientes planes: Plan Estratégico, Plan de Operaciones, Plan de Marketing, Plan de Recursos Humanos y Responsabilidad Social Empresarial y el Plan Financiero. Los cuales se enfocan en las estrategias necesarias para la viabilidad de este proyecto.
This research project consists of an online store of board games for people looking to get out of the routine and practice new forms of healthy and fun recreation, based on the research carried out in Metropolitan Lima, it was detected that some groups of people are looking for new ways to spend time with family or friends so many buy board games to have hours of healthy fun. Likewise, it was identified that many of these people have less and less time to carry out their daily activities or prefer to spend their time doing new activities and that is why they use or prefer delivery services when buying products through web pages or social networks. Finally, it was identified that many people go to the board games stores to acquire the products, however, many times they lose time in going to these places because of the traffic in Lima or the distance from their houses to the stores. Based on this, it was decided to create an online store for the exclusive sale of board games. To start the project of the online store called Game Legend, an industry analysis was made: customers and potential customers, suppliers in Lima, direct and indirect competition and other external factors such as substitute products. In addition, the following plans were developed: Strategic Plan, Operations Plan, Marketing Plan, Human Resources Plan and Corporate Social Responsibility and the Financial Plan. Which focus on the strategies necessary for the viability of this project.
Trabajo de investigación

This is a relationship marketing PhD which is examining, using Commitment Trust Theory, the customer decision to maintain subscribing to a massively multiplayer online game. This PhD is not an examination of initial purchase decision, but of the ongoing, post-purchase, customer retention. In keeping with the contextual nature of Commitment Trust Theory, this study examines the antecedents of the re-subscription decision and their effect on the key mediating variables of Commitment and Trust and modifies the framework to model the subscription based nature of the business situation and the context. The key contribution of this research to the literature is the application of the Commitment Trust framework to a customer’s ongoing relationship with a massively multiplayer online game entertainment product; a situation and context which has not been examined in the literature. An online questionnaire survey was used to collect a sample of data from 2226 massively multiplayer online game customers. This sample data was then analysed using Structural Equation Modelling to test the relationship hypotheses between the constructs proposed by Commitment Trust Theory. Furthermore, hypotheses examining the effect of relevant demographic and categorical variables upon the constructs of Commitment Trust Theory were also tested and analysed using appropriate statistical techniques. Evidence was found to support the Commitment Trust Theory framework in a massively multiplayer online game subscription situation, with the study’s model explaining 85.7% of the variance of the sample data, with evidence presented to support the key mediating variable approach to modelling the circumstances. The study, based on examining the effect size of the construct relationships using standardised regression weights then gives evidence that a more parsimonious model which reduces the number of constructs from 16 to six (a 70% reduction in complexity) would still produce a model explaining 85.3% of the variance of the sample data (a 0.4% loss in explanatory power). The study concludes that the key antecedent constructs in the sample for a customer’s renewal of an online gaming subscription are current satisfaction, past satisfaction, the amount of game capital they have within the game and the metagame benefits they derive from the game. The study supports a key mediating variable structure, but provides evidence that while Commitment and Trust are both relevant and statistically significant, a more efficient explanation examining the effect size of the relationships as well, would focus on the antecedents of Commitment rather than Trust, as Trust and its antecedents were not found to have a significant effect size on the overall decision to re-subscribe.

