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Strategic Delegation and the Shape of Market Competition

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  • Luca Lambertini

Abstract

What shape can we expect market competition to exhibit? This question is addressed in the present paper. Firms are allowed to choose whether to act as quantity or price setters, whether to move early or delay as long as possible at the market stage, and whether to be entrepreneurial or managerial. Moreover, firms can endogenously determine the sequence of such decisions. It is shown that in correspondence of the (unique) subgame perfect equilibrium of the game, all firms first decide to delay, then to act as Cournot competitors, and finally stockholders decide to delegate control to managers. Hence, sequential play between either managerial or entrepreneurial firms, as well as simultaneous play between entrepreneurial firms, are ruled out.

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  • Luca Lambertini, 2000. "Strategic Delegation and the Shape of Market Competition," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 47(5), pages 550-570, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:scotjp:v:47:y:2000:i:5:p:550-570
    DOI: 10.1111/1467-9485.00178
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    Cited by:

    1. Chang Ray-Yun & Hu Jin-Li & Lin Yan-Shu, 2018. "The Choice of Prices versus Quantities under Outsourcing," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 18(2), pages 1-20, July.
    2. Chirco, Alessandra & Scrimitore, Marcella, 2013. "Choosing price or quantity? The role of delegation and network externalities," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 121(3), pages 482-486.
    3. Alessandra Chirco & Caterina Colombo & Marcella Scrimitore, 2014. "Organizational Structure and the Choice of Price versus Quantity in a Mixed Duopoly," The Japanese Economic Review, Japanese Economic Association, vol. 65(4), pages 521-542, December.
    4. Buccella Domenico & Meccheri Nicola, 2024. "Management Centrality in Sequential Bargaining: Implications for Strategic Delegation, Welfare, and Stakeholder Conflict," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 24(1), pages 159-193, January.
    5. Marcella Scrimitore, 2019. "Endogenizing managerial delegation: A new result under Nash bargaining and network effects," EERI Research Paper Series EERI RP 2019/15, Economics and Econometrics Research Institute (EERI), Brussels.
    6. Luciano Fanti & Marcella Scrimitore, 2017. "Hiring a manager or not? When asymmetric equilibria arise under outsourcing to a rival," Discussion Papers 2017/220, Dipartimento di Economia e Management (DEM), University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
    7. Kangsik Choi & DongJoon Lee, 2022. "Network externalities and endogenous timing in managerial firms," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(5), pages 1462-1475, July.
    8. Aitor Ciarreta, 2009. "A Note on Strategic Delegation: The Role of Decreasing Returns to Scale," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 29(1), pages 277-285.
    9. Yasuhiko Nakamura, 2015. "Endogenous Choice of Strategic Variables in an Asymmetric Duopoly with Respect to the Demand Functions that Firms Face," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 83(5), pages 546-567, September.
    10. Nakamura, Yasuhiko, 2019. "Combining the endogenous choice of the timing of setting incentive parameters and the contents of strategic contracts in a managerial mixed duopoly," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 207-233.
    11. Alessandra Chirco & Caterina Colombo & Marcella Scrimitore, 2013. "Organizational Structure and the Choice of Price vs. Quantity in a Mixed Duopoly," Working Paper series 27_13, Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis.
    12. Ray-Yun Chang & Yan-Shu Lin & Jin-Li Hu, 2015. "Mixed Competition and Patent Licensing," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(4), pages 229-249, December.
    13. Scrimitore, Marcella, 2010. "Managerial Incentives and Stackelberg Equilibria in Oligopoly," MPRA Paper 24245, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Jean‐Baptiste Tondji, 2022. "Overconfidence and welfare in a differentiated duopoly," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(3), pages 751-767, April.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection
    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets

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