Proliferation Under Threat of Entry: Pre-Emptive Investment or "Hopeful Monsters"?.

Proliferation is a strategic behavior which follows various logics: the wish for pre-emption is one of these but does not stand alone. Far from it. However, the literature associates almost systematically the question of proliferation to that of pre-emption, in such a way that the interest in the incumbent's offer of proliferation can only be measured in terms of its pre-emptive power. The decision to proliferate is a choice which must be made by the incumbent before he is aware of the particular characteristics of his future challengers.