Too Many Complementors? Evidence on Software Developers

Kevin Boudreau

Working Papers from HAL

Abstract: It is often presumed there are benefits from growing numbers of buyers and sellers around a platform, or "network effects." While the benefits of more buyers are self-evident, the effects of ever-increasing numbers of sellers of complementary goods ("complementors") perhaps deserve closer scrutiny. This paper uses point-of-sale data on a textbook example, large numbers of software developers around mobile computing platforms, to show that entry beyond several hundred software firms in fact led to reduced rates of new software development. Platform strategies emphasizing careful regulation of complementor entry would have led to more and possibly better software.

Keywords: Platforms; licensing; network effects; organizing for innovation; market structure and innovation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007-01
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Published in 2007

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-00597766

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