Mestrado em Gestão de Sistemas de Informação
Com a crescente importância e uso da internet nos dias de hoje, é fulcral as empresas acompanharem esse rumo e aderirem a plataformas que possibilitem o comércio eletrónico, sob pena de, se não o fizerem, ser muito complicado subsistir num mundo que está a ficar cada vez mais global, onde o outro lado do mundo está à distância de um "click". Como tal, o comércio eletrónico deve ser visto como uma oportunidade para o negócio crescer e não o contrário, pois permite acompanhar as necessidades dos consumidores, através das tecnologias mais atuais e ter um feedback muito mais rápido face ao comércio tradicional. Este tipo de comércio permite também ao cliente eliminar algumas barreiras entre o produtor/fornecedor e o cliente final, servindo de certo modo para uma desintermediação do ciclo do produto. Dentro da vertente dos serviços on-line foram testadas quatro hipóteses sobre a aceitação e as vicissitudes dos jogos on-line. Foi pertinente entender se o efeito de rede, a utilidade esperada, o divertimento esperado e o enquadramento social são fatores relevantes no que diz respeito à adoção dos jogos on-line, através da realização de questionários e respetiva análise. Como tal, foi realizado um levantamento dos modelos de negócios existentes no mercado dos jogos em particular, e de que modo é feito o relacionamento dos jogadores consoante os diferentes tipos de jogos existentes. Os resultados obtidos indicam que o efeito de rede, bem como o divertimento esperado são fatores essenciais no que diz respeito à escolha de um jogo on-line.
With the importance and use of the internet growing nowadays, it is crucial for the companies to follow that growing path and join the platforms that enables e-commerce, otherwise it can be very complicated to survive as a company in a world that is becoming increasingly global, where the other side of the world is just a "click" away. Therefore, e-commerce should be seen as an opportunity to increase the company performance and not the opposite, it gives the advantage to be aware of consumer's needs through the latest technologies and access to an earlier feedback compared to the traditional trade. This type of commerce allows the client to obliterate some barriers between the manufacturer/supplier and the final consumer, playing the role of disintermediation of the product cycle. In online services perspective, were tested four hypotheses about the acceptance and the vicissitudes of online games. It became relevant to study if the network effect, the expected utility, the expected hedonism and social environment were main factors regarding online games adoption, through surveys and their analysis. Therefore, it became imperative to study the business models, in particular the online game market, and how the players related according to the different types of games. The results show that the network effects as well as the expected hedonism are essential factors regarding the online game choice.

The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of the gaming behaviors of married individuals and couples who play Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game(s) (MMORPGs) including gaming addiction, time spent gaming, satisfaction in gaming participation, gaming interaction (between joint gaming spouses), and socio-demographic variables and the subsequent marital satisfaction levels of both individuals in the couple. Hypotheses were generally supported, excluding the hours spent gaming. 685 couples were separated and analyzed according to whether both individuals in the marriage gamed or just one individual gamed (couple-gaming type). Couples in which only one individual gamed (individual-gamer couples) had significantly lower marital satisfaction than all other groups and couples in which both gamed about the same amount of time (equal-gamers) held the highest marital satisfaction of the groups. Prediction models of marital satisfaction were determined for each couple-gaming type. The strongest predictions present in most of the models for marital satisfaction were the frequency that the couple retired to bed at the same time and the frequency that the couple quarreled specifically about gaming. Much MMORPG research has been presented on youth and adults, however to date there is no research on married gamers. Recent research on the video game habits of emerging adults called for further in depth investigation of the implications of video game use in the family formation stage of life.

This study investigates the impacts of pricing innovations and other non-pricing dimensions on the market share competition of dominant Chinese online game companies. The empirical context of my research is the strategic behaviour of online game operators (i.e. the companies who operate online games) in the Chinese online game market – the most active market in the world with strong network effects. According to the literature review, previous pricing studies have focused mainly on the evaluation of traditional pricing theories and their limited validity for the information economy. Velu (2005) pointed out how dominant firms in a market with strong network effects adopt business innovations to sustain their market dominance. This study first investigates the validity of Velu‟s theory and then aims to develop and expand the theory of pricing practice by discussing how dominant companies integrate pricing and other non-pricing dimensions during market share competition. With the application of an analytical synthesis, this study covers large parts of the traditional economy and information economy literature by linking the concepts of „within‟ and „across‟ theories of pricing and competition. It finally brings together different theories and adopts Bouwman and MacInnes‟ virtual web idea as an original conceptual framework to give an insight into how the pricing process and other internal and external factors impact differently on the market share competition. The study adopts a descriptive multiple-case study strategy including five dominant Chinese online game companies and employs qualitative data collected from 64 interviewees and reliable secondary data from documentations and archival records.The findings suggest that, instead of devoting all their efforts to pricing innovation, the companies have turned to an exploration of their internal resources to enhance their competitiveness. Superficially, as an influential external factor, government regulations have constrained the operation of imported games. The study also discusses two internal themes that influence each company‟s competitive strength. They are: how to deal with the exodus of talent and how to handle strategic alliance management. There seems to be no previous research concerning the relationship between pricing innovation and market dominance within a new economy‟s service sector. As a consequence, this research should provide insights into this academic blind spot and rationalize the diversity of strategic theory within the specific industry.

