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Published by: Harvard Business Publishing
Originally published in: 1997
Version: 17 April 1997
Length: 14 pages
Data source: Published sources

Abstract

Describes the United Kingdom credit card industry in the late 1980s, which was really three businesses: a cashless transaction business for merchants, a cashless transaction business for card holders, and a credit business for card holders. At the time of the case, overall profitability has dropped significantly. Added value analysis is used to identify that one of the three businesses is unlikely to remain profitable (cashless transactions for merchants). With this loss of profitability, the case then considers how to limit the losses in the one business that had already been unprofitable (cashless transactions for card holders). This latter step is a problem in interactive decision theory in which players have different perceptions about the game, and these perceptions, in turn, may be influenced by each other.
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Abstract

Describes the United Kingdom credit card industry in the late 1980s, which was really three businesses: a cashless transaction business for merchants, a cashless transaction business for card holders, and a credit business for card holders. At the time of the case, overall profitability has dropped significantly. Added value analysis is used to identify that one of the three businesses is unlikely to remain profitable (cashless transactions for merchants). With this loss of profitability, the case then considers how to limit the losses in the one business that had already been unprofitable (cashless transactions for card holders). This latter step is a problem in interactive decision theory in which players have different perceptions about the game, and these perceptions, in turn, may be influenced by each other.

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