Pioneering and First Mover Advantages: The Importance of Business Models

Pioneering has both advantages and disadvantages. Which effect will predominate will depend to a large extent on: (i) the business model that the pioneer utilizes to exploit the first-mover advantages (FMAs) associated with early entry: (ii) the business models that late entrants adopt to attack the pioneers; and (iii) the business model that the pioneer uses to respond to these attacks. Studies that do not explicitly control for the business models being used by firms will provide biased estimates of the importance (or sustainability) of first-mover advantages.