Small Businesses and Diffusion through Networks
This article describes what happens when
“a culture is driven by the need for money to make more money.”
Families and small businesses are charged increasingly much to stay
in their communities due to investors and developers. As they leave,
they are replaced by those that can pay the upkeep costs, businesses that
make money for the sake of making more money. The author points out that
this phenomena happens in other industries and areas – Ticketmaster owns 80%
of the concert industry, and in technology, it is exceedingly difficult to
break into the industry.
To avoid this hollowing of culture, the author gives two rules for small
businesses: “Don’t sell out” and “be idealistic.” Both of these make sense in the
context of Chapter 19. Refusal to concede a hold on customers, no matter
how few, keeps the business alive, even if their only customers are the small
cluster of nodes surrounded by those that subscribe to larger companies.
The second rule is a method to lower the threshold of conversion (q) in hopes
of growing beyond that small cluster by remaining principled. Despite the
overwhelming opposition that large companies pose, it should be possible for small
businesses to grow in this way.