Rival Precedence and the Dynamics of Technology Adoption: An Empirical Analysis

This study employs information on the adoption of automatic teller machines by banking firms to examine the nature of firm reactions to rival precedence in the adoption process Using a failure-time estimation procedure, it is found that the ado ption of this innovation by rivals increases the conditional probabil ity that a decision to adopt will be made. The effect of spillovers f rom technology adoption and the interaction of market concentration a nd rival precedence are also investigated. Finally, the study shows w ith an example how the estimation procedure may be used to test the u nderpinnings of diffusion processes.