Commentary on Jacob Goldenberg, Barak Libai and Eitan Muller's “The chilling effects of network externalities”

Abstract This commentary builds on the paper by Goldenberg, Libai, and Muller (2009) and on the areas of the contribution it makes to the field: the distinction between word-of-mouth and network externality effects, agent-based simulations and extensions of the Bass model for aggregate models including word-of-mouth and network externalities. It reflects on some of the issues raised by this paper and provides directions which the author thinks would be beneficial for future diffusion modeling efforts.