In Economics, a Diseconomy of Scale happens when a company has grown so large that its costs per unit will start to increase. Thus, losing the benefits of scale. That can happen due to several factors arising as a company scales. From coordination issues to management inefficiencies and lack of proper communication flows.
Contents
- Difference between economies and diseconomies of scale
- Examples of diseconomies of scale
- Diseconomies of scale in the digital business world
- Diseconomies of Scale and Negative Network Effects
- Reverse network effects, congestion, and when platforms scale too quickly
- Key takeaways
- Connected Economic Concepts
Difference between economies and diseconomies of scale
In Economics, Economies of Scale is a theory for which, as companies grow, they gain cost advantages.
More precisely, companies manage to benefit from these cost advantages as they grow, due to increased efficiency in production.
Thus, as companies scale and increase production, a subsequent decrease in the costs associated with it will help the organization scale further and more efficiently.
Diseconomies of Scale represent the opposite phenomenon instead.
Where a company has grown too large, the cost per unit increases, thus making the firm no longer able to benefit from its achieved scale.
Diseconomies of Scale and Negative Network Effects
While Diseconomies of Scale might affect linear businesses.
There is a distinction to make with platform businesses.
Indeed, platform business models follow a different logic compared to linear business.
As a platform business model, the main asset is its network, which makes it possible for thousands of consumers and producers to connect, interact, transact, and exchange.
Those platforms can scale quickly and efficiently (provided they can kick off these network effects and pass through the cold start problem).
Thus, they might manage to grab close to total market shares, compared to linear businesses, that instead are affected by the Diseconomies of Scale as they grow.
That’s how the story goes. But is this true?
It’s true that, in part, digital business models might get close to gaining majority shares in a market.
But it’s also true that barriers to entry in the digital business world might be easier to wreck apart.
In short, while Diseconomies of Scale might affect linear businesses, platform business models might not be immune to that!
Reverse network effects, congestion, and when platforms scale too quickly
While many attributes to platforms’ business models the ability to scale at an indefinite level, in reality, also platforms enjoy negative consequences of scale, which are called reverse or negative network effects.

The two classic examples of negative network effects are:
Just like diseconomies of scale take hold of more traditional, physical businesses.
Reverse network effects can create substantial damage to platforms.
Take the case, of a platform that scales so quickly with user-generated content, that as it scales the risk of generating bad content at scale grows exponentially.
There is a threshold where this becomes a real problem and the platform itself might actually collapse!
Key takeaways
- In economics, economies of scale are achieved when companies can enjoy a higher degree of efficiency, and lowest structural costs as they scale.
- Reached a threshold of scale, diseconomies of scale might kick in, and perhaps size rather be an advantage it becomes a risk factor and inefficient. This is what happens when economies of scale kick in.
- In the digital world, there is a similar effect thanks to network effects that enable platforms to scale in size.
- While many think that platforms business models are immune to scale, and they can grow indefinitely. In reality, also for platform business models, negative network effects can kick in, thus causing a platform to lose value, if not collapse on its own reversed network effects.
Connected Economic Concepts

Positive and Normative Economics


































Main Free Guides: