TY  - JOUR
AU  - Augereau,Angelique
AU  - Greenstein,Shane
AU  - Rysman,Marc
TI  - Coordination vs. Differentiation in a Standards War: 56K Modems
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 10334
PY  - 2004
Y2  - March 2004
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10334
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10334.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Shane Greenstein
The Elinor and Wendell Hobbs Professor
Kellogg School of Management
Northwestern University
2001 Sheridan Road
Evanston, IL  60208-2013
Tel: 847/467-5672
Fax: 847/467-1777
E-Mail: greenstein@kellogg.northwestern.edu

Marc Rysman
Department of Economics
Boston University
270 Bay State Road
Boston, MA 02215
Tel: 617-353-3086
Fax: 617-353-4449
E-Mail: mrysman@bu.edu
AB  - 56K modems were introduced under two competing incompatible standards. We show the importance of competition between Internet Service Providers in the adoption process. We show that ISPs were less likely to adopt the technology that more competitors adopted. This result is particularly striking given that industry participants expected coordination on one standard or the other. We speculate about the role of ISP differentiation in preventing the market form achieving standardization until a government organization intervened.
ER  -