文章基本信息

标题：Market Leadership Through Technology - Backward Compatibility in the U.S. Handheld Video Game Industry
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作者：Jörg Claussen ; Tobias Kretschmer ; Thomas Spengler 等
期刊名称：CEP Discussion Paper
出版年度：2012
卷号：2012
语种：English
出版社：Centre for Economic Performance
摘要：The introduction of a new product generation forces incumbents in network industries to rebuild their installed base to maintain an advantage over potential entrants. We study if backward compatibility moderates this process of rebuilding an installed base. Using a structural model of the U.S. market for handheld game consoles, we show that backward compatibility lets incumbents transfer network effects from the old generation to the new to some extent but that it also reduces supply of new software. We examine the tradeoff between technological progress and backward compatibility and find that backward compatibility matters less if there is a large technological leap between two generations. We subsequently use our results to assess the role of backward compatibility as a strategy to sustain market leadership.
关键词：backward compatibility;market leadership;network effects;video games;two-sided markets