Switching costs?


PLB

_____________________
Per L. Bylund, Ph.D.
Baylor University
 
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(573) 268-3235

-----Original Message-----
From: Societies for the History of Economics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Rob Tye
Sent: Friday, March 28, 2014 10:03 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [SHOE] Nomenclature

I recently came across the phrase "customer lock-in" which seems a rather
useful one to me.  Wiki describes it merely in terms of anti-competitive
behaviour in the computer business, but its potential applications are
surely much wider, not least to activities associated with payment systems,
especially including (for me) matters to do with ancient and medieval
coinage denomination structures.

Googling, the use of the phrase seems unevenly distributed however.  It
seems hardly used at all in the SHOE archive, but apparently gets more than
800 uses on the European Commission site.

The paper by Rysman recently cited goes instead with the rather less snappy:

"benefits that a platform may seek from resisting compatibility" 

and the even odder (to me) use of "antitrust" as a noun.

Am I missing something here?  Are there other standard terms of reference
for "customer lock-in" that passed me by?

Any assistance much appreciated

Rob Tye, York, UK