Product Introduction with Network Externalities

Abstract

The authors study the introduction of a new product in a market with network externalities. There is a common presumption that such markets exhibit excess inertia, i.e., that they are biased toward existing products. In contrast, the authors provide conditions under which equilibrium involves insufficient friction, i.e., a tendency to rush into new, incompatible technologies. They also analyze the firms' incentives to make their products compatible and they show that the firm introducing the new technology is biased against compatibility. Copyright 1992 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.