Attention Economics: From a Cultural Phenomenon to a Business Paradigm

John Hagel has a terrific post on “The Economics of Attention,” a must-read for anyone who’s interested in the genesis of this concept. Hagel revisits the seminal thinkers, starting with Nobel prize winner Herbert Simon, who in an 1971 article was the first to grasp the economical implications of “attention,” long before “attention economy” became such a buzzword. Michael Goldhaber developed this theme further in his article "The Attention Economy and the Net," published in 1997. Shortly thereafter, the first popular, albeit not very scientific book was written by Georg Franck, an Austrian professor of city planning who approached the subject from a more socio-cultural perspective (“The Economy of Attention”). Then, in 2001, Tom Davenport and John C. Beck wrote “The Attention Economy: Understanding the New Currency of Business.” Hagel considers it a good yet insufficient start as “it focused much more on management techniques rather than taking on the task of mapping out a more systematic view of attention economics.” The latest in this series of attention books, “The Economics of Attention: Style and Substance in the Age of Information” by Richard Lanham, does not fully satisfy Hagel’s expectations either: While it attempts to provide the first comprehensive overview of the subject, a “systematic exposition of the economics of attention” remains lacking, as Hagel notes.

Hope is on the way: Michael Goldhaber is working on a long-planned book about attention and has published first drafts online. Hagel likes what he sees: “Goldhaber is close to viewing attention as a flow, rather than a stock – something that must continually be refreshed, if it is to be maintained. One can only continue to attract full attention if one offers something new along the way.” This is a good point – attention is an event, not a commodity.

Why should all this matter to today’s business leaders? First, mastering the management techniques required to yield a return on attention will become increasingly important not only with regards to customers but also for employees and business partners. To this effect, the set of attention-grabbing tools and techniques will be further formalized, and it will likely be applied far beyond the traditional realms of media and advertising. Second, and perhaps more importantly, the attention economy has begun to move from a mere phenomenon that one can study to a paradigm that drives entirely new business models, products, and services, based on the act of trading with the scarce resource itself: The Attention Trust comes to mind or the Attention Company with its Attention Map and Attention Meter, to name but a few.

The daunting challenge remains to consolidate both of these aspects into an overarching economic theory that is not just a toy for marketing gurus but a core component of future business school curricula. That requires paying more attention to the (quantitative) details of attention and building a set of metrics suited to capture its business impact.