Topic 8: Discussion Questions Betamex

1. Betamax (or Beta) was a video recording format developed by Sony in the 1970s. Sony conducted research and found that consumers wanted a high-quality picture when using a Beta cassette with their home recording equipment. Sony developed the technology with video quality in mind and, as a consequence, limited the recording time to only 60 minutes.

At the same time, JVC developed the Video Home System (VHS) but without much consumer research. JVC was more interested in developing a unified standard for broadcast operations. Consequently, they focused more on extending the recording time for their VHS cassettes at the expense of picture quality.

In the end, the VHS format won by eventually squeezing the Beta format out of the market. Discuss the approaches these two companies took in the good decisions/good outcomes context.

2. Suppose you received two job offers when looking for a job, one from Company A and one from Company B. To make a decision, what type of methodology would you use: probabilistic or nonprobabilistic? Whichever you choose, describe the items to consider and the decision rules you would use before deciding which job offer to accept.