Title: How the technology shock of the internet is radically changing the competitive dynamics of the online music market

Authors: Gary Graham, Glenn Hardaker

Addresses: Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, Booth Street West, Manchester, M15 6PB, UK. ' Huddersfield University Business School, Queensgate, Huddersfield, HD1 3DH, UK

Abstract: This paper explores competition between firms in the online music market. It is evident from the analysis of our research dataset that firms acquire competitive advantage, by differentiating themselves on the range and quality of their music stock and through building social relational mechanisms with customers. The contribution of the work to electronic marketing and retailing is firstly, in the unique application, that it makes of Porter (1980, 1985, 2001) work on competitive strategies to the online music market and secondly, through its extension of generic competitive strategy concepts to the use of social relations as a strategy for differentiation and competitive advantage.

Keywords: digital music; downloading; internet; logit model; online music market; electronic marketing; electronic retailing; electronic music; competitive dynamics; competition; competitive strategy; social relations; differentiation; competitive advantage; internet marketing; internet retailing.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEMR.2007.013056

International Journal of Electronic Marketing and Retailing, 2007 Vol.1 No.3, pp.260 - 278

Published online: 06 Apr 2007 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article