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This chapter analyzes and considers from the perspective of business models and holistic leadership strategic knowledge creation for leading internal ventures in large corporations to success. The case study takes a close-up look at the games business, focusing chiefly on Sony’s PlayStation.

One lesson learned from the case study was that the elements of productive friction and creative abrasion among practitioners at the knowledge boundaries between project teams, existing organizations, and external partners encouraged creative strategic collaboration among practitioners. Another lesson was that practitioners at all management levels of top management, project leaders, and project staff established distributed business community networks within and outside the company through strategic collaboration based on holistic leadership.

Furthermore, the existence of “community networks (networked knowledge boundaries)” inside and outside the company enabled the integration of different kinds of knowledge and achieved technological innovation (incremental innovation, architectural innovation) in the development of PlayStation as a new product.

The process by which a new shirt sponsorship was struck between SEGA Europe and Arsenal FC is described through a case study. The circumstances leading both organizations to seek out a sponsorship partner are identified. SEGA Europe was preparing to launch its new Dreamcast video console in Europe and wished to create a high-impact marketing program. Arsenal was looking for a company to replace its former shirt sponsor JVC. The case study also provides information about the sponsorship deal, the first 18 months of the partnership, and draws out some some more general lessons.

Five years ago, if the general public had been presented with a picture of a spotty youth, locked in his bedroom, a lot of people might have said “he is probably playing video games,” and might have said it with a note of disdain in their voice. And they might have been right. Today, they still might give the same answer but they are more likely to be wrong. So, why might they be wrong? Well, in the last five years, the interactive games industry has seen massive changes in terms of its size, its' consumers and the role of video games in consumers' lifestyle.

CSS 11: Strategy

Undergraduate or Graduate Capstone Course in Management or Marketing.

Electronic Arts is one of the premiere video game software developers in the world. With the changing video game industry, evolving tastes and preferences, the introduction of next generation platforms and supporting various mobile platforms, Electronics Arts has important decisions to make as it charts its future.

The analysis seeks to fulfil several objectives relevant to management and marketing strategy courses, where analysis of the external environment of a firm is important. Students should be able to do the following: identify the relevant content to include in an industry analysis. Understand the key concepts of strategic analysis and how to apply them. Use the analytical tools of strategy to synthesize information from multiple sources into a comprehensive picture of an industry. Provide an overview of the dynamics and near-term future of this industry. Use industry analysis to explore emerging markets, billing options and where to target company resources.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

This study aims to build on the notion of brand evangelism developed by Becerra and Badrinarayanan (2013) by examining how brand relationship variables regarding one brand (i.e. brand loyalty, brand community identification and self-brand connection) influence oppositional referrals to a rival brand (i.e. desire to harm and trash-talking) in the high definition (HD) videogame console industry.

A survey of online communities devoted to video gaming was conducted using a sample of 809 respondents, all owners of either a PlayStation or an Xbox.

The results show that the desire to harm the rival brand is strongly and positively associated to participation in trash-talking. Brand loyalty is connected to both dimensions of oppositional brand referrals. Consumers’ connection with the brand affects trash-talking only indirectly through the desire to harm. No association is found between identification with the brand community and oppositional brand referrals.

This study is the first to demonstrate the mechanism linking brand relationship variables regarding a focal brand with consumers’ disparagement of a rival brand, showing that a desire to harm plays a central role. Just as the desire for retaliation drives negative word-of-mouth in the context of an unsatisfactory experience with a brand (Grégoire and Fisher, 2006), the desire to harm drives trash-talking against a rival brand by brand evangelists. This study improves our understanding of the relationships consumers build with their preferred brands and how this relationship may influence their rejection of competing brands with which they do not have direct experience.

The purpose of this paper is to review some applications of supercomputers, with the observation that a readily available PlayStation can rival supercomputers of a decade ago. Applications to ocean modelling and to examination of possibilities for quantum computing are discussed. Also discussed are the meaning of the term Wiki, and uses of Wikis in language learning.

The aim is to review developments on the internet, especially those of general cybernetic interest.

Supercomputers have valuable applications in biological modelling, medical record keeping and climatic studies and there is particular interest in their use to explore possibilities of quantum computing which may be the key to more powerful machines of the future. The value of Wikis is not confined to the Wikipedia.

PlayStations are likely to be taken seriously as programmable computers in certain areas. Possibilities for a new generation of quantum computers are discussed, as is also the use of Wikis in language learning.

It is hoped this is a valuable periodic review.

John Constantinou discuss his role at Sony Computer Entertainment and how the company embraced sponsorship as a key part of its marketing strategy. He explains the need to rationalise the rights portfolio but emphasises how a balance of grass roots and very high profile event sponsorships can complement each other. Constantinou also discusses the issues that he sees as important in the development of sponsorship, pointing in particular to customer relationship management and research.

On April 4, 2013, a video game website reported that the next-generation Xbox console—due to be released by Microsoft the following month—would require an always-on Internet connection in order to operate. The new version of the SimCity game that had been released earlier that year with an always-on requirement had been a disaster. Hardcore gamers reacted negatively to the news.

When the Xbox One console was officially revealed on May 21, Microsoft effectively confirmed that it would require an always-on connection for validating digital rights. Predictably, gamers reacted negatively, a response that was exacerbated when Microsoft's president of the interactive entertainment business, Don Mattrick, made dismissive statements about their concerns

After reading and analyzing the case, students will be able to:

• Address the challenge of marketing a product to multiple adjacent but very different customer segments

• Understand the need for a unified vision before going to market

• Develop a strategy that addresses the complexity of a world in which the company may no longer own the “loudest voice in the room”

Address the challenge of marketing a product to multiple adjacent but very different customer segments

Understand the need for a unified vision before going to market

Develop a strategy that addresses the complexity of a world in which the company may no longer own the “loudest voice in the room”

This two-part study aims to expose the challenges and establish the necessity of preserving digital content, with a focus on console video games.

Through a method of establishing the history of video game consoles, identifying the challenges presented by the format and addressing the current preservation efforts, this article serves as a brief retrospective of the issues and a guide to extending the conversation.

Representing a unique format, heavily reliant on advances in technological and industrial standards, console video games have experienced a demonstrated lack of preservation.

With special attention to the non-gamer, this is an introduction to the conversation and an invitation to lend expertise to not only an often overlooked area of popular culture, which is facing (and in some cases, has experienced) irretrievable loss of information, but also to other formats facing adjustment to the digital, always-online environment.

As a social media platform, Twitter enables direct, continuous and real-time communication across many markets simultaneously. Drawing on speech act theory (SAT), this study aims to view tweets as “speech acts” and explores whether language and brand on Twitter influence firm value.

The frequency of two language types (accommodative and defensive) used on four corporate Twitter accounts for Sony and Microsoft was observed during the product launch periods of PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, respectively, covering 5,056 tweets. A linear mixed model was used to analyze whether language and brand influence firm value.

Results show that accommodative language used by firms on their corporate Twitter accounts has an overall negative influence on firm value the following day, whereas the use of defensive language has a positive influence. Moreover, the effects of these language types on firm value are attenuated when the Twitter accounts are personal, compared to the brand accounts.

This study focuses on one type of social media platform (Twitter) and one product category (video game consoles). Future studies should investigate other platforms and product categories to improve generalizability.

Managers should carefully strategize their use of Twitter, especially the use of language and account type, as they can significantly affect firm value.

This study applies SAT to explain how language and brand on Twitter can influence firm value.