Lecture E4 (2022-10-25): Chapter 6, The Dynamics of Growth and Diffusion (Morecroft, 2015)

In this lecture, we cover topics discussed by Morecroft (2015, Chapter 6) on the dynamics of growth and diffusion and relate them to other systems with S-shaped growth that we've seen in the past – a simple fishery model as well as epidemic growth. The main focus of this chapter is on the Bass model of innovation diffusion, which includes a contagion-like word-of-mouth loop (similar to the "SI" in an "SIR" model, or similar to population growth in a fishery) as well as an advertising loop to get the process started (like inoculating a population with its first infectious individuals). We then cover embellishments of the Bass model and do a strategic thinking example on one of those embellishments, which relates to strategy for the entry of easyJet as a low-cost airline into an existing marketplace of major carriers.