Resumen de The impact of direct and indirect network effects in multi-market new product diffusion.
Antonio Ladrón de Guevara Martínez, William P. Putsis
In this study, we address how direct and indirect network effects — both within and across countries — influence new product diffusion. We do so from two perspectives – that of the growth dynamics over time and via the overall market potential, which is allowed to vary across time and countries.
Empirically, we use a comprehensive data set that covers the diffusion of PCs and the Internet over two decades – from 1981 to 2005 – and across 19 countries. Using the proposed methodology, we are able to empirically disentangle the impact of local direct network effects from foreign (cross-country) direct network effects from indirect (crossproduct) network effects. Further, we are able to decompose and assess the relative contribution of each to the overall diffusion process on a country-by-county basis and see how each influence varies over time, across products and across countries. We find convincing evidence for a) the existence of asymmetric indirect network effects, b) differences across what is observed locally (i.e., within country) versus internationally (i.e., across countries), and c) a change in the composition of the network effects over time that varies from country-to-country.
