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    Technological diffusion with social learning

    Kapur, Sandeep (1995) Technological diffusion with social learning. Journal of Industrial Economics 43 (2), pp. 173-195. ISSN 0022-1821.

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    Abstract

    This paper attributes the slow diffusion of innovations to an informational externality in the process of their adoption. When a new technology arrives its profitability is uncertain but each firm can learn progressively through observing the adoption experience of other firms. Given this prospect of social learning, every firm would prefer that other firms adopt before it does because this enables a better-informed adoption decision. In the absence of explicit coordination, the firms could end up in a sequence of waiting contests; this results in staggered adoptions even when all firms are ex-ante identical. The pace of diffusion is determined endogenously in this model and shown to depend on the characteristics of the innovation and of the learning process.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Article
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Business and Law > Birkbeck Business School
    Depositing User: Sarah Hall
    Date Deposited: 07 Jul 2020 09:57
    Last Modified: 02 Aug 2023 18:00
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/32472

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