First Mover Advantages and Disadvantages

In Joe's last post The Price is Right he questioned the pricing of Uber, noting:

"Uber’s price is being justified on a winner- take- all, first mover, basis. I wonder, however, about the economic validity of this agreement. The industry entry barriers seem porous, switching costs for both users and drivers are low and international competition exists. "

Indeed, in a paper two colleagues and I published in the Review of Financial Studies, we do  find that the first acquiring firm in an industry after a long dormant period without acquisition activity earns abnormally positive returns.  We are quite skeptical of the first mover - or low hanging fruit argument, however, noting:

"Cottrell and Sick (2001), and Schnaars (1994) examine first-mover advantages and disadvantages, noting numerous cases in which the imitator ultimately gains the advantage over the first mover. Examples from the software industry include the success of the VHS tape format over Betamax, IBM following Apple, and Excel following VisiCalc. Cottrell and Sick (2001) also note the phenomena in the motorcycle industry with Yamaha, Kawasaki, and Suzuki successfully following Harley Davidson, and the Indian and European models."

The question is whether Uber can maintain a sustainable comparative advantage.  It's an open question, but my instincts align with Joes.  

All the best,

Ralph


References

Cottrell, T., and G. Sick. 2001. First-Mover (Dis)advantage and Real Options. Journal of Applied Corporate Finance 14: 41-51.
Schnaars, S. 1994. Managing Imitation Strategies: How Later Entrants Seize Markets From Pioneers. The Free Press, New York.