When Do First Entrants Become First Survivors?

Despite extensive research concerning the challenges that early entrants face when they enter new markets, the term “first mover advantage” has taken hold in many business classrooms and executive offices. However, the belief in a wide-spread “first mover advantage” largely rests on a severe survival bias. Indeed, the perceived “first mover advantage” is primarily a “first survivor advantage”. This essays seeks lay to rest the idea of a dominant first mover advantage while, in a more positive vein, highlighting conditions in which early entrants do gain sustainable first survivor advantages.