E-Commerce

In the USA Today  article titled “‘First Mover Advantage’ No Longer an Advantage,” Cyberspeak columnist Kevin Maney discusses the implications of being a first mover company in e-commerce. The article can be found by following the link below:

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/2001-07-18-maney.htm (Links to an external site.)

Discussion questions:

1) What are some other examples of industries where externalities have a significant presence?

2) Although standardization is necessary in order to fully reap the benefits a winner-take-all industry often give rise to monopolistic tendencies, such as the case of Microsoft. Are there some cases where it is more beneficial to consumers to have standardized products than a competitive market structure? What would be the costs and benefits of a lack of competition in such industries? Explain.

Please have a minimum of 500 words.