Over the years, entrepreneurs and academics have suggested that first movers in business—the first to catch a commercial wave—enjoy an unfair advantage over their competitors. In 1988 Stanford professors Marvin Lieberman and David Montgomery popularized the concept, suggesting that the first competitor to move into a market has the opportunity to gain proprietary learning, snatch up patents, and build up buyer switching costs. Later researchers added that first movers receive outsize branding benefits, that a reputation for being “the original,” often enjoys a marketing advantage over
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