MORSe seminar
Institute of Management and Organisation
Start date: 30 October 2014
End date: 31 October 2014
MORSe seminar given by Marco Giarratana (Bocconi University).
Title: “CROWDING, SATIATION AND SATURATION: The Days of Television Series’ Lives"
Date: 30th of October, 12:30-14:00
Location: PC04 (blue building, basement floor)
Abstract: The performance of firms depends not just on the structure of the industries in which they compete but also on their relative positioning within those industries, in terms of operating within particular niches. Past research has demonstrated that crowding – a larger supply of offerings in these niches – reduces performance. We propose that the demand for these niches also depends endogenously on the historical ecology of the products offered within them. In particular, niches become saturated – reduced in their ability to support products – as a large number of offerings allows the audience to satisfy its desire for products in the niche. We analyzed the survival rates of television series aired in the United States from 1946 to 2003. We found that the survival rates of future entrants fell with the extensiveness of recent offerings in the niche. The negative association between crowding and survival also weakened with saturation. We discuss the implications of this phenomenon for firm strategy.