Thesis advisor: Hideo Konishi
Online auctions have many different formats. Each of these affect the ways in which users bid strategically. One example of this is the end-time format. Some sites, like eBay, use a hard close, under which there is a strict end-time and the highest bidder at that time wins. Others, like Amazon, have an extended end-time format. It has been shown that these differences do, in fact, appear to change how bidders behave. This paper uses data obtained from Yahoo! Auctions, where both formats are used, to examine the impact these differences have on the final price of an auction
Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2005
Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: Economics Honors Program

This study is an in-depth investigation of game and excellence theory's linkage within the discipline of public relations during the period of market entry.The literature review defines and analyzes both game and excellence theory and the value of each within public relations. The literature also examines the impact of new businesses within U.S. economy and the importance of strategic decision making during the period of market entry. Decisions made during this time period, of which public relations professionals are often involved, can forecast the success or failure of a new business. The researcher argued that excellence theory's domination over the mindshare of public relations professionals has overshadowed other theories (such as game theory) which can be of value during the time of market entry.In order to quantify any educated opinions held by the researcher, a content analysis was conducted. The researcher identified specific game and excellence theory keywords to be examined and coded. The keywords were derived from a random sample of 384 public relations-based articles from 1997 to 2007 in Entrepreneur's online magazine, the leading magazine for entrepreneurs for over thirty years. The years of 1997 through 2007 were chosen due to a growth in new business births that have occurred over this time frame.The results of the content analysis showed that there were significantly more game theory keywords than excellence theory keywords referenced in Entrepreneur's online magazine in the aforementioned articles and timeframe. From this evidence, the researcher deducted that while excellence theory is still the paradigm for public relations professionals, game theory is being fused within public relations in some areas of the industry, specifically within new market entry strategy.
Department of Journalism

Aim:

The purpose was to perform a pre-study to marketing planning for a local squash club in Sweden that had difficulties with membership growth and development. This pre-study would provide the squash club with valuable information and a starting point when creating its first marketing plan.

Method:

The chosen research approach included theoretical and empirical studies. Empirical data was collected by triangulation, using both qualitative and quantitative methods. A semi-structured interview and two surveys using on-line questionnaires were conducted, analyzed and presented. The discussed theory including key definitions, models and concepts was related to the empirical data findings and reflected on.

Results & Conclusions:

A small non-profit squash club with scarce resources and slim organization has to implement a customer centered mindset and work smarter instead of harder.It is important for the club to carefully match market opportunities with its objectives and capabilities.Engaging in marketing planning and the development of a marketing plan will enable the club to find new creative ways to offer a unique squash experience that will result in a positive membership development.

Recommendations:

The squash club should strive to develop key strategic partnerships that can compliment its strengths and help reduce its weaknesses.An own club website would improve internal and external communication significantly and decrease the club management’s administrative workload.It would be advisable for the club to perform annual online customer satisfaction surveys to monitor and measure own performance and detect key changes in the marketplace.

Contribution:

This pre-study could be a good opportunity for the squash club’s management team to engage in marketing planning and develop its first marketing plan. Perhaps this study could also benefit other small sports clubs with similar challenges and give them ideas and new tools for future development, such as using on-line surveys.

Suggested future research:

It would be interesting to perform a comparison among the four racket sports: tennis, badminton, table-tennis and squash and the reasons behind young people choosing to play one sport over the others.The result would help racket clubs to better understand how they should position themselves in the market place to attract young people to their particular sport.

