Economic Entanglement

Inventors need manufacturers who require operators. The fate of each depends largely on the others. If just one player fails, an entire enterprise could sink; this is economic entanglement.

Such arrangements are highly intermeshed. Revenue to the inventor, 2, is a cost to the manufacturer, who pays license, technical development, and royalty fees to gain access to technology, 1. After a manufacturer finishes development and begins production, it wins sales, and their revenue from that, 3, is a cost to operators who buy it.

An operator may agree to pay for part of the manufacturer’s development costs to be among the first to gain access to the latest tech. Once it begins to receive and use the new products, it earns revenue from its users, 4.

Key to the success of such operations is satisfactory financial metrics, 5 and 6, as determined by each participant’s performance and Return On Investment (ROI) parameters to which the parties agree, 1. In this case, under the Manufacturer Costs & Loan, we see their build costs have ballooned to 200% of their original prediction, which might sink the program, if not for exercising a significant portion (87.3%) of an available USG grant.

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