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Avoiding Market Dominance: Product Compatibility in Markets with Network Effects

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Author Info
Jiawei Chen
Ulrich Doraszelski
Joseph E. Harrington, Jr.
Abstract

As is well-recognized, market dominance is a typical outcome in markets with network effects. A firm with a larger installed base others a more attractive product which induces more consumers to buy its product which produces a yet bigger installed base advantage. Such a setting is investigated here but with the main difference that firms have the option of making their products compatible. When firms have similar installed bases, they make their products compatible in order to expand the market. Nevertheless, random forces could result in one firm having a bigger installed base in which case the larger firm may make its product incompatible. We find that strategic pricing tends to prevent the installed base differential from expanding to the point that incompatibility occurs. This pricing dynamic is able to neutralize increasing returns and avoid the emergence of market dominance.

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Paper provided by The Johns Hopkins University,Department of Economics in its series Economics Working Paper Archive with number 537.

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Date of creation: Sep 2008
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Handle: RePEc:jhu:papers:537

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  1. repec:fth:coluec:716 is not listed on IDEAS
  2. Joseph Farrell & Garth Saloner, 1985. "Standardization, Compatibility, and Innovation," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 16(1), pages 70-83, Spring. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  3. Katz, Michael L & Shapiro, Carl, 1986. "Product Compatibility Choice in a Market with Technological Progress," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 38(0), pages 146-65, Suppl. No. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Farrell, Joseph & Saloner, Garth, 1992. "Converters, Compatibility, and the Control of Interfaces," Journal of Industrial Economics, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 40(1), pages 9-35, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  5. Cabral, Luis M B & Riordan, Michael H, 1994. "The Learning Curve, Market Dominance, and Predatory Pricing," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 62(5), pages 1115-40, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. Choi, Jay Pil, 1997. "The Provision of (Two-Way) Converters in the Transition Process to a New Incompatible Technology," Journal of Industrial Economics, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 45(2), pages 139-53, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Farrell, Joseph & Klemperer, Paul, 2006. "Coordination and Lock-In: Competition with Switching Costs and Network Effects," CEPR Discussion Papers 5798, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. David Besanko & Ulrich Doraszelski, 2004. "Capacity Dynamics and Endogenous Asymmetries in Firm Size," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 35(1), pages 23-49, Spring.
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  9. Gerard Llobet & Michael Manove, 2006. "Network Size and Network Capture," Boston University - Department of Economics - Working Papers Series WP2006-007, Boston University - Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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  10. Matthew Mitchell & Andrzej Skrzypacz, 2006. "Network externalities and long-run market shares," Economic Theory, Springer, vol. 29(3), pages 621-648, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  11. Choi, Jay Pil, 1996. "Do converters facilitate the transition to a new incompatible technology? A dynamic analysis of converters," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 14(6), pages 825-835, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  12. Nicholas Economides & Fredrick Flyer, 1997. "Compatibility and Market Structure for Network Goods," Working Papers 98-02, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  13. Ariel Pakes & Paul McGuire, 1994. "Computing Markov-Perfect Nash Equilibria: Numerical Implications of a Dynamic Differentiated Product Model," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 25(4), pages 555-589, Winter. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  14. Katz, Michael L & Shapiro, Carl, 1985. "Network Externalities, Competition, and Compatibility," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(3), pages 424-40, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  15. Katz, Michael L & Shapiro, Carl, 1986. "Technology Adoption in the Presence of Network Externalities," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(4), pages 822-41, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  1. Doraszelski, Ulrich & Satterthwaite, Mark, 2007. "Computable Markov-Perfect Industry Dynamics: Existence, Purification, and Multiplicity," CEPR Discussion Papers 6212, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Ulrich Doraszelski & Mark Satterthwaite, 2007. "Computable Markov-Perfect Industry Dynamics: Existence, Purification, and Multiplicity," Levine's Bibliography 321307000000000912, UCLA Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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