Title: Learning the unlearnt lessons: the telecoms crash

Authors: Jacqueline Kam

Addresses: School of Economics, Finance and Management, University of Bristol, 8 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1TN, UK

Abstract: Unlike the conspicuous burst of the dotcom bubble, the telecoms crash came quietly, but turned out to be bigger and more catastrophic. This paper reflects upon the boom and bust of the telecommunications industry from the late 1990s to the early 2000s, and seeks to understand it with the insights from behavioural economics. It argues that fundamentally it is about decision making under uncertainty with bounded rationality and imperfect information. The similar human foibles behind the telecoms crash and other economic bubbles offer insights for executives, specialists, regulators and government policymakers to approach the coming challenges in this fast-changing industry.

Keywords: telecoms crash; technological change; decision making; uncertainty; bounded rationality; economic bubbles; imperfect information; telecommunications industry; failure; behavioural economics.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTIP.2007.013037

International Journal of Technology Intelligence and Planning, 2007 Vol.3 No.1, pp.39 - 56

Published online: 05 Apr 2007 *

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