Nico Wiegand

After having studied in Muenster, Germany, and Rome, Italy, Nico received his diploma degree in Business Management from Muenster University in 2010. For over two years he has been teaching and doing research as a doctoral candidate at the Institute of Business-to-Business Marketing in Muenster.

His research interests pertain to the study of system markets, especially high-tech consumer electronics, and their underlying phenomena of network effects and the emergence of dominant designs. Nico likes sports, especially soccer. He plays for a university team and cheers for his hometown club Borussia Dortmund. He has also been playing classic and electric guitar for quite some time, in a band and on his own.

Nico enjoys getting to know new places, for short or for longer. That is why he has not decided where to go or stay after his doctoral studies. Germany is just an option among others.

But first comes the Ph.D-thesis. Its key idea is the transformation of a macro-concept - (indirect) network effects - to a micro-arena - consumer behavior. The conceptualization of indirect network effects as merely quantity-driven has been challenged recently. The study aims at using interview and CBC data to underline this development from a behavioristic point of view, hypothesizing that people do not only value variety when it comes to complementary products (e.g. the number of video games) they can use on a given platform (e.g. a video console), but that single valuable titles (so-called superstar software) and the overall quality of the software catalog have a by far greater impact on consumer choice in favor of a system. Also, he tries to show that expectations - claimed to have a substantial impact in system markets - have been overrated in the literature and play an inferior role when it comes to the individual adoption decision.

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