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Executive Summary
In system markets, a primary product’s (e.g., a video game console, such as a Sony PlayStation) success depends on the availability of complementary products (e.g., the available video games for the Sony PlayStation). Case illustrations show that certain “superstar” software titles (e.g., Super Mario 64) may have had disproportionately large effects on hardware unit sales (e.g., Nintendo N64 console sales). In the context of the U.S. home video game console market, the authors quantify this effect and show that the introduction of a superstar software title increases video game console sales on average by 14% over a period of five months. Software type (e.g., genre, exclusivity) does not consistently alter this effect. The findings imply that hardware firms should maintain a steady flow of superstar introductions because the positive effect of a superstar lasts for only five months and, if need be, make side payments to software firms. Hardware firms’ exclusivity over superstars does not provide an extra boost to their own sales, but it takes away an opportunity for competing systems to increase their sales. Independent software firms can use the results and methods of this research to quantify the degree to which their superstars lift hardware sales, and they can use this information in their negotiations with hardware firms.

Biography
Jeroen L.G. Binken is a doctoral student of Marketing in the School of Economics at Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands. His current research interest is network effects and new product introductions. His work has appeared in Journal of Marketing.

Stefan Stremersch holds a Chair in Marketing and is Desiderius Erasmus Distinguished Chair of Economics in the Erasmus School of Economics at Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands. He is also Visiting Professor of Marketing at Duke University. His current research interests are in innovation diffusion, marketing of technology and science, and international marketing. His work has appeared in journals such as International Journal of Research in Marketing, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Marketing Science, and Management Science. His work has been covered by both national and international press (e.g., The Economist). He has won several awards, such as the Harold H. Maynard Best Paper Award of the Journal of Marketing (2002) and the J.C. Ruigrok Prize for the most productive young researcher in the social sciences in the Netherlands (only once in four years awarded to an economist). He also received the 2004 Research Prize at Erasmus University Rotterdam for outstanding research performance, which is selected among all Erasmus faculty across all disciplines and schools. He is an editorial board member of several journals (e.g., Journal of Marketing) and serves as editor International Journal of Research in Marketing, along with Don Lehmann.

Journal of Marketing, Volume 73, Number 2, March 2009
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