Helmut Dietl

Helmut Dietl
University of Zurich | UZH · Department of Business Administration - IBW

About

123
Publications
70,747
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
1,398
Citations
Introduction
Skills and Expertise

Publications

Publications (123)
Article
Full-text available
This paper examines the dynamic competition between platform firms in two-sided markets with network externalities. In our model, two platforms compete with each other via a contest to dominate a certain market. If one platform wins the contest, it can serve the market for a certain duration as a monopolistic platform. Our paper shows that platform...
Article
Full-text available
The television broadcasting industry is of crucial economic and social importance. Traditionally, this industry has been dominated by free TV but due to technological progress, pay TV has emerged as a competing business model. A key question for the pay TV broadcasters is whether to air commercials in addition to charging subscription fees. Based o...
Article
Full-text available
Bonus taxes have been implemented to prevent managers from taking excessive risks. This paper analyzes the effects of taxing executives’ bonuses in a principal-agent model. Our model shows that, contrary to its intention, the introduction of a bonus tax intensifies managers’ risk-taking behavior and decreases their effort. The principal responds to...
Article
Full-text available
This paper analyzes spillover effects in sports leagues that are embedded in a system of promotion and relegation. Based on a contest model of a professional sports league with a top division and a second division, we show that league prizes and club efficiencies have opposing effects; while a stronger second division that offers a higher league pr...
Article
Full-text available
Coordinating knowledge transfer within multi-plant manufacturing networks is a challenging task. Using a computational model, we examine when it is beneficial to create production knowledge within a central unit, the “lead factory,” and transfer it to geographically dispersed plants. We demonstrate that the knowledge transfer generates a trade-off...
Article
This article describes a large number of contestants with high and low levels of talent who individually decide to enter a contest or take their heterogeneous outside options. We derive a critical condition for which only high types, only low types or both types participate in the contest. If a contest organizer is worried about the type participat...
Chapter
Full-text available
Comparisons between European and North American sports leagues have occurred over the years. In this paper, we attempt to bring these comparisons down to the essential elements – what has come to be called Rottenberg’s (1956) invariance principle and theoretical insights into attempts to alter competitive balance using revenue sharing, talent draft...
Conference Paper
We analyze the absorptive capacity (AC) process of a manufacturing company with central R&D and an internationally distributed manufacturing network. Prior research shows that an implementation of the lead factory (LF) is especially supportive if the international manufacturing network struggles with implementing new products and processes. We anal...
Article
Full-text available
Choosing the legal structure of a sports institution is one of the key decisions that sports managers must make. Using platform theory and property rights theory, this paper shows that the choice of legal structure influences the revenue composition of sports institutions. We hypothesized that member associations should receive higher sponsorship r...
Chapter
Full-text available
This article describes how the theory of contests is applied to professional team sports leagues. It presents the traditional Tullock contest and explains some basic properties of the equilibrium. It then addresses the applications of contest theory in sports. It shows how the assumption of flexible vs. fixed talent supply depends on the league und...
Article
Full-text available
This paper develops a model of asymmetric competition between a pay and a free media platform. The pay media platform generates revenues from media consumers through subscription fees, while the free media platform generates revenues from charging advertisers either on a lump-sum basis (regime A) or on a per-consumer basis (regime B). We show that...
Article
We consider two bidders with asymmetric valuations competing to win an exogenous prize. Capital markets are imperfect, such that the contestants possibly face a liquidity constraint. We show that aggregate investments are lower if at least one bidder has a liquidity constraint, even if the low-valuation bidder possibly increases his/her investments...
Article
Full-text available
This paper develops a model of a professional sports league with network externalities by integrating the theory of two-sided markets into a contest model. In professional team sports, the competition of the clubs functions as a platform that enables sponsors to interact with fans. In these club-mediated interactions, positive network effects opera...
Article
This paper enhances the defender model by explicitly modeling the cost associated with quality attributes. It considers two firms and two quality attributes which cause fixed and variable cost, respectively, together with the price attribute. Hence, firms compete in three dimensions. The optimal market defense is derived for various market structur...
