This case shows how advancements in technology can render traditional business models obsolete. For example, Microsoft destroyed about half the value created by Britannica. In tum, Wikipedia moved away from Britannica's and Microsoft's proprietary business models to an open$-$source model powered by user$-$generated content and available to anyone on the Internet, destroying Encarta's business, with Microsoft shut down in $2009.$ Wikipedia created substantial benefits for users by shifting to the open$-$source model for content; by driving the price for the end user to zero and making the information instantly accessible on the Internet, there is no future for printed or CD$-$based encyclopedias.

a$.$ What are the general take$-$aways in regards to innovation as driver of competition?

b$.$ How can existing firms respond to disruptions in their industry?

The founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, is a social entrepreneur. Raised in Alabama, Wales was educated by his mother and grandmother who ran a nontraditional school. In $1994,$ he dropped out of a doctoral program in economics at Indiana University to take a job at a stock brokerage firm in Chicago. In the evenings he wrote computer code for fun and built a web browser. During the late $1990$s Internet boom, Wales was one of the first to grasp the power of an open$-$source method to provide knowledge on a very large scale. What differentiates Jimmy Wales from other web entrepreneurs is his idealism: Wikipedia is free for the end user and supports itself solely by donations. Jimmy Wales' idealism is a form of social entrepreneurship: His vision is to make the entire repository of human knowledge available to anyone, anywhere for free.

a$.$ If you were the founder of Wikipedia, would you want to monetize the business?

b$.$ What are the pros and cons of for$-$profit vs$.$ non$-$profit business?

This case shows how advancements in technology can render traditional business models obsolete. For example, Microsoft destroyed about half the value created by Britannica. In tum, Wikipedia moved away from Britannica's and Microsoft's proprietary business models to an open$-$source model powered by user$-$generated content and available to anyone on the Internet, destroying Encarta's business, with Microsoft shut down in $2009.$ Wikipedia created substantial benefits for users by shifting to the open$-$source model for content; by driving the price for the end user to zero and making the information instantly accessible on the Internet, there is no future for printed or CD$-$based encyclopedias.

a$.$ What are the general take$-$aways in regards to innovation as driver of competition?

b$.$ How can existing firms respond to disruptions in their industry?

The founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, is a social entrepreneur. Raised in Alabama, Wales was educated by his mother and grandmother who ran a nontraditional school. In $1994,$ he dropped out of a doctoral program in economics at Indiana University to take a job at a stock brokerage firm in Chicago. In the evenings he wrote computer code for fun and built a web browser. During the late $1990$ s Internet boom, Wales was one of the first to grasp the power of an open$-$source method to provide knowledge on a very large scale. What differentiates Jimmy Wales from other web entrepreneurs is his idealism: Wikipedia is free for the end user and supports itself solely by donations. Jimmy Wales? idealism is a form of social entrepreneurship: His vision is to make the entire repository of human knowledge available to anyone, anywhere for free.

a$.$ If you were the founder of Wikipedia, would you want to monetize the business?

b$.$ What are the pros and cons of for$-$profit vs$.$ non$-$profit business?