Innovation and the Durable Goods Monopolist: The Optimality of Frequent New-Version Releases

Marketing Science, Vol. 26, No. 6, 2007

54 Pages Posted: 27 Mar 2007 Last revised: 4 Jun 2020

See all articles by Ramesh Shankar

Ramesh Shankar

University of Connecticut - Department of Operations & Information Management

Abstract

When an improvable durable good (such as packaged software) saturates the market, the seller could be tempted to release new versions too frequently, hurting her profit. A novel contractual device, which we term as a Free New Version Rights warranty (Free NVR warranty), can help the seller overcome this temptation. In a two-period game-theoretic model involving a monopolist firm facing heterogeneous consumers, we derive conditions under which a rational monopolist can act suboptimally: she could face a commitment problem and offer the new version, even if doing so lowers her overall profit. Profit is hurt because when consumers expect a new version, (a) fewer consumers buy the initial version, and (b) the monopolist is forced to charge a lower price for the initial version. We show how the free NVR warranty, which requires the monopolist to offer consumers the right to receive the new version for free for a limited period, can solve her commitment problem. This is a new, surprising finding: by bundling new-version rights with the initial version, the monopolist at first appears to be denying herself future revenue. We derive conditions under which this apparently unprofitable action is optimal, which is our main contribution. When free NVR is offered, consumer surplus decreases and social surplus increases. This work extends prior literature on durable goods and the Coase conjecture to innovative durable goods with network externalities. The findings have important practical implications for firms selling new versions of innovative durable goods subject to network effects, as well as for their consumers.

Keywords: High-Tech Marketing, Game Theory, Innovation, Marketing Strategy, Product Development, Product Life Cycles, Product Policy, Signaling

JEL Classification: C72, D42, D82, L11, L12, L15, M31, O31

Suggested Citation

Shankar, Ramesh, Innovation and the Durable Goods Monopolist: The Optimality of Frequent New-Version Releases. Marketing Science, Vol. 26, No. 6, 2007, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=975268

Ramesh Shankar (Contact Author)

University of Connecticut - Department of Operations & Information Management ( email )

368 Fairfield Road
Storrs, CT 06269-2041
United States
860-486-5217 (Phone)
860-486-4839 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.sramesh.com/

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