Final Report Summary - INT DIFF (Explaining international adoption of high-technology products with indirect network effects)
This project studies the international adoption process of high-technology products with indirect network effects. The term indirect network effect refers to the increased utility of a hardware product as the availability of software increases. In turn, the provision of new software products is encouraged as more and more people adopt the hardware product. Examples of such products are personal computers (PCs) and software applications, DVD-players and DVD movies, or smartphones and applications.
The project tries to find an answer to the question why the adoption of high tech products with indirect network effects is much faster in some countries than in others. One could think of many potential explanations, including the economic situation of a country as well as its cultural, political or geographic situation. It is important, however, both for policy makers as for the industry, to get a better understanding of exactly which factors are important. The project proposes a new method that is able to identify the main drivers of the international adoption process. This is challenging from a methodological point of view given the feedback relationship between the hardware adoption and the software provision, and the high-dimensional character of the phenomenon. That is, the project studies the adoption process in an international setting (many countries) and does not want to exclude potential driving factors (many variables).
The first goals of the Marie Curie project was to increase the researcher's familiarity with marketing research, which is different from her previous research in statistics which she did during her Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) diploma. The switch enables her with her strong quantitative background to make a significant contribution to the more applied field of marketing research. The second goal of the Marie Curie project was to achieve personal development of the researcher as a prolific scholar.
During the first year of the project the researcher focused on the action line 'Identifying the most important drivers of new product diffusion in an international setting'. A manuscript based on this research is currently under revision at International Journal of Marketing Research, one of the leading journals in marketing research. During the first year, the researcher also spent much time getting to know the marketing research discipline and the specifics of Bayesian statistics, in particular Bayesian variable selection. Both these training activities have resulted in a manuscript entitled 'Variable selection in new product growth models'. The host institution organises weekly on-campus seminars in marketing research. The researcher actively attended these seminars to get a broader view of the field. The on-campus seminars and conferences she attended also gave her the opportunity to get in contact with internationally recognised scholars. She had the possibility to get to know some of the seminar guests more extensively.
In the second year of the project, building on the variable selection techniques learned in the first year, the researcher developed a new methodology for variable selection in large market response models. The manuscript was submitted to Journal of Marketing Research. During the second year, the researcher learned more about the benefits of variable selection in marketing research and wrote a second manuscript entitled 'Sparse market response modeling'. During the second year the researcher also started working with professors from other universities. She is currently working with Josh Eliashberg from Wharton Business School, Renana Peres from Hebrew University and Ralf van der Lans from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. No corrective actions were needed. The use of resources, based on the researcher's full-time involvement in the project, was according to plan.
The project tries to find an answer to the question why the adoption of high tech products with indirect network effects is much faster in some countries than in others. One could think of many potential explanations, including the economic situation of a country as well as its cultural, political or geographic situation. It is important, however, both for policy makers as for the industry, to get a better understanding of exactly which factors are important. The project proposes a new method that is able to identify the main drivers of the international adoption process. This is challenging from a methodological point of view given the feedback relationship between the hardware adoption and the software provision, and the high-dimensional character of the phenomenon. That is, the project studies the adoption process in an international setting (many countries) and does not want to exclude potential driving factors (many variables).
The first goals of the Marie Curie project was to increase the researcher's familiarity with marketing research, which is different from her previous research in statistics which she did during her Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) diploma. The switch enables her with her strong quantitative background to make a significant contribution to the more applied field of marketing research. The second goal of the Marie Curie project was to achieve personal development of the researcher as a prolific scholar.
During the first year of the project the researcher focused on the action line 'Identifying the most important drivers of new product diffusion in an international setting'. A manuscript based on this research is currently under revision at International Journal of Marketing Research, one of the leading journals in marketing research. During the first year, the researcher also spent much time getting to know the marketing research discipline and the specifics of Bayesian statistics, in particular Bayesian variable selection. Both these training activities have resulted in a manuscript entitled 'Variable selection in new product growth models'. The host institution organises weekly on-campus seminars in marketing research. The researcher actively attended these seminars to get a broader view of the field. The on-campus seminars and conferences she attended also gave her the opportunity to get in contact with internationally recognised scholars. She had the possibility to get to know some of the seminar guests more extensively.
In the second year of the project, building on the variable selection techniques learned in the first year, the researcher developed a new methodology for variable selection in large market response models. The manuscript was submitted to Journal of Marketing Research. During the second year, the researcher learned more about the benefits of variable selection in marketing research and wrote a second manuscript entitled 'Sparse market response modeling'. During the second year the researcher also started working with professors from other universities. She is currently working with Josh Eliashberg from Wharton Business School, Renana Peres from Hebrew University and Ralf van der Lans from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. No corrective actions were needed. The use of resources, based on the researcher's full-time involvement in the project, was according to plan.