---
title: "The Hart asset at the heart of your organisation"
author: "Davidson, S.; Berg, C.; Potts, J."
date: "2020-11-27"
url: "https://chrisberg.org/2020/11/the-hart-asset-at-the-heart-of-your-organisation/"
type: "Working papers"
published_in: "Working paper, SSRN"
doi: "10.2139/ssrn.3738418"
pdf: "https://chrisberg.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/SSRN-id3738418.pdf"
topics: "Productivity and innovation"
---

# The Hart asset at the heart of your organisation

*With Sinclair Davidson and Jason Potts*

**Abstract:**What assets does a firm need to hold to develop a profitable business model? A ‘Hart asset’ is an asset that a firm cannot strategically afford a rival firm to own or control due to the risk of hold up, and therefore must be held within the firm, and upon which a profitable business model can be built. We tie the Hart asset to the problem of complementarities in profitable innovation, and conclude with an example Hart asset in digital platforms.

Available in [PDF](https://chrisberg.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/SSRN-id3738418.pdf) and at [SSRN](https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3738418)