Factors That Influenced Blu-ray Versus HD-DVD Support And The Case Study Of Dyesol

Competition between Sony and Toshiba

Questions:

1. In the case study Bluâ€Âray versus HDâ€ÂDVD: A standards battle in highâ€Âdefinition video (Schilling, 2013, pp 65â€Â66), what factors do you think influenced whether (1) consumers, (2) retailers, and (3) movieâ€Âproducers supported Bluâ€Âray versus HDâ€ÂDVD? Discuss and justify your answer using the theory behind the selection of dominant designs. 

2. In the case study Dyesol: Partnering to harness the power of the sun (Schilling, 2013, pp 151â€Â153), discuss the advantages and disadvantages of collaborating with external partners. Justify your answer.

The report aims at providing an insight into the provided case studies. It discusses about the factors that influenced whether consumers, retailers, and movie-producers supported Blu-ray versus HD-DVD and the relevant theory behind the selection of dominant designs. In the second part of the report, the case study of Dyesol is referred to. It discusses the advantages as well as disadvantages of collaboration of external partners, and how Dyesol is benefited from its effective collaborations.

Since the very beginning, there was a constant competition amidst Sony and Toshiba regarding their latest innovations. Both were going at par with each other. However, during the eve of the Consumer Electronics Show at Las Vegas during early 2008, it was announced by Time Warner that it would be defecting to the Blu-ray standard (Brush, 2000). This had created a chain reaction amidst the retailers that led Best Buy, Netflix, and Walmart all declaring that they would exclusively stock Blu-ray DVDs. This was how Sony had succeeded in the dominant design.

To refer to some of the factors that led the retailers, consumers and stakeholders to select Sony’s innovation as it was globally accepted and recommended (Sony and Naik, 2012). The technology of Sony named as Blu-ray had the back up of a consortium which included Matsushita, Philips, Hitachi, and some others. The consistency of Sony’s quality and brand recognition had led to its further success. The advantages of a technology may be only observed after achievement of critical users. This refers to a significant race for tipping the point of the installed base (Digital’s advantages and disadvantages, 2010). Once this is achieved by any of the formats, the race can be won as well as the format would become the dominant one. As a result, Sony’s decision to incorporate a Blu-ray-player with their Playstation 3, that demanded giving away Blu-ray-players for free, proved to be beneficial in terms of sales.

1. As per the raised question based on the case study provided, it is to be note that every party within the standards battle possessed its own individual justifications for selecting one specific standard over another. For example, the wishes of movie producers for selecting Blu-ray were thoroughly varied from the wishes of the consumers for selecting Blu-ray.