ESport is a rising entertainment industry that has grown exponentially in the past decade. Competitions broadcasted online make eSport appealing for a large audience of video game enthusiasts, creating an opportunity for sponsorship deals. To this day, scholars have focused their efforts on understanding which are the motivations for people to watch eSport, and only scarce research has been made to measure how eSport consumption affects video game consumption. Filling this literature gap is the first objective of this study. Free-to-play games are a logical response to the shifts of the video game industry. A second objective is to investigate the determinants of free-to-play games profitability: while being free, these games generate their revenues through the sale of virtual items. League of Legends, a successful freeto- play game and leading player in the eSport industry, was selected as the context of this study. A quantitative questionnaire was distributed in eSport and League of Legends online communities. A PLS-SEM analysis revealed two motivations to watch eSport, (1) knowledge acquisition and (2) aesthetics. Such motivations drive the players’ perception of the game enjoyability and ease of use, this study being the first to establish these links. The model also confirms that customer loyalty predicts purchase intention of virtual items. Findings carry implications for a wide range of eSport and video game industry stakeholders and emphasize the importance of mentoring novices and rewarding the loyalty of existing players.
O eSport é uma indústria de entretenimento em ascensão que cresceu exponencialmente na última década. As competições transmitidas online tornam o eSport apelativo para uma grande audiência de entusiastas de videojogos, criando uma oportunidade para importantes patrocínios. Até hoje, as investigações têm-se focado na compreensão de quais são as motivações para as pessoas assistirem ao eSport, e foram feitos poucos estudos para medir como o consumo de eSport pode afetar o consumo de videojogos. O primeiro objetivo desta tese é preencher esta lacuna na literatura. Um segundo objetivo é investigar os determinantes da rentabilidade dos jogos free-to-play: jogos gratuitos que geram as suas receitas através da venda de itens virtuais. Com esse propósito, esta tese foca-se no caso do League of Legends, um jogo free-to-play bastante popular na indústria de eSport. Um questionário quantitativo aplicado nas comunidades online de eSport e League of Legends foi analisado utilizando equações estruturais PLS-SEM e revelou duas motivações para assistir ao eSport, (1) aquisição de conhecimento e (2) estética. Estas duas motivações impulsionam a perceção dos jogadores sobre a capacidade de utilização do jogo, sendo este estudo o primeiro a estabelecer estas ligações. O modelo confirma ainda que a fidelização do cliente prevê a intenção de compra de itens virtuais. As descobertas têm implicações para uma vasta gama de intervenientes da indústria de eSport e videojogos e enfatizam a importância de orientar os novos jogadores e recompensar a lealdade dos jogadores existentes.

碩士
國立臺灣科技大學
企業管理系
97
In early days, the market size of the game industry in Taiwan was very small. Until 2002, the game industry was paid attention and subsidized by the government in Taiwan. In 2008, the financial crisis has caused the global economic to decline sufficiently deep and impacted almost all industries, but the online game industry was still grew fast and it has become the star industry. This year, the revenue of online game market in Taiwan will amount to NT$ 11.2 billion, more than NT$ 10.331 billion in 2008, and the revenue of year on year in 2009 will grow 8.41%. However, the game industry is one of the digital contents industries; therefore, it is encouraged and supported financially by the government in Taiwan. Look all around the game corporations in Taiwan, the background of the case company is most particular. The case company own dozens of year development experience on arcade game, it began the business of onlime game about five years ago, and now it has achieved remarkable success in onlime game market. Therefore, in this study takes “the International Games System” for case study, and it adopts the case study method by ways of literature reviewing, data collection, In-depth interviews between the periods of research to get related information. The purpose of this study is (1) to discuss and analyze the motives and the business strategy of the company to be engaged in online game；and (2) to understand the company carries out the strategy and it confronted by the difficulties and the challenges, to analyze the company benefit；(3) the conclusion and suggestion to provide a representative local case for academic and corporate world’s reference. At last, this study provides the conclusion and some suggestions to the government and operators concerned in order to accelerate the development in the future for the game industry in Taiwan.

碩士
國立東華大學
企業管理學系
104
Title of Thesis: A Study of Business Models of Online Game and Mobile Game in Taiwan Number of pages: 104 Gradaute School and University: Graduate Institute of Business Administration, National Dong Hwa University Category of Abstract and Graduation Time: Thesis for Master Degree, the Second Semester, 2015 Academic Tear Name of Student: Yu-Ling Chang Thesis Adviser: Dr. Juhwen Hwang Abstract: With advances in technology, network has been promoted rapidly and been spreaded out all around the world. Along the network development, Taiwan's digital game industry has been grown very prosperously since 2000. The invention of the smartphone in the early of 21st centry drives the rapid growth of the mobile game market. Online and mobile games provide the digital game industry a promising future. This fact can be seen in Taiwan’s digital game industry; online game and mobile game markets together has been accounted over 50% output value of the Taiwan's digital game industry since 2014. This study is based on an exploratory research on Taiwan's game industry: literature servey on the developing courses and value chain discusstion through game industry manufacturers and distributors have been adoppted. The focuses of this research are mainly on the facts of the changes in the game market and the reasonings of the product portfolio for upstream manufacturers with the operation model for downstream distributors. Among the companies in Taiwan’s digital game industry, all 13 companies listed at stock exchange market or at over-the-counter market are all included in this research. The findings of this research are threefolds. First, the earilier entry companies (including various generations of platforms or technologies) gain higher revenues and profits per market share. Second, Online game, Web game and Mobile game are three major sectors in Taiwan’s digital market today; these three sectors may share same group of customers. Finally, four types of payments are used for digital games: wire transfer, 3rd party payment, game card (accessed from brick-and-mortal shops) and credit card. All four types are very common for online game and web game; however, payment through credit card is almost the only type for mobile game. These findings may provde certain levels of suggestions for the upstream manufacturers and downstream distributors in developing their businesses in Taiwan’s digital market. Key words：Online game, Mobile game, Value chain, Product portfolio, Exploratory research

