Netscape, Which Once Controlled More Than 80 Percent of the Market

question 58

Multiple Choice

Netscape, which once controlled more than 80 percent of the market share in Web browsers, lost its dominant position when customers migrated to Internet Explorer, Microsoft's Web browser. Internet Explorer was easy to install and had no significant differences in terms of usability. This example serves to illustrate that:

• A) fast-following smaller firms are always ready with newer and possibly superior products.
• B) customers of technology companies are becoming increasingly savvy and more demanding.
• C) the open source nature of technology ensures that no firm can expect to monopolize a market.
• D) firms need to employ increasingly stringent intellectual property norms to guard against infringements from smaller, competitive rivals.
• E) firms with low switching costs can be easily and rapidly overtaken by strong rivals.

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Definitions:

Condorcet

A method of decision making, named after the French mathematician Marquis de Condorcet, that identifies the option that would win a majority of votes in all possible pairings against each of the other options.

Social Choice and Individual Values

A concept in welfare economics and political science that examines how to aggregate individual preferences, values, or welfare to reach collective decisions.

Condorcet Paradox

The failure of majority rule to produce transitive preferences for society.

Condorcet Paradox

The Condorcet Paradox is a concept in voting theory where individual preferences cannot be aggregated into a consistent collective decision without creating contradictions.