Inside the Mobile Economy with Anindya Ghose

What happens when we tap or swipe on your phone? According to industry estimates: Only some 3 and a half trillion dollars of economic value added – about 4.5% of global GDP. Welcome to the mobile economy.

And if you want to understand this massive and growing engine of global economic growth, there is perhaps no better tour guide than Anindya Ghose.

Anindya is the Heinz Riehl Chair Professor of Business at New York University's Leonard N. Stern School of Business. He is also the author of the important and engaging new book, Tap: Unlocking the Mobile Economy.

But after talking with Anindya, if I were to retitle his book, I’d likely make it: The power of a curious mind. Since beginning his studies and research, Anindya has focused relentlessly on the mobile economy – on understanding what he calls “the two-way exchange” that benefits both customers and business.

Through research, case studies, and a distinct sense of humanness and humility, Ghose identifies nine forces that shape consumer behavior – time, crowdedness, trajectory, weather, and more – and he examines how they work individually and together. In his own words, Ghose “highlights the true influence mobile wields over shoppers, the behavioral and economic motivations behind that influence, and the lucrative opportunities it represents.”