Title

Private markets for public goods: Pricing strategies of online database vendors

Authors

Authors

L. A. West

Abbreviated Journal Title

J. Manage. Inform. Syst.

Keywords

information economics; information pricing; Internet information; markets; online databases; public goods; INTERVIEW; Computer Science, Information Systems; Information Science & Library; Science; Management

Abstract

The online database industry has annual sales of US$6.5 billion for a product that can be easily appropriated, duplicated, reused, and redistributed. This paper examines how the industry developed dynamic pricing and delivery strategies as a response to technological and market changes, and shows how each strategy specifically compensated for the public good properties of information. Readers will see that specific pricing strategies reduce the incentive to improperly reuse downloaded information. Thus, these strategies can lead to the sustainability and growth of the online database industry. These findings are then extended to the broader context of information delivery via the Internet.

Journal Title

Journal of Management Information Systems

Volume

17

Issue/Number

1

Publication Date

1-1-2000

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

59

Last Page

85

WOS Identifier

WOS:000088450900004

ISSN

0742-1222

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