This paper considers the quickest search problem to identify anomalies among large numbers of data streams. These streams can model, for example, disjoint regions monitored by a mobile robot. A particular challenge is version in which experimenter must suffer cost each time stream being sampled changes, such as robot spend moving between regions. In this paper, we propose an algorithm accounts ...

This research examines the impact of switching costs on vendor choice in the market for routers and switches. We show that despite the use of open standards which attempt to enhance interoperabilities for equipments from different vendors, vendors in this market are able to maintain high switching costs. Because routers and switches are networked goods, switching costs may arise from prior inve...

It is usually acknowledged that firms benefit from a large customer base when consumers face costs of switching the supplier. Klemperer (1995) points out that this may not be true if an increase in the size of a firm’s customer base induces fiercer price competition, possibly making the firm worse off. This paper shows that such an outcome is not a mere theoretical possibility but may be empiri...

This paper analyzes competition in a two-period differentiated-products duopoly in the presence of both switching costs and network effects. Consumers are assumed to have rational expectation about network sizes, and future prices. The equilibrium prices in both periods are lower than markets with just switching costs and they decrease with the magnitude of network effects. Hence, in any period...

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relevance of ‘switching costs’ to the problem of terrorism and grassroots support of terrorism. Grassroots supporters that choose between the terrorist organisation and the government may face considerable costs in switching their support after their initial decision has been made. This paper presents an analysis of competition between the terrori...

We demonstrate the surprising effect of two simple variations on the usual finitely repeated game model. In particular, we add a small cost of changing actions and consider the effect of increasing the frequency of repetitions within a fixed period of time. We illustrate the wide range of commitments this can make credible and the effects these have. Not surprisingly, switching costs can make i...

Introductory Offers in a Model of Strategic Competition* We show how introductory offers emerge endogenously under conditions of competition in markets with switching costs. In a standard Hotelling model we find the combination of switching costs and introductory discounts to reduce industry profits relative to industries without switching costs, in which introductory offers do not emerge. Thus...