Scalability and Business Outcomes: Essays on Managing Trade-Offs when Fringe Technologies go Mainstream

This dissertation consists of three essays that study problems that decision-makers face when hitherto niche technologies scale up. Typically, scaling up involves market expansion with participation from a variety of agents with complex preferences, using the technology to maximize their utility. A major problem for the decision maker then is either one or a combination of the following: deciding policy for optimal business or social outcomes, implementing effcient demand allocation mechanisms or improving market design.