Skip to main content

LUP Student Papers

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Network-induced Lock-in - A choice experiment examining social-network-caused online user inertia

Broel-Plater, Jan (2008) NEK691 20082
Department of Economics
Abstract
This essay examines whether there is empirical evidence of greater switching costs, and consequently greater lock-in eects, in the choice between online services bearing social characteristics than in the choice between services lacking such social network characteristics. An online choice experiment was performed where respondents were asked to choose between consumption bundles consisting of either web search engines or social network websites. The dataset was evaluated using a chi-square test and a probit regression analysis to check for correlations with demographic variables. The results show that switching costs are signicantly higher for social network websites, and that the probability of switching increases with age.
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Broel-Plater, Jan
supervisor
organization
course
NEK691 20082
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
choice experiment, Network effects, switching costs
language
English
id
1857889
date added to LUP
2012-09-28 13:07:23
date last changed
2012-09-28 13:07:23
@misc{1857889,
  abstract     = {{This essay examines whether there is empirical evidence of greater switching costs, and consequently greater lock-in eects, in the choice between online services bearing social characteristics than in the choice between services lacking such social network characteristics. An online choice experiment was performed where respondents were asked to choose between consumption bundles consisting of either web search engines or social network websites. The dataset was evaluated using a chi-square test and a probit regression analysis to check for correlations with demographic variables. The results show that switching costs are signicantly higher for social network websites, and that the probability of switching increases with age.}},
  author       = {{Broel-Plater, Jan}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Network-induced Lock-in - A choice experiment examining social-network-caused online user inertia}},
  year         = {{2008}},
}