As interpreted from the case scenario, the most significant factors which influenced consumers within their decision for supporting either Blu-ray or HD_DVD comprised of technical differences, size of the installed base, and that of complementary goods. To support any one of the given standards, from the perspective of a consumer, may be referred to as buying a Blu-ray or an HD-DVD player. On a general basis, consumers may be grouped into two categories: Early users and that of majority (Gemünden, Killen and Kock, 2013). Early users favored one of the two standards depending on technical differences as well as complementary goods. With respect to the given case, early users are those consumers who get attracted to technology and along with it they conduct the research themselves regarding the “better” standard. The concept of complementary goods refers to the number of movies which releases on any one of the given standards. This is also quite important. The second group that is majority takes decision depending upon the size of the installed base as well as complementary goods. The number of movies is gain important for them but size of the installed base is most relevant for the majority. The advantages of a technology may be only observed after achievement of critical users. This refers to a significant race for tipping the point of the installed base (GENUS and COLES, 2006). Once this is achieved by any of the formats, the race can be won as well as the format would become the dominant one. As a result, Sony’s decision to incorporate a Blu-ray-player with their Playstation 3, that demanded giving away Blu-ray-players for free, proved to be beneficial in terms of sales. When the war had started among the two leading innovations, the retailers were left affected as well as they got stuck with unwanted inventory in Betamax players as well as movies. The severe threat of another innovative format war had resulted several retailers as well as consumers to delay their purchases of the latest players while they waited to witness if the market would go in favor of a winner. Some of the factors that influenced the retailers are that of the uncertainty that prevailed with the arrival of new technologies. The retailers had had been selling the previous generation product, and they had sufficient amount of inventory in store already. But when the demand shifted to new technology and innovation, they were left with a huge inventory that remained unsold (Gershon and Kanayama, 2002). In the early 2008, Toshiba had lined up many major Hollywood studios for its format, even that of Time Warner’s Warner Brothers, Dreamworks Animation, Viacom’s Paramount Pictures, and NBC Universal’s Universal Pictures. Sony possessed its personal Sony Pictures Entertainment, News Corporation’s 20^th Century Fox, Disney, and Lions Gate Entertainment. Sony had incorporated a Blu-ray device while HD_DVD was offered as an option to add-on for Xbox 360 of Microsoft. However, in early January 2008, it was announced by Time Warner that it would be defecting to the Blu-ray standard (Haner and Bakke, 2008). This created a chain reaction amidst the retailers that made some leading retailers to stock Blu-ray DVDs. The leading global retailers always aim at acquiring the best services possible at the lowest price on account of the technological advancement. Although retailers get a varied option and availability of product option in this marketing tug of war, yet the major responsibility lies in the fact that the retailers need to make an effective choice of a particular format. The number of movies is gain important for them but size of the installed base is most relevant for the majority. The advantages of a technology may be only observed after achievement of critical users (Lee, 2005). This refers to a significant race for tipping the point of the installed base. Once this is achieved by any of the formats, the race can be won as well as the format would become the dominant one. As a result, Sony’s decision to incorporate a Blu-ray-player with their Playstation 3, that demanded giving away Blu-ray-players for free, proved to be beneficial in terms of sales.

Factors that led to the selection of Blu-ray

2. The solar market imposed a greater challenge during the last few months, not just with respect to profitability for manufacturing firms, but also pre-revenue firms like Dyesol, that have been creating innovative technologies. The challenge for the firm is to gather fund for conducting various projects (Lee, 2005). This may be one of the advantages of collaboration with external partners. Effective partnerships with loyal shareholder base may enable the firm to get sufficient funds for its accomplishments. Collaborations with external factors would create opportunities amidst potential strategic investors (Saebi and Foss, 2014). As mentioned in the case scenario, the successful partnerships of Dyesol with external factors would lead to some key advantages and disadvantages as follows:

Partnership allows two heads that may jointly take important decisions regarding the accomplishments of projects  (Sony, Mariappan and Kamat, 2011)

With collaboration with external factors, it becomes easier for the Dyesol business to establish itself potentially along with low start-up cost

Increased amount of capital is available with joint partnerships

An opportunity exists for splitting of income, with an advantage of specific importance on account of resulting saving of tax (Lee, 2005)

Partnership would allow Dyesol to maintain concrete privacy of its business conducts

Collaboration with external partners would limit any external regulation

Effective partnerships would make it convenient for the firm Dyesol to reframe its legal structure in the future if situation demands so  (Saemundsson and Candi, 2013)

In terms of business collaborations, the liability of partners for business debts is unlimited

The partnership renders each of the partners to be liable for the debts of the partnership. Each party would be liable for their share as well as that of the partnership

A risk of disagreements as well as conflict exists amidst partners as well as management

On collaborating with external partners, Dyesol would be liable for each and every action of the external partner  (Mathur and Singh, 2010)

If Dyesol would ever require to leave, it has to value all the assets of partnership which can be highly expensive at times

