Expectations, Network Effects and Timing of Technology Adoption: Some Empirical Evidence from a Sample of SMEs in Italy

Nicoletta Corrocher and Roberto Fontana

No 150, SPRU Working Paper Series from SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School

Abstract: We provide evidence on the influence of expectations and network effects on the timing of technological adoption. By considering a sample of SMEs operating in Italy we focus on the determinants of their decision to adopt Fast Ethernet, a communication standard for Local Area Networks (LANs). We find that both expectations and network effects significantly affect the timing of adoption. In particular, price expectations generally tend to delay adoption and (indirect) network effects in the form of backward compatibility as well as informational spillovers tend to foster adoption. Firm size also matters.

Keywords: diffusion; network effects; expectations; LAN equipment; SMEs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L63 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 pages
Date: 2006-04-19
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ino, nep-net and nep-soc
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Related works:
Journal Article: Expectations, network effects and timing of technology adoption: some empirical evidence from a sample of SMEs in Italy (2008)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sru:ssewps:150

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