碩士
國立雲林科技大學
企業管理系碩士班
92
With the rapid development and popularity of the internet, on-line game has successfully drawn most nowadays teenagers’ attention. However, competition of the field is inevitably become harsher and harsher in Taiwan due to the increasing number of companies intending to be involved. The questions of what business model to choose, how to take advantage of edge already beholding, and how to conquer the external environment are to be answered anxiously by the industry. The research has been done via the in-depth case study to the top eight on-line gaming companies. The comparison is focused on the aspect of R&D, marketing, distribution, and service, then to advise the best business mode to take; to recommend the most proper direction of development for each business mode. According to the analysis from each individual case, conclusions are listed respectively as below. 1. Three models to enter the industry：「Model of Self-production」、「Model of Being Agent」、「Model of Integration」. 2. In order to decide which business model to use is basically based on one’s capacity. 「Model of Self-production」is for a company which only has R&D function; on the other hand, 「Model of Being Agent」 is for those who lack of R&D function; and 「Model of Integration」 is for the multi-function company which certainly has its own R&D. 3. The growing stage of on-line game industry has five business models：「Focus in R &D」、「 Basic R & D」、「Agent」、「Multiple Development」、「Highly Integration」. 4. The further development of its business model varies by strengthening its capability. By strengthening R&D it can develop cross-platform games; by putting more effort on commercial and advertising would enhance its marketing capability; by strengthening its channel marketing might bring up more distribution; by prioritizing its customer service will perform better on customer support and solution and also increase service width. 5. Different characteristics will effect significantly on how business model diversifies; suppliers higher bargain power on price would push its authorizing on line game companies to strengthen its R&D capability; distribution channel’s higher bargaining power on price would push the company to build up more virtual distribution; product’s long life cycle would increase the importance of customer service and royalty.

碩士
國立中山大學
企業管理學系研究所
100
By applying “Case Study” as a research method, this essay is to explore the risk types derived from “The Standardized Contract for Online Game” for the game operator to analyze the level of risks, as well as to know the implementing way for dealing with the risk. By interpreting these processes which may caused the impact on stakeholders, the study eventually makes a conclusion and suggestions for reducing the risk and settling the disputes. 　　The research result in the study has shown that the customers are protected effectively along with the implementation of “The Standardized Contract for Online Game ” through rebuilding format and functions of contract itself. Reduce the consumer complaints such as account hack successfully. Relatively, government takes advantage of it; instead, the risk to the corporation management is increasing. As a result, it takes methodology, negotiation capability, business process to prevent, shift or take the risk at one’s own risk. In this study, the stakeholders like consumers, employees and government are impacted the most, following with suppliers and distributors. Because of “The Standardized Contract for Online Game ”, each party undertakes the circumstance of risk transfer with others.

碩士
國立暨南國際大學
資訊管理學系
105
With the development of technology and the Internet, many e-learning materials can be found on the web, therefore, it is important to attract users to use it. Digital game-based learning is becoming more and more popular, because it can produce a sense of achievement by an entertaining, challenging, competitive and cooperative of the game, enhancing the motivation of learning, and improving learning effectiveness. System design of business simulation games is complex, therefore, there’s few similar business simulation games in Taiwan. This study used an online simulation game,8-Cross Business Model & Decision Simulation Game, to explore student’s perceptions on business simulation games, and explored the key variables affecting the learning outcomes.

碩士
國立中興大學
高階經理人碩士在職專班
98
Abstract This study employs a number of business valuation models to compare the values of two public companies listing on Taiwan Stock Exchange. The two case companies operate in the online game industry, of which one focuses mainly on the customer market, while the other exploits game software. I employ the discounted valuation approaches and comparable methods (price-to-earnings and market-to-book ratios) to value the case companies. The results show that both companies are seemingly overvalued. Besides, both the companies attempt to enter the gaming market of China in the early 2010s. Hence, I analyze their entry modes (propriety, partnership, licensing, and mergers) and estimate their plausible net present values (NPVs). The results show that licensing can bring substantial benefits for the company that provides software.

