Abstract
The diffusion of a technological advance is seldom smooth. Typically, some users hesitate to adopt a new technology until others have done so. And even when a new technology is adopted, different early users often choose distinct and perhaps incompatible versions of the new technology—either because these users differ in some relevant way, or just because they see no compelling need to standardize and therefore almost accidentally diverge.
Farrell thanks the Hoover Institution and the National Science Foundation for financial support. Shapiro thanks the National Science Foundation, the John M. Olin Foundation, and the Sloan Foundation for financial support. This paper was begun while Shapiro was a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences.
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Farrell, J., Shapiro, C. (1994). The Dynamics of Bandwagons. In: Friedman, J.W. (eds) Problems of Coordination in Economic Activity. Recent Economic Thought Series, vol 35. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-1398-4_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-1398-4_8
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