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The Review of Economics and Statistics Vol. 77 No. 4 1995

Competing Compatibility Standards and Network Externalities in the PC Software Market

Neil Gandal

Abstract

This paper is an empirical study of the value of four file compatibility standards for transferring data in the personal computer software market. The results are that only the LOTUS file compatibility standard is significant in explaining price variations and it is significant in both the spreadsheet and database management system markets. This supports the hypothesis that the personal computer software market exhibits complementary network externalities.

DOI
10.2307/2109809
Volume
77
Issue
4
Pages
599
Sources
crossref openalex

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