Product Innovation and Network Survival in the U.S. ATM and Debit Card Industry

This paper provides a model to explain the shakeout of the U.S. ATM and debit card industry, which emphasizes the role that a major product innovation â introducing the debit function in the mid 1980s â played in driving the network consolidation. Consistent with the theory, our empirical findings show that large networks had a better chance of adopting the debit innovation and surviving the shakeout. However, in contrast to previous studies, we find little advantage of being an early entrant in this network industry. Rather, ownership and organizational structure had an important influence on network size and survival.