Article
Recently, a number of high-profile betting scandals have shocked European football. Since such scandals threaten the integrity of the sport, which is one of its major assets, football officials have taken prominent measures to avoid further scandals. Unfortunately, these measures have not yet been successful. Additional or different measures seem t...
Article
Full-text available
This paper develops a simulation model to compare the performance of two stylized manufacturing networks: the lead factory network (LFN) and the archetype network (AN). The model identifies the optimal network configuration and its implications for coordination mechanisms. Using an NK simulation model to differentiate between exogenous factors (con...
Article
Full-text available
This paper develops a formal model of a cooperative enterprise which explains why cooperatives are present in such a large number of sectors. In our model of a multi-stage production process, we account for the possibility that producers can acquire knowledge to decrease their cost of production. We distinguish between knowledge that can be general...
Article
Full-text available
This paper analyzes the effects of a percentage-of-revenue salary cap in a team sports league with win-maximizing clubs and flexible talent supply. It shows that a percentage-of-revenue cap produces a more balanced league and decreases aggregate salary payments. Taking into account the idiosyncrasies of European football, our paper further highligh...
Article
Full-text available
In this paper we analyzed the strategic competition between incumbent postal operators and market entrants in liberalized letter markets based on the “defender consumer model” pioneered by Hauser and Shugan (1983) and derived qualitative normative implications on how an established firm should defend its profits when facing an attack by a new compe...
Article
Full-text available
This paper constructs and analyzes open-loop equilibria in an infinitely repeated Tullock contest in which two contestants contribute efforts to accumulate individual asset stocks over time. To investigate the transitional dynamics of the contest in the case of a general cost function, we linearize the model around the steady state. Our analysis sh...
Article
Full-text available
Distortions under the value-added tax (VAT) arise partly from the exemption of specific services and sectors. This paper develops an analytical model that is applicable to any sector characterized by asymmetric VAT exemptions of services and activities. We analyze the effects of such asymmetric tax regimes on market shares, optimal prices, tax rece...
Article
The study analyzes the UPU's current termination charge system in the international parcel market referred to as inward land rate system (ILR system). Based on the findings the study develops recommendations for its improvment.
Article
This paper argues that transforming the postal business model goes hand in hand with a transformation in the definition of universal service obligation. Whilst postal operators need to fully embrace the unique competitive space created by electronic substitution, at the intersection between the physical and digital, regulatory frameworks also must...
Article
Professional football clubs earn most of their revenues from four sources: sale of broadcasting rights, matchday revenues, merchandising, and sponsorship. The relative importance of these sources differs among clubs and leagues. Economists often argue that the ability of professional football clubs to generate revenues depends to a large extent on...
Article
Full-text available
This paper outlines and compares the organizational structure of major sports leagues, explores the reasoning behind their formation, and derives implications for salary caps in European football. To understand why sports leagues have developed a specific organizational structure, one must take the economic peculiarities of team sports leagues into...
Article
Full-text available
Im Dezember 2010 haben die eidgenössischen Räte die neue Postgesetzgebung verabschiedet. Die vorliegenden Überlegungen stellen diese Reform in den Kontext der aktuellen Entwicklungen und Herausforderungen im Postsektor. Dabei wird aufgezeigt, in welchem Spannungsfeld sich die Postgesetzgebung befindet und welche Zielkonflikte sich dahinter verberge...
Chapter
Full-text available
The focus of our paper is on the competitive effects of the proposed VAT regime relative to selected alternatives. We also highlight the welfare effects of various VAT scenarios. While an exempt operator cannot reclaim VAT paid on inputs (relevant for non-labor inputs only) and therefore faces higher costs ceteris paribus, an important fraction of...
Article
Full-text available
Several countries have implemented bonus taxes for corporate executives in response to the financial crisis of 2007-2010. Using a principal-agent model, this paper investigates the incentive effects of bonus taxes by analyzing the agent's and principal's behavior. Specifically, we show how bonus taxes affect the agent's incentives to exert effort a...
Article
This paper constructs and analyzes open-loop equilibria in an infinitely repeated Tullock contest in which two contestants contribute efforts to accumulate individual asset stocks over time. To investigate the transitional dynamics of the contest in the case of a general cost function, we linearize the model around the steady state. Our analysis sh...
