The Attention Economy

The Attention Economy

by Thomas H. Davenport, John C. Beck
Released April 2001
Publisher(s): Harvard Business Review Press
ISBN: 9781422160800

Read it now on the O’Reilly learning platform with a 10-day free trial.

O’Reilly members get unlimited access to books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.

Start your free trial

Book description

In today's information-flooded world, the scarcest resource is not ideas or even talent: it's attention. In this groundbreaking book, Thomas Davenport and John Beck argue that unless companies learn to effectively capture, manage, and keep it--both internally and out in the marketplace--they'll fall hopelessly behind.

In The Attention Economy, the authors also outline four perspectives on managing attention in all areas of business:
1) measuring attention
2) understanding the psychobiology of attention
3) using attention technologies to structure and protect attention
4) adapting lessons from traditional attention industries like advertising.

Drawing from exclusive global research, the authors show how a few pioneering organizations are turning attention management into a potent competitive advantage and recommend what attention-deprived companies should do to avoid losing employees, customers, and market share. A landmark work on the twenty-first century's new critical competency, this book is for every manager who wants to learn how to earn and spend the new currency of business.

Table of contents

  1. JOB #: 169614
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Table of Contents
  5. PREFACE
  6. CHAPTER 1 - A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON BUSINESS
    1. Information Glut
    2. Objects of Our Attention
    3. Internal Attention Markets
    4. New Lens
  7. CHAPTER 2 - ATTENTION, THE STORY SO FAR
    1. Mixed Messages
    2. Our Definition
    3. Beyond Advertising
    4. Bull’s-Eye
    5. Combinations
    6. One and Many
    7. Structural Distribution
    8. Blinding Flash
    9. Compensation Calculus
    10. Billionaires and Paupers
    11. Niggling
  8. CHAPTER 3 - DOING A NUMBER ON YOU,
    1. A Brief History
    2. The AttentionScape
    3. The AttentionScape as a Predictor
    4. The Eyes Have It
    5. Brain Waves
    6. Measurement Settings
  9. CHAPTER 4 - FROM AMOEBAS TO APES
    1. Rational Model
    2. The Inner Ape
    3. First Intent
    4. Information Jams
    5. Search Image
    6. Homicide
    7. Bread, Sex, Tsunami
    8. Rank Stress
    9. Laid-Back
    10. A Sacrilege Summary
    11. Primate Training
    12. Crate Training
  10. CHAPTER 5 - LUDDITES BEWARE
    1. Play or Drop Out
    2. Live Action
    3. Customization
    4. Push versus Pull
    5. Environmental Attention Gap
    6. Limits
    7. Scripting
    8. Hypertext
    9. Learning
    10. Simulated Attention
    11. Serendipity
    12. Standard Attention
    13. Silicon Breastplate
    14. E-Mail
    15. Operator?
    16. Small Screen
    17. Media Savvy
    18. The Trade-Off
  11. CHAPTER 6 - THE HIDDEN PERSUADERS
    1. Zero-Sum Audience
    2. Crossing Over
    3. Content Providers
    4. Simulated Reality
    5. Open Mouths
    6. Barometer
    7. Intuition
    8. Short Stories
    9. Funnier, Younger, Prettier
    10. Safely Hooked
    11. In My Backyard
    12. Celebrity Memoir
    13. New, Improved, Free—and Often
    14. Abhor a Vacuum
    15. Refreshing Fun
    16. Curtain Call
  12. CHAPTER 7 - EYEBALLS AND CYBER MALLS
    1. Metrics
    2. Relevance
    3. Engagement
    4. Community
    5. Convenience
    6. Hurdles
    7. E-Commerce Attention Economics
    8. Fifty Seconds
    9. Free Money?
    10. Click Off
  13. CHAPTER 8 - COMMAND PERFORMANCE
    1. Trickle-Down
    2. Can’t Fool ’Em
    3. The Right Stuff
    4. Vanity Mirror
    5. Don’t Fuss
    6. Fido on Prozac
    7. Contagion
    8. Repositioning
    9. Stodgy
    10. Bursting Through
  14. CHAPTER 9 - FOCUSED CHOICES
    1. Abstractions
    2. Democratic Versions
    3. Adjusting
    4. Broadcasting and Scanning
    5. Gathering Dust
    6. Going Global
    7. Well-Traveled
    8. Adversary
    9. Careful Aim
    10. Complex Global
    11. Optimized Global
    12. Applied Global
    13. Benefits and Costs
    14. Diminished Understanding
  15. CHAPTER 10 - OFF THE ORG CHART
    1. The Big M
    2. Process Management
    3. Tech Clubs
    4. The Downstream
    5. 158 Initiatives
    6. Big Dog
    7. Complexity
    8. Eye on the Ball
    9. Nobody Does It Better
    10. Outsourcing Alliances
  16. CHAPTER 11 - “YOU’VE GOT LOTS OF) MAIL”
    1. Scapegoats
    2. Two Hundred Messages
    3. Chronic Information Syndrome
    4. Brain Expansion
    5. Assessing Allocation
    6. Read MY Message
    7. Filter Chip
    8. Managing Knowledge Flow
    9. Distraction Shields
    10. The Routine Route
    11. Teacher Shortage
    12. No Silver Bullet
  17. CHAPTER 12 - FROM MYOPIA TO UTOPIA
    1. Tech Apace
    2. Policies, Manners, Mores
    3. Everyday Life
    4. Giving It Away
    5. Business Life
    6. Domestic Front
    7. Education
    8. Economic Life
  18. NOTES
  19. INDEX
  20. ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Product information

  • Title: The Attention Economy
  • Author(s): Thomas H. Davenport, John C. Beck
  • Release date: April 2001
  • Publisher(s): Harvard Business Review Press
  • ISBN: 9781422160800