碩士
國立臺灣大學
商學研究所
107
Since Internet become more and more popular, every industry changes a lot. Internet brings up many new industries, and changes teenagers'' life and habits dramatically. In 2000s, PC online games blew up social media in Taiwan and become a social phenomenon. The industry grew up more than fast, and today it becomes a giant new industry. When PC online game just flourished in Taiwan, Taiwanese company, Gamania Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd. (Gamania), soon entered the market. Gamania survives the extreme competition, while most companies chose to leave in the past 20 years. The revenue of Gamania came to 8.4 billion NTD in 2016. This study using a case study approach to analyze Gamania and identified Gamania''s strategies and operating result under 3 periods: early stage (1999~2005), Expansion stage (2005~2012), Diversification stage (2012~2016). At first, we apply Porter five forces analysis (Michael Porter, 1979) to analyze game industry. Then, we use Resource-Based View (Birger Wernerfelt,1984) to study Gamania company''s competitive advantages. Afterward, we apply Value Chain Model (Michael Porter, 1985) to find important activities. Gamania tries diversification strategies and engages in new business activities a lot. Therefore, this study proceeded to analyze Gamania''s history and how Gamania adjusted its strategies to face competition. At last, this study considered the current situation and future trend of Taiwan game industry and world game industry along with Gamania''s competitive advantages to present proposal about sustainable growth in the future.

碩士
國立東華大學
企業管理學系
99
As the online game companies transformed business models because of environmental impact for better performance, enterprises have to accumulate ability and transformed business models for better development to adapt the environment change. This index indicates that the availability of supply chain value stream related to online game companies in the process of changing environmental. They should consider the necessary ability and their market positioning. This study tries to explore how online game industries developed their operation performance by accumulating ability and transforming business models in the turbulent environment, and the difference between different business models. First, we used the strategic matrix analysis to analyze the online game industry environment, then used the Value Chain Analysis and theoretical derivation to promote the business model of online games industry. In the end, we chose the most representative cases for case studies and concluded the business model of online game industry. Therefore, the study concluded eight propositions about transformation of business models, hoping the conclusion of the study can be the guide for those follow-up companies. This research suggested that organizations should actively find the niches and consider the essentiality of transformation on the way of business model changing. Organizations should be innovative, flexible, and keep improving efficiency in order to ensure the sustained development.

碩士
國立臺灣大學
企業管理碩士專班
101
“The global video game market is undergoing a tectonic shift with the emergence of mobile social games cannibalizing its console brethren. Several forces are catalyzing this process, including the world wide proliferation of smart phone devices at a pace dramatically exceeding console sales, China’s refusal to lift the ban of consoles, and evolving consumer purchasing habits towards cheaper, casual games. While correct in predicting the explosion of mobile social games, most gaming industry analysts largely dismiss the possibility that the two mediums can coexist. In this business plan, I expand the definition of “gamer” to people who would not have been circumscribed by the term before the advent of smart phone games. I then develop historical, qualitative, and quantitative arguments that suggest numerous business opportunities which straddle both mediums to generate profit through the company called Cross Counter. I present a 3 year plan to raise capital for the YouTube video content production company and introduce the personnel necessary to carry out the various tasks, and suggest key strategic markets to focus on within the Asia-Pacific region. At the heart of the business is the Downloadable Contents “DLC” pricing model which aims to assess the optimum pricing strategy in relation to the major variables transaction security, Metacritic score, time to market, gregariousness, and base cost price. As no business venture is devoid of risk, I delineate the potential pitfalls such a startup company can encounter during this precarious period of console market stagnation and mobile game growth. The results show that the Cross Counter: Asia can take advantage of its nimble structure and deftly position itself as a major provider of eSports content production while operating as a social business to promote gamer wellness and more active participation by female gamers.”

