IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/ormksc/v30y2011i1p111-122.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Design of Durable Goods

Author

Listed:
  • Oded Koenigsberg

    (Graduate School of Business, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027)

  • Rajeev Kohli

    (Graduate School of Business, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027)

  • Ricardo Montoya

    (Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile)

Abstract

The use of a durable good is limited by both its physical life and usable life. For example, an electric-car battery can last for five years (physical life) or 100,000 miles (usable life), whichever comes first. We propose a framework for examining how a profit-maximizing firm might choose the usable life, physical life, and selling price of a durable good. The proposed framework considers differences in usage rates and product valuations by consumers and allows for the effects of technological constraints and product obsolescence on a product's usable and physical lives. Our main result characterizes a relationship between optimal price, cost elasticities, and opportunity costs associated with relaxing upper bounds on usable and physical lives. We describe conditions under which either usable life or physical life, or both, obtains its maximum possible values; examine why a firm might devote effort to relaxing nonbinding constraints on usable life or physical life; consider when price cuts might be accompanied with product improvements; and examine how a firm might be able to cross-subsidize product improvements.

Suggested Citation

  • Oded Koenigsberg & Rajeev Kohli & Ricardo Montoya, 2011. "The Design of Durable Goods," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(1), pages 111-122, 01-02.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormksc:v:30:y:2011:i:1:p:111-122
    DOI: 10.1287/mksc.1100.0592
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mksc.1100.0592
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/mksc.1100.0592?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Muller, Eitan & Peles, Yoram C., 1988. "The dynamic adjustment of optimal durability and quality," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 6(4), pages 499-507.
    2. Barro, Robert J, 1972. "Monopoly and Contrived Depreciation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 80(3), pages 598-602, May-June.
    3. Richard L. Schmalensee, 1970. "Regulation and the Durability of Goods," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 1(1), pages 54-64, Spring.
    4. Preyas S. Desai & Devavrat Purohit, 1999. "Competition in Durable Goods Markets: The Strategic Consequences of Leasing and Selling," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 18(1), pages 42-58.
    5. Alexandre Belloni & Robert Freund & Matthew Selove & Duncan Simester, 2008. "Optimizing Product Line Designs: Efficient Methods and Comparisons," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 54(9), pages 1544-1552, September.
    6. Ramesh Sankaranarayanan, 2007. "Innovation and the Durable Goods Monopolist: The Optimality of Frequent New-Version Releases," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 26(6), pages 774-791, 11-12.
    7. Daniel A. Levinthal & Devavrat Purohit, 1989. "Durable Goods and Product Obsolescence," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 8(1), pages 35-56.
    8. