Network Effect and the Late Take-off Phenomenon in the Diffusion of Telecommunication Services

통신 서비스의 늦은 수요확산 현상과 네트워크 효과

Telecommunication services are distinctive in that their adoptions are influenced by network effect resulting in 'the late take-off Phenomenon' and the 'critical mass' problem. In this paper we examined, so called, 'the late take-off phenomenon' in the diffusion process of telecommunication services. We compared the parameters of the diffusion process of consumer durables with those of fax services in the US and Korea. By analyzing the parameters of a new diffusion model based on the threshold model proposed by Markus, We found that 'the late take-off phenomenon' resulted from the low heterogeneity of the threshold distribution for the potential adopters.