碩士
大葉大學
管理學院碩士在職專班
101
The popularity of Internet access and electronic products changes our habits and customs. The broad-band network usage has grown up five times in 10 years since 2001. According to investigating, about 50% of Internet population have experience in on-line games. It brings up the huge output value and the investment of the on-line game industry is increasing accordingly. Therefore, The competition is becoming intenser. In this thesis, I take new entrants of the on-line game industry as a case study. It differs from those who focus on large companies with a long history. I figure out the morphology of business strategy of the company case, which makes full use of its product feature and internal resource, after interview and document-study. I derive five major propositions via the law of case study: 1.The uniqueness of products themselves is the Successful strategy for the new entrants of on-line game industry. 2.Besides developed pathway system, the product and service quality are the critical point of marketing. 3.The company, Cayenne Entertainment Technology Co., Ltd., recognizes the importance of teamwork. It standardizes the procedure of cooperation and improves the employee benefits to minimize the turnover impacts on the company. 4.The on-line game companies with ability of research and development may not make good profit. Therefore, new entrants do not have to research and develop by themselves. They can evade risks and operate well by carefully choosing game products and applying the experience from the cooperating RD firms. 5.New entrants of the on-line game industry may benefit by taking a conservative assessment for capital expenditures during early development.

This dissertation explores several aspects of the theory in industrial organization. The first chapter builds a model with two cost asymmetric firms who not only have Cournot competition in the spot market but also have the opportunity to trade forward contracts. It is shown that with forward trading, low cost firm not always produces more than high cost firm. In an interior equilibrium, both total output and consumer welfare increase compared to the case without forward trading. When cost function is linear, forward trading is socially beneficial in that low cost firm has higher market share as well as profit share, and that total output, consumer welfare and social welfare increase. The second chapter analyzes duopoly firms' choices among ad-free and ad-supported service with different advertising displays: mandatory advertising where ads are integrated with the main content and cannot be dismissed by users; or optional advertising where users are allowed to dismiss ads at will. The model also takes into account the effect of consumers' heterogeneous ad tastes on their contribution to ad revenues. The results reveal that ad revenues intensify competition, suppress equilibrium prices and profits, and diminish the differentiation effect. The third chapter studies firms' business model choices and pricing decisions when they can choose to provide ad-free service, ad-supported service with cost-per-click (CPC) revenue model or cost-per-mille (CPM) revenue model, or a combination of them in monopoly or duopoly environment. It's shown that offering both types of ad-supported services is not an optimal strategy for a monopolist and that its optimal strategy is to vertically differentiate by providing an ad-supported service and an ad-free service. Furthermore, when the monopolist adopts the CPM-based ad revenue model, the price of the ad-supported service is more sensitive to increases in the marginal ad revenue than the case with the CPC-based model. In the equilibrium of competitive setting, exactly one firm offers an ad-supported service alone while the other firm offers the ad-free service with or without the same type of ad-supported service depending on the ad revenues.
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Cette thèse est une collection de trois articles en économie de l'information. Le premier chapitre sert d'introduction et les Chapitres 2 à 4 constituent le coeur de l'ouvrage. Le Chapitre 2 porte sur l’acquisition d’information sur l’Internet par le biais d'avis de consommateurs. En particulier, je détermine si les avis laissés par les acheteurs peuvent tout de même transmettre de l’information à d’autres consommateurs, lorsqu’il est connu que les vendeurs peuvent publier de faux avis à propos de leurs produits. Afin de comprendre si cette manipulation des avis est problématique, je démontre que la plateforme sur laquelle les avis sont publiés (e.g. TripAdvisor, Yelp) est un tiers important à considérer, autant que les vendeurs tentant de falsifier les avis. En effet, le design adopté par la plateforme a un effet indirect sur le niveau de manipulation des vendeurs. En particulier, je démontre que la plateforme, en cachant une partie du contenu qu'elle détient sur les avis, peut parfois améliorer la qualité de l'information obtenue par les consommateurs. Finalement, le design qui est choisi par la plateforme peut être lié à la façon dont elle génère ses revenus. Je montre qu'une plateforme générant des revenus par le biais de commissions sur les ventes peut être plus tolérante à la manipulation qu'une plateforme qui génère des revenus par le biais de publicité. Le Chapitre 3 est écrit en collaboration avec Marc Santugini. Dans ce chapitre, nous étudions les effets de la discrimination par les prix au troisième degré en présence de consommateurs non informés qui apprennent sur la qualité d'un produit par le biais de son prix. Dans un environnement stochastique avec deux segments de marché, nous démontrons que la discrimination par les prix peut nuire à la firme et être bénéfique pour les consommateurs. D'un côté, la discrimination par les prix diminue l'incertitude à laquelle font face les consommateurs, c.