Entry strategies - a challenge to conventional wisdom
Résumé
Conventional wisdom has it that successful market entry depends on market preemption and first-mover advantage. Such 'pioneering' is seen by many managers as enabling a company to achieve greater scale economies and larger market shares than so-called 'followers', leading to a virtuous circle of cost reduction and burgeoning market power. Most recently, for example, the approach has seemed to be working in industries exhibiting network externalities: the phenomenon whereby volumes increase rapidly as a result of direct and indirect connections between customers.