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

    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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