Peer-reviewed· Finance

Valuing Firms When the Model Is the Moat

We propose a valuation adjustment for companies whose competitive advantage rests on proprietary machine-learning systems.

Prof. Daniel WeissETH Zürich22 min readDOI 10.5555/bpj.2026.131
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For more than a decade, executives have been told that the next platform, the next suite of tools, or the next wave of automation would finally lift productivity. The evidence assembled here suggests a more uncomfortable reading: the technology rarely fails on its own terms. What fails is the organisational scaffolding around it.

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