Understanding dynamic competitive technology diffusion in electronic markets

Abstract

The extant literature on information technology (IT) diffusion has largely treated technology diffusion as a generic and independent process. This study, in contrast, examines the diffusion of different IT products with brand differentiation and competition. Drawing upon existing theories of product diffusion, we propose a research model to capture the dynamics of the competitive diffusion of web-based IT products and validate it with longitudinal field data of e-business platforms. Our findings suggest that IT product diffusion can be better predicted by a competitive model than by an independent-diffusion-process model. This research extends IT research to the context of competitive diffusion and provides practitioners an effective model to predict the dissemination of their products. The research also suggests the existence of asymmetric interactions among competing products, prompting scholars and practitioners to pay attention to the influence of competing products when making forecast of their product market. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.