CINECA IRIS Institutional Research Information System

Herd behaviour, strategic complementarities and technology adoption

In technology adoption, herd behaviour can lead to a suboptimal outcome. An example is given by Choi (1997): it is a model of technology choice under uncertainty where herding arises because of strategic complementarities and risk aversion. It causes a positive experimenting bias against the adoption of a more efficient (in terms of expected value) technology. We introduce in his model an additional element upon which firms base their technology decision: the economic environment. We investi...

Incentives to innovate in oligopolies

Compatibility choice in vertically differentiated technologies

We analyse firms' incentives to provide two-way compatibility between two network goods with different intrinsic qualities. We study how the relative importance of vertical differentiation with respect to the network effect influences the price competition as well as the compatibility choice. The final degree of compatibility allows firms to manipulate the overall differentiation. Under weak network effect, full compatibility may arise: the low quality firm has higher incentives to offer it i...

Spots of Time: Lectures on the English Literary Tradition (Vol.I)

This volume is a collection of’ of critical literary essays on eleven writers, and aims both to make a contribution to the study of English literature, and to offer a concise survey of the question of literary understanding. It approaches this question in a specific and systematic way, considering texts capable of speaking to all ages, capable of telling each one of us something important about ourselves. Spots of Time: Lectures on the English Literary Tradition is recommended for students...