Article
Full-text available
Die Regulierung von Managergehältern ist derzeit ein viel diskutiertes Thema in Politik und Medien. In diesem Beitrag wird ein Sektor analysiert, der eine lange Tradition der Gehaltsregulierung aufweist: der professionelle Mannschaftssport. Wir untersuchen die wichtigsten Regulierungspraktiken und ihre Konsequenzen auf den Arbeitsmarkt für Profispo...
Article
Full-text available
Executive pay regulation is widely discussed as a measure to reduce financial mismanagement in corporations. We show that the professional team sports industry, the only industry with substantial experience in the regulation of compensation arrangements, provides valuable insights for the regulation of executive pay. Based on the experience from pr...
Article
Full-text available
In the December 2002 issue of the American Economic Review, Mark Duggan and Steven D. Levitt published an article on corruption in professional sumo. In the present article, the authors update the study of Duggan and Levitt to take into account changes since January 2000. The authors find strong statistical evidence that corruption is reduced after...
Article
Full-text available
This paper presents a dynamic model of talent investments in a team sports league with an infinite time horizon. We show that the clubs’ investment decisions and the effects of revenue sharing on competitive balance depend on the following three factors: (i) the cost function of talent investments, (ii) the clubs’ market sizes, and (iii) the initia...
Article
Due to the specifics of the football governance systems and cultures of Europe and the United States, we hypothesize that the charitable foundation involvement of the National Football League (NFL) and its teams is more pronounced than that of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and its Champions League (UCL) clubs. On the basis of a...
Article
Dieser Beitrag ist ein Plädoyer für eine eigene Sportökonomik. Er untersucht, welche Besonderhei-ten des Sports eine eigene Ökonomik rechtfertigen. In Kapitel 2 wird zunächst die Frage beantwor-tet, ob sich eine eigene Sportökonomik bereits aufgrund der wirtschaftlichen Bedeutung des Sports rechtfertigen lässt. Kapitel 3 rechtfertigt eine eigene Sp...
Article
Wertschöpfungsnetzwerke leiden meist unter dem Dilemma, dass sie gleichzeitig effizient und innovativ sein müssen. Werden F&E- und Produktionsabteilungen organisatorisch aus diesem Grund getrennt, wird es schnell schwierig, diese Abteilungen zu koordinieren und den Wissenstransfer sicherzustellen. Leitfabriken können in bestimmten Konstellationen e...
Article
This paper analyses the effectiveness of knowledge transfer between research and development (R&D) and intra-firm production units. Specifically, two distinct network structures are compared: the lead factory concept and traditional networks of R&D and production. Based on an analytical two-stage decision model for prototype and serial production,...
Article
Full-text available
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to compare two distinct network structures to determine and show which structure is more profitable. Specifically, it aims to show which factors render the lead factory concept advantageous. Design/methodology/approach – Based on a simple, two-stage model for prototype and serial production, the authors highli...
Article
Die wirtschaftliche Bedeutung von Interaktionsplattformen, die zwei oder mehr Marktseiten miteinander verbinden, ist in der jŸngsten Vergangenheit enorm gestiegen. Beispielsweise stehen Telekommunikations-, Internet-, Versorgungs-, Medien-, Videospiele-, Logistik-, Finanzdienstleistungs-, Computersoftware- und Reiseunternehmen im Plattformwettbewer...
Article
This paper presents a theoretical model of two-sided markets with both positive inter-side externalities and negative intra-side externalities. It analyzes the net impact of negative intra-side externalities on platform prices, demands and profits in three scenarios: (i) monopoly platforms, (ii) competing platforms with two-sided single-homing, and...
Article
Full-text available
This paper develops a contest model of a professional sports league in which clubs maximize a weighted sum of profits and wins (utility maximization). The model analyzes how more win-oriented behavior of certain clubs affects talent investments, competitive balance, and club profits. Moreover, in contrast to traditional models, the authors show tha...
Article
Full-text available
This paper provides a theoretical model of a team sports league and studies the welfare effect of salary caps. It shows that salary caps will increase competitive balance and decrease overall salary payments within the league. The resulting effect on social welfare is counter-intuitive and depends on the preference of fans for aggregate talent and...