In the previous year, as per the announcement of the collaboration amidst Dyesol and Tata Steel, the plant would be integrating steel featuring DSC technology within developing projects. The projects are well assured, however it requires staying focused upon the risk management as well as providing for possible disappointments. The company has also been collaborating with Pilkington. Dyesol has been working with Pilkington in North America. Delays have been there towards the North American grant programs on account of certain restructuring at the state level. The challenge for the firm is to gather fund for conducting various projects (Priyanto and Sandjojo, 2005). This may be one of the advantages of collaboration with external partners. Effective partnerships with loyal shareholder base may enable the firm to get sufficient funds for its accomplishments. Collaborations with external factors would create opportunities amidst potential strategic investors (Michael and Mariappan, 2011). With respect to the collaboration of Dyesol with all external collaborations, creating a collaboration would not only strengthen its campaign, but also demonstrate towards the community, funders, and decision-makers and all stakeholders about what needs to be done and what not.

Consumers’ decision-making process

The collaboration of Dyesol with Tata Steel and Pilkington had offered a potential mechanism to leverage the DSC technology. It also imposed some risk that the Tata chemical business would gradually learn to reverse engineer Dyesol’s products, and identify ways to circumvent its patents (Sony struggles to remain creative, 2004). In that case, it may find itself to have a lengthy and expensive litigation battle against an opponent. Under the collaboration deal with Pilkington, both the firms have created a joint venture named DyeTec Solar. This would use the DSC coating of Dyesol upon the architectural glass for creating photovoltaic functionality (Otubanjo, PhD et al., n.d.). The new coated sheet-glass solar panels were never used earlier within the commercial market. Hence it led to high market uncertainty (Uggla and Verick, 2008). Managers within the firm felt that instead of emphasizing on large ventured projects which would require considerable time as well as investment upon Dyesol’s part, the firm must emphasize instead upon liberally licensing technology to various manufacturers who can incorporate DSC into their products.

Conclusion:

Thus from the above discussion, some important ideas may be concluded with respect to business and technology environment. As interpreted from the case scenario, the most significant factors which influenced consumers within their decision for supporting either Blu-ray or HD_DVD comprised of technical differences, size of the installed base, and that of complementary goods. To support any one of the given standards, from the perspective of a consumer, may be referred to as buying a Blu-ray or an HD-DVD player. When the war had started among the two leading innovations, the retailers were left affected as well as they got stuck with unwanted inventory in Betamax players as well as movies (Otubanjo, PhD et al., n.d.). The severe threat of another innovative format war had resulted several retailers as well as consumers to delay their purchases of the latest players while they waited to witness if the market would go in favor of a winner. Some of the factors that influenced the retailers are that of the uncertainty that prevailed with the arrival of new technologies.

With collaboration with external factors, it becomes easier for the Dyesol business to establish itself potentially along with low start-up cost. Increased amount of capital is available with joint partnerships. In terms of business collaborations, the liability of partners for business debts is unlimited. The partnership renders each of the partners to be liable for the debts of the partnership (Panda, Pangtey and Sony, 2003). Each party would be liable for their share as well as that of the partnership. A risk of disagreements as well as conflict exists amidst partners as well as management. On collaborating with external partners, Dyesol would be liable for each and every action of the external partner. The challenge for the firm is to gather fund for conducting various projects. This may be one of the advantages of collaboration with external partners. Effective partnerships with loyal shareholder base may enable the firm to get sufficient funds for its accomplishments. Collaborations with external factors would create opportunities amidst potential strategic investors.

The collaboration of Dyesol with Tata Steel and Pilkington had offered a potential mechanism to leverage the DSC technology. It also imposed some risk that the Tata chemical business would gradually learn to reverse engineer Dyesol’s products, and identify ways to circumvent its patents. In that case, it may find itself to have a lengthy and expensive litigation battle against an opponent. Under the collaboration deal with Pilkington, both the firms have created a joint venture named DyeTec Solar (Petronio and Colacino, 2008). This would use the DSC coating of Dyesol upon the architectural glass for creating photovoltaic functionality.

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