]> BibSonomy publications for /author/Lilien/Innovation http://www.bibsonomy.org/burst/author/Lilien/Innovation BibSonomy BuRST Feed for /author/Lilien/Innovation 2008-10-08T07:08:37+02:00 Medical Innovation Revisited: Social Contagion versus Marketing Effort March 2008http://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/242420b959ce9133460c70c6fc486b409/bertil.hatt bertil.hatt 2008-03-13T16:33:57+01:00 Innovation Marketing Medical Social and contagion
Medical Innovation Revisited: Social Contagion versus Marketing Effort
Christophe Van den Butte and Gary Lilien AJS 106 1409--1435 (2001)
to Innovation Marketing Medical Social and contagion by bertil.hatt on 2008-03-13 16:33:57 ]]> AJS51409--1435Medical Innovation Revisited: Social Contagion versus Marketing Effort1062001Innovation Marketing Medical Social and contagion 2008-03-13 16:33:57.0This article shows that Medical Innovation---the landmark study by Coleman, Katz and Menzel---and several subsequent studies analyzing the diffusion of the drug tetracycline have confounded social contagion with marketing effect. The article describes the medical community's understanding of tetracycline and how the drug was marketed. This situational analysis finds no reasons to expect social contagion: instead, aggressive marketing efforts may have played an important role. The Medical Innovation data set is reanalyzed and supplemented with newly collected advertising data. When marketing efforts are controlled for, contagion effects disappear. The article underscores the importance of controlling for potential confounds when studying the role of social contagion in innovation diffusion.