Marshall Van Alstyne
Encyclopedia
Marshall Van Alstyne is a professor at Boston University
and researcher at MIT
and the MIT Center for Digital Business
. His work focuses on the economics of information.
Van Alstyne grew up in North Carolina before earning a B.A in computer science from Yale University
, and M.S. and Ph.D. in information systems from the MIT Sloan School of Management
.
He has made substantial contributions to understanding information markets. With graduate students Loder and Wash, he was the first to prove http://www.bepress.com/bejeap/advances/vol6/iss1/art2/ 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 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 http://ssrn.com/abstract=249585. 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.
Recent work with 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" http://www.jstor.org/pss/10.1086/661238?searchUrl=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Daral%2Bvan%2Balstyne%26Search.x%3D0%26Search.y%3D0%26wc%3Don&Search=yes and identified the factors causing access to favor one or the other.
His research has been honored with several best paper awards, a National Science Foundation career award, and appeared in such journals as Science, Management_Science, and Harvard Business Review
.
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
and researcher at MIT
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
and the MIT Center for Digital Business
MIT Center for Digital Business
The MIT Center for Digital Business is an industry funded research center headquartered at the MIT Sloan School of Management. The Center for Digital Business is focused on understanding the impact of technology on business value, and developing tools and frameworks for sponsors to use for...
. His work focuses on the economics of information.
Van Alstyne grew up in North Carolina before earning a B.A in computer science from Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, and M.S. and Ph.D. in information systems from the MIT Sloan School of Management
MIT Sloan School of Management
The MIT Sloan School of Management is the business school of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, Massachusetts....
.
He has made substantial contributions to understanding information markets. With graduate students Loder and Wash, he was the first to prove http://www.bepress.com/bejeap/advances/vol6/iss1/art2/ that applying a signaling and screening
Information asymmetry
In economics and contract theory, information asymmetry deals with the study of decisions in transactions where one party has more or better information than the other. This creates an imbalance of power in transactions which can sometimes cause the transactions to go awry, a kind of market failure...
mechanism to email spam can, in theory, create more value for consumers than a perfect filter (see also "attention economics"). With professor Geoffrey Parker, he contributed to the founding literature on "two-sided networks
Two-sided markets
Two-sided markets, also called two-sided networks, are economic platforms having two distinct user groups that provide each other with network benefits...
," a refinement of network effects that explains how firms can profitably price information at zero http://ssrn.com/abstract=249585. 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.
Recent work with Aral has explored the question of which social network structures provide better access to novel information. In social networks
Social network
A social network is a social structure made up of individuals called "nodes", which are tied by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, common interest, financial exchange, dislike, sexual relationships, or relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige.Social...
, 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" http://www.jstor.org/pss/10.1086/661238?searchUrl=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Daral%2Bvan%2Balstyne%26Search.x%3D0%26Search.y%3D0%26wc%3Don&Search=yes and identified the factors causing access to favor one or the other.
His research has been honored with several best paper awards, a National Science Foundation career award, and appeared in such journals as Science, Management_Science, and Harvard Business Review
Harvard Business Review
Harvard Business Review is a general management magazine published since 1922 by Harvard Business School Publishing, owned by the Harvard Business School. A monthly research-based magazine written for business practitioners, it claims a high ranking business readership among academics, executives,...
.