Article
Full-text available
This paper provides a game-theoretic model of a professional sports league and analyzes the effect of luxury taxes on competitive balance, club profits and social welfare. We show that a luxury tax increases aggregate salary payments in the league as well as produces a more balanced league. Moreover, a higher tax rate increases the profits of large...
Article
Full-text available
Many major sports leagues are characterized by a combination of cross-subsidization mechanisms like revenue-sharing arrangements and payroll restrictions. Up to now, the effects of these policy tools have only been analyzed separately. This article provides a theoretical model of a team sports league and analyzes the combined effect of salary restr...
Article
In many industries, disintegration processes have drastically changed the overall industry structure as well as the organization of value creation processes and actors. Highly integrated production and distribution systems have been replaced by devolved organization architectures. This article introduces the concept of value creation architectures,...
Article
This paper outlines and analyzes different competitive strategies for an established platform provider in a two-sided market to defend against various forms of attack. Taking into account the characteristics of two-sided markets, we consider strategies based on product innovation and network effects, process innovation and pricing, multiple platfor...
Article
This paper outlines and analyzes different competitive strategies for an established platform provider in a two-sided market to defend against various forms of attack. Taking into account the characteristics of two-sided markets, we consider strategies based on product innovation and network effects, process innovation and pricing, multiple platfor...
Article
Full-text available
In this paper, we provide an analysis of the principal economic issues in the professional team sports industry. We characterize the major peculiarities of this industry and give an overview of the most important league policy measures that are implemented to provide cross subsidies among teams. In particular, we focus on salary caps and compare th...
Article
In this paper we compare European and North American sports leagues from the perspective of platform organization. We find that European leagues can be characterized as open, not only in the sense of promotion and relegation, but also in the sense of attenuated/dispersed property rights and free access to all market sides. North American leagues, o...
Article
Das simultane Streben nach Innovation und Effizienz l�sen Unternehmen oftmals durch die organisatorische Trennung von Forschung und Entwicklung (F&E) und Produktion. Diese traditionellen Wertsch�pfungs�netzwerke sto�en aufgrund von Koordinations�problemen vermehrt an ihre Grenzen. Das Konzept der Leitfabrik als organisatorischer Intermedi�r stellt...
Article
This paper models an infinitely repeated Tullock contest in which two contestants contribute efforts to accumulate individual asset stocks. We analyze the dynamic effects of second prizes on this accumulation process. Our analysis shows that optimal asset stocks and its speed of convergence to the steady state depend on the elasticity of marginal e...
Article
This paper presents a dynamic model of talent investments where two clubs compete in each period with respect to a contest prize. We show that aggregate talent stocks of both clubs converge to an identical level such that competitive balance is assured in the steady state as long as league prizes are identical for clubs. In the transition the dynam...
Article
Full-text available
A wide range of literature which discusses the impact of the chosen objective function on competitive balance and revenue sharing. Some authors argued that sports clubs (or the owners of the sports clubs) behave like profit maximizers. This assumption of profit maximization coincides with the standard microeconomic theory of firms. On the other han...
Article
Full-text available
A wide range of literature which discusses the impact of the chosen objective function on competitive balance and revenue sharing. Some authors argued that sports clubs (or the owners of the sports clubs) behave like profit maximizers. This assumption of profit maximization coincides with the standard microeconomic theory of firms. On the other han...
Article
Full-text available
Does the European model of end-to-end competition or the US model of worksharing provide stronger innovation incentives for incumbent postal operators? We answer this question based on a two stage model with price competition and product differentiation. We find that incentives for process innovation in the upstream activities are stronger under en...
Article
Full-text available
Transfer restrictions have a long tradition in professional sports but came under heavy attack in recent years (e.g. Bosman ruling, Monti system). Based on a bargaining model with stochastic player productivity, we show that more restrictive transfer rules reallocate ex post bargaining power from players to clubs. This reallocation is efficient and...
Article
Full-text available
This paper applies contest theory to provide an integrated framework of a team sports league and analyzes the competitive interaction between clubs. We show that dissipation of the league revenue arises from ‘overinvestment’ in playing talent as a direct consequence of the ruinous competitive interaction between clubs. This overinvestment problem i...
