Some management concepts have such intuitive appeal that their validity is almost taken for granted. First-mover advantage is one such concept. Although the fate of its most-convinced adherents, the dot-coms, offers a cautionary lesson, managers’ faith that first-mover status brings important competitive advantages, even when network effects are not available to accelerate and entrench it, remains undiminished. Business executives from every kind of company maintain, almost without exception, that early entry into a new industry or product category gives any firm an almost insuperable head start.
A version of this article appeared in the April 2005 issue of Harvard Business Review.
