Keyword: avalanche

The Snowball Effect (11/9/2001)

Knowledge-based industries subject to increasing returns because of high R&D fixed costs and low variable costs naturally tend to monopolize the market.

Keywords: Adam Smith, avalanche, diminishing returns, fixed cost, increasing returns, lock in effect, marginal cost, natural monopoly, negative feedback, network externality, operating system, positive feedback, R&D, snowball effect, software