Network effects and standards competition introduce significant uncertainty into consumers' new-product adoption decisions, creating a substantial challenge to the success of innovating firms. While the literature has highlighted the importance of establishing a large installed-user base (the...

Consumers’ purchase decisions can be influenced by others’ opinions, i.e., word-of-mouth (WOM), and/or others’ actions, i.e., observational learning. While information technologies are creating increasing opportunities for firms to facilitate/manage these two types of social interaction,...