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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to propose an overarching unifying theory where first-mover advantages are a conditional effect, not a main effect. By offering a closer look at how the firm, market and product characteristics influence the supply and demand of innovations, this research furthers our understanding of the advantages and disadvantages for first movers.Design/methodology/approachThis paper explores first-mover advantages as a conditional effect. Adopting a contingency perspective, the authors review the literature in marketing, strategic management, innovation and entrepreneurship to offer a conceptual framework putting innovation success at the core of first-mover advantages. The authors develop an inventory of propositions specifying how first-mover advantages depend on various firm features, market characteristics and product properties through their effects on the success of innovations.FindingsA conceptual framework centered around innovation success yields testable hypotheses that are coherent with extant research on first-mover advantages and reconcile the seemingly contradictory evidence in that body of work.Practical implicationsThis research provides managers with the opportunity to think about one of the most important decisions, i.e. time of entry, not as a linear finite decision, but instead as a flow with the innovations and potential for their success in mind.Originality/valueThis paper distinguishes itself from the existing literature with its focus on innovation within a contingency perspective for first-mover advantages.

We take advantage of a natural experiment to document an emergence of a new price ending that has the same effects as 9-endings. In January 2014, the Israeli parliament has passed a law prohibiting the use of non 0-ending prices. We find that one year after 9-ending prices have disappeared, 90-ending prices acquired the same status as 9-ending prices had before the law was passed. 90-ending prices became the new psychological price points. The retailers and the shoppers both reacted to the regulatory intervention optimally, which has eliminated the regulation's intended effect.

International audience ; Prices that end with 9, also known as psychological price points, are common, comprising about 70% of the retail prices. They are also more rigid than other prices. We take advantage of a natural experiment to document an emergence of a new price ending that has the same effects as 9-endings. In January 2014, the Israeli government passed a new regulation prohibiting the use of non 0-ending prices, bringing an end to 9-ending prices. We find that seven months after 9-ending prices have disappeared, 90-ending prices acquired the same status as 9-ending prices had before the new regulation was adopted. Thus, 90-ending prices became the new psychological price points, partially eliminating the regulation's intended effect.

AbstractFirms and other entities provide category-level product attribute information via attribute filters and other tools to aid consumers in filtering, evaluating, comparing, and choosing products. This research examines how displaying this information as a range with or without the distribution of values systematically affects judgments involving attribute value comparisons. Specifically, distributions draw attention away from attribute values, reducing the importance of attribute value differences. With this reduced importance, consumers are less sensitive to attribute value differences; thus, consumers evaluate individual products more positively as they seem more similar to the best available option. Likewise, wider bands of attribute values are selected when filtering product options, as the minimum and maximum values chosen seem less different. Reduced sensitivity to differences also has implications for choices involving tradeoffs between attributes. Importantly, the presence of a distribution itself is the primary driver of this effect, more so than distribution type, as the effect is largely independent of the type of distribution displayed (e.g., normal, bimodal, skewed, uniform). Across six main and seven supplemental experiments, this research highlights a novel consideration for how consumers filter options, form preferences, and choose products. These findings have practical implications and highlight important topics for future research.

The Thanksgiving–Christmas holiday period is a major sales period for US retailers. Due to higher store traffic, tasks, such as restocking shelves, handling customers' questions and inquiries, running cash registers, cleaning and bagging, become more urgent during holidays. As a result, the holiday‐period opportunity cost of price adjustment may increase dramatically for retail stores, which should lead to greater price rigidity during holidays. We test this prediction using weekly retail scanner price data from a major Midwestern supermarket chain. We find that, indeed, prices are more rigid during holiday periods than non‐holiday periods. For example, the econometric model we estimate suggests that the probability of a price change is lower during holiday periods, even after accounting for cost changes. Moreover, we find that the probability of a price change increases with the size of the cost change, during both the holiday as well as non‐holiday periods. We argue that these findings are best explained by higher price adjustment costs (menu cost) the retailers face during the holiday periods. Our data provides anatural experimentfor studying variation in price rigidity because most aspects of market environment such as market structure, industry concentration, the nature of long‐term relationships, contractual arrangements, etc. do not vary between holiday and non‐holiday periods. We, therefore, are able to rule out these commonly used alternative explanations for the price rigidity, and conclude that the menu cost theory offers the best explanation for the holiday period price rigidity.