1st Edition
The Routledge Companion to Network Industries
In recent decades, network industries around the world have gone through periods of de- and re-regulation. With vast amounts of sometimes conflicting research carried out into specific network industries, the time has come for a critical over-arching assessment of this entire industry in order to provide a platform of understanding to aid future research and practice.
This comprehensive resource provides an orientation for academics, policy makers and managers as to the main economic, regulatory and commercial challenges in the network industries. The book is split into sections covering market, policy, regulation, management perspectives, whilst all of the key network industries are covered, including energy, transport, water and telecommunications.
Overseen by world-class Editors and experts in the field, this inter-disciplinary resource is essential reading for students and researchers in international business, industrial economics and the industries.
1. Introduction Part I: The market and industry perspective 2. Telecommunication networks: Technology and market development 3. Postal sector development between digitization and regulation 4. New developments in electricity markets following large-scale integration of renewable energy 5 Natural gas: A tale of three markets 6. Current trends in the global maritime transport sector 7. The evolving global railway industry 8. The evolving global air transport industry 9. Urban public transport 10. The evolving global water industry Part II: The policy and regulatory perspective 11. Electronic communications policy and regulation in Europe 12. Policy and regulations in the postal sector 13. The future of electricity network regulation: The policy perspective 14. The construction of a European gas market: Network investment under virtual trading 15. Policy and regulatory perspectives on shipping 16. European rail policy and regulation 17. Policy and regulation of air transport: The European experience 18. Local public transport 19. Economic regulation of water utilities: The US framework Part III: The strategy and management perspective 20. Innovative and disruptive effects of the Internet on strategy in the communications and media markets 21. Governance and strategies in the postal sector 22. Electricity distribution utilities and the future: More than just wires 23. Strategic challenges in the natural gas market 24. Maritime transport company strategies: How to be sustainable in the future 25. Developments in the European railway sector: Challenges for railway service providers 26. Airport structure, strategy and performance: A review 27. Strategic challenges in urban transport 28. Innovation and public management: Comparing dynamic capabilities in two Swiss wastewater utilities 29. Conclusion
Biography
Matthias Finger holds the Swiss Post Chair in Management of Network Industries at EPFL, Switzerland. He is also the Director of the Florence School of Regulation's Transport Area in Florence, Italy.
Christian Jaag is Managing Partner at Swiss Economics and Lecturer in Economics at the Universities of St Gallen and Zürich as well as at EPFL, Switzerland.
'This is a time of critical transformation for infrastructure industries with profound implications for relevant networks and underlying market design. This book provides a rare and systematic overview about the recent evolution of the different network industries and includes case studies, insights and perspectives - a treasure for all those concerned by the future of our infrastructure networks.' - Christoph Frei, Secretary General, World Energy Council
'Network industries constitute the physical presence of past development. They provide the contemporary infrastructure for future value creation. Modern technology and global economics lump together former vastly different industrial sectors in the emergence of new service systems and innovative enterprises. This book provides a unique and comprehensive overview. It pairs functional development to underlying principles, crossovers and dynamics. It asks what is to be done about it in terms of policy, management and regulation. This book constitutes a standard and indispensable reference for understanding the complexities of modern strategic infrastructure development.' - Theo Toonen, Dean, Faculty of Behavioral, Management and Social Science and Professor, University of Twente, The Netherlands
'All over the world, network industries have undergone profound transformations as a result of their liberalization since the late 1980s. This unique publication documents this transformation in the nine main infrastructure sectors. In the process, it analyzes the details of the changes at the industry, policy and firm level in quite a pedagogical way. It is probably the most systematic, self-contained and up-to-date overview of network industry transformation currently available.' - Antonio Estache, Professor, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
