The more we get together: Coordinating network externality product introduction in the RFID industry

How organizations attempt to coordinate with one another in markets increasingly marked by network externalities is an emerging topic of interest for researchers working in the traditions of innovation studies and new product development. New network externality products often face complex “chicken-and-egg” coordination problems, since the user base and complementary goods that add to product value are not yet established. In this paper we highlight three mechanisms of spontaneous coordination among large numbers of organizations: focal points, leadership and common knowledge. We catalogue these three mechanisms at work using data from the RFID (radio frequency identification) industry.