-à-d., la variance des croyances postérieures est plus faible avec discrimination qu'avec un prix uniforme. En effet, le fait d'observer deux prix (avec discrimination) procure plus d'information aux consommateurs, et ce, même si individuellement chacun de ces prix est moins informatif que le prix uniforme. De l'autre côté, il n'est pas toujours optimal pour la firme de faire de la discrimination par les prix puisque la présence de consommateurs non informés lui donne une incitation à s'engager dans du signaling. Si l'avantage procuré par la flexibilité de fixer deux prix différents est contrebalancé par le coût du signaling avec deux prix différents, alors il est optimal pour la firme de fixer un prix uniforme sur le marché. Finalement, le Chapitre 4 est écrit en collaboration avec Sidartha Gordon. Dans ce chapitre, nous étudions une classe de jeux où les joueurs sont contraints dans le nombre de sources d'information qu'ils peuvent choisir pour apprendre sur un paramètre du jeu, mais où ils ont une certaine liberté quant au degré de dépendance de leurs signaux, avant de prendre une action. En introduisant un nouvel ordre de dépendance entre signaux, nous démontrons qu'un joueur préfère de l'information qui est la plus dépendante possible de l'information obtenue par les joueurs pour qui les actions sont soit, compléments stratégiques et isotoniques, soit substituts stratégiques et anti-toniques, avec la sienne. De même, un joueur préfère de l'information qui est la moins dépendante possible de l'information obtenue par les joueurs pour qui les actions sont soit, substituts stratégiques et isotoniques, soit compléments stratégiques et anti-toniques, avec la sienne. Nous établissons également des conditions suffisantes pour qu'une structure d'information donnée, information publique ou privée par exemple, soit possible à l'équilibre.
This thesis is a collection of three essays in economics of information. Chapter 1 is a general introduction and Chapters 2 to 4 form the core of the thesis. Chapter 2 analyzes information dissemination on the Internet. Online platforms such as Amazon, TripAdvisor or Yelp are now key sources of information for modern consumers. The proportion of consumers consulting online reviews prior to purchasing a good or a service has grown persistently. Yet, sellers have been accused of hiring shills to post fake reviews about their products. This raises the question: Does the presence of shills make reviews less informative? I show that the answers to this question depend on the way the platform presents and summarizes reviews on its website. In particular, I find that withholding information by garbling the reviews benefits information dissemination by inducing the seller to destroy less information with manipulation. Next, I show that the platform's choice regarding how to present reviews hinges on its revenue source. Indeed, a platform that receives sales commissions optimally commits to publishing information differently from a platform that receives revenues from advertisements or from subscription fees. Incidentally, such platforms have contrasting impacts on the amount of information that is transmitted by reviews. Chapter 3 is co-authored with Marc Santugini. In this chapter, we study the impact of third-degree price discrimination in the presence of uninformed buyers who extract noisy information from observing prices. In a noisy learning environment, it is shown that price discrimination can be detrimental to the firm and beneficial to the consumers. On the one hand, discriminatory pricing reduces consumers’ uncertainty, i.e., the variance of posterior beliefs upon observing prices is reduced. Specifically, observing two prices under discriminatory pricing provides more information than one price under uniform pricing even when discriminatory pricing reduces the amount of information contained in each price. On the other hand, it is not always optimal for the firm to use discriminatory pricing since the presence of uninformed buyers provides the firm with the incentive to engage in noisy price signaling. Indeed, if the benefit from price flexibility (through discriminatory pricing) is offset by the cost of signaling quality through two distinct prices, then it is optimal to integrate markets and to use uniform pricing. Finally, Chapter 4 is co-authored with Sidartha Gordon. In this chapter, we study a class of games where players face restrictions on how much information they can obtain on a common payoff relevant state, but have some leeway in covertly choosing the dependence between their signals, before simultaneously choosing actions. Using a new stochastic dependence ordering between signals, we show that each player chooses information that is more dependent on the information of other players whose actions are either isotonic and complements with his actions or antitonic and substitutes with his actions. Similarly, each player chooses information that is less dependent on the information of other players whose actions are antitonic and complements with his actions or isotonic and substitutes with his actions. We then provide sufficient conditions for information structures such as public or private information to arise in equilibrium.