Article
This paper provides a theoretical model of a team sports league based on contest theory and studies the welfare effect of gale revenue sharing. It derives two counterintuitive results. First, it challenges the "invarianceproposition" by showing that revenue sharing reduces competitive balance and thus produces a more unbalanced league. Second, the...
Article
Full-text available
This paper develops a contest model to compare social welfare in homogeneous leagues in which all clubs maximize identical objective functions with mixed leagues in which clubs maximize different objective functions. We show that homogeneous leagues in which all clubs are profit-maximizers dominate all other leagues whereas mixed leagues in which s...
Article
Full-text available
We develop an industry specific model of price competition with product differentiation to analyze the effect of entry regulation on process innovation in the Swiss mail industry. We consider the four most prominent scenarios: regulated monopoly, end-to-end competition, worksharing without bypass, and worksharing with bypass. Based on model calibra...
Article
Full-text available
We develop an industry specific model of price competition with product differentiation to analyze the effect of entry regulation on process innovation in the Swiss mail industry. We consider the four most prominent scenarios: Regulated monopoly, end-to-end competition, worksharing without bypass, and work-sharing with bypass. Based on model calibr...
Article
Full-text available
This paper analyzes the net cost of universal service obligations in the postal sector after full liberalization and the potential burden they represent for the universal service provider. It considers various interpretations of what an ‚unfair burden. might be and discusses the competitive impact of corresponding compensation scenarios by means of...
Article
Full-text available
This paper analyzes the market entry of Red Parcel Post, a new player in the German Business-to-Business (B2B) parcel market. Currently there are four large service providers in the German B2B parcel market. Each of these incumbent providers operates - albeit with varying degrees of automation - with a classical multi-hub-and-spoke network. Red Par...
Article
This article presents a model of talent investments where two clubs compete for prizes. Our model is based on a general class of cost functions with a constant elasticity of marginal costs with respect to investments. The analysis finds that reduced revenue sharing improves competitive balance. Furthermore, we show that a higher elasticity of margi...
Article
We model a value chain, which consists of two stages of value creation. Within this model we show how the relative importance of general and idiosyncratic knowledge interacts with the hold up problem to determine the comparative advantages of markets, hierarchies, and cooperatives. In our model a market form is (weakly) dominated by a cooperative o...
Article
This paper presents a two-period model of talent investments where two clubs compete with respect to a contest prize. We show that two qualitatively different types of equilibria are possible using a closed-loop approach with strictly convex costs: The large market club invests in both periods more than the small market club or the small market clu...
Article
In this paper, we discuss a manager's allocation problem. Two managers allocate their heterogeneous employees - each manager allocates two high types and two low types - in groups of two in order to compete for an exogenous contest prize in a two period model. There are three possibilities of groups' constellation depending on manager's allocation...
Article
During the last decade the clubs in the big national soccer leagues in Europe gradually gained more independence from the national and international associations. The more the clubs break away from the traditional governing bodies of their sport, the more they are confronted with the same organizational choices their American counterparts faced fro...
Article
Full-text available
INTRODUCTION In recent years, the importance of income from broadcasting rights for professional sports clubs' revenues has increased significantly both in the U.S. and in Europe [see Cave and Crandall, 2001]. While up to the 1980s gate receipts have constituted the major pillar of revenues, this role has since been taken over by income out of broa...
Article
Viele moderne Dienstleistungsmärkte können mit dem herkömmlichen betriebswirtschaftlichen Instrumentarium nicht ausreichend erfasst und analysiert werden. Der Grund hierfür liegt darin, dass die Wertschöpfung in diesen Dienstleistungsmärkten nicht allein von dem Dienstleistungsunternehmen selbst, sondern vor allem auch von den Marktteilnehmern erbr...
Article
Der Schweizer Postmarkt soll für die Konkurrenz geöffnet werden. Gleichzeitig soll die Grundversorgung – der so genannte Service Public – weiterhin gewährleistet sein. Mit der Marktöffnung wird dem ehemaligen Monopolisten die Grundlage zur Finanzierung der Grundversorgung entzogen. Zur Sicherstellung der Grundversorgung im Wettbewerb muss der ehema...
