Competing Networks and Proprietary Standards: The Case of Quadraphonic Sound
研究了1970年代四声道音频系统未能取代立体声的原因，发现竞争性不兼容系统阻碍了用户基础发展，厂商过早推出产品导致消费者预期落空。
Quadraphonic audio systems failed to replace stereo in the 1970s despite backing from all the major manufacturers and recording houses. Network externalities played a significant role in this episode, and the author uses the installed-base model of J. Farrell and G. Saloner (1986) to explain quad's failure. The author finds that the introduction of competing incompatible quadraphonic systems hindered the development of a viable user base, and he argues that the systems' sponsors introduced their products in a technologically premature state in order to prevent one another from preemptively establishing the quad standard. As a result, self-fulfilling consumer and retailer expectations doomed quadraphonic sound. Copyright 1990 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.