Article
Full-text available
Wie viele andere Branchen befindet sich auch die Automobilbranche in einem voran schreitenden Modularisierungsprozess. Dieses betrifft sowohl die Produktion als auch die Distribution. Standardisierung und Modularisierung der Wertsch�pfungsorganisa�tion f�hren jedoch zu einem betriebswirtschaftlichen Zielkonflikt: die Erzielung von Effizienzvorteile...
Chapter
Full-text available
The paper analyzes the impact of different regulatory models on competition and welfare in the Swiss letter market. We conclude that the US system worksharing yields the best results.
Article
Full-text available
Historically, European team sports leagues were run by their respective national and international associations and were legally independent from the professional clubs playing in these leagues. Recently, European leagues have adopted an organizational form similar to their North American counterparts who are organized since their beginning in a co...
Article
Blickt man nur auf die Umsatzentwicklung, dann boomt der Klubfußball in Europa. Neue Fernsehverträge und neue Stadien versprechen höhere Einnahmen, die Expansion der führenden Ligen nach Asien noch höhere Einnahmen usw. Trotz dieser Erfolge steht das Geschäftsmodell des europäischen Klubfußballs aber auf wackligen Fundamenten. Es begünstigt nämlich...
Article
Full-text available
Dieser Beitrag versucht, den Zusammenhang zwischen Wertsch�pfungsorganisation und Wettbewerbsvorteilen in zwei- und mehrseitigen Dienstleistungsm�rkten zu erkl�ren und darauf aufbauend konkrete Gestaltungsempfehlungen abzuleiten. Hierzu werden die �konomischen Besonderheiten von Dienstleistungen im Allgemeinen und zwei- bzw. mehrseitiger Dienstleis...
Article
Professional sports leagues in Europe and the United States exhibit many differences. Among others such as the existence of mechanisms providing dis- incentives for spending (e.g. salary caps) the fundamental difference is the organizational arrangement of clubs and the governing body of the league. The U.S. Major Leagues are organized in a manner...
Article
Ein unternehmensübergreifendes Verständnis von Organisation ist von zentraler Bedeutung. Denn es hat sich gezeigt, dass die Organisation des Unternehmensumfeldes, z. B. Wettbewerbspolitik, und die Organisation an den Grenzen der Unternehmung - z.B. Outsourcing, Kooperationen - erheblichen Einfluss auf den Erfolg und die Gestaltung von Unternehmenss...
Article
Full-text available
The paper analyses the key dimensions of ownership structures of the largest non-financial firms in Bulgaria. We describe four patterns of ownership change. We find that direct ownership is highly concentrated and domestic holding companies and non-financial firms are the key largest shareholders. The ultimate ownership observed, however, is disper...
Article
Im letzten Jahrzehnt konnten die Clubs in den gro�en nationalen Fu�ballligen in Europa ihre Autonomie gegen�ber den Fu�ballverb�nden erheblich st�rken. Wenn diese Tendenz weitergeht, dann werden vor allem die europ�ischen Spitzenclubs irgendwann mit den gleichen organisatorischen Entscheidungen konfrontiert sein wie die Clubs in den nordame-rikanis...
Article
Full-text available
SUMMARY This paper analyses the international videogame industry, focusing on the efficiency and effectiveness of different forms of value chain organization chosen by video console manufacturers. Customer signalling necessities and innovation requirements of the product's system architecture are investigated in this context. To undertake this anal...
Article
As highlighted by Figure 1, New Economy firms usually run through three typical development stages: development of a business plan, venture capital investment and Initial Public Offering (IPO). Each single development stage typically coincides with a specific phase of the innovation process. During the discovery phase, an entrepreneur finds a new b...
Article
Full-text available
Dieser Artikel widmet sich der Bestimmung kurz- bis mittelfristiger Determinanten der Nachfrage nach Sportunterhaltung im TV. Mögliche Einflussfaktoren auf die Zuschauerzahlen einer Fußball-Highlightsendung werden sportökonomisch hergeleitet und ausführlich beschrieben, bevor ihre Bedeutung ökonometrisch überprüft wird. Die häufig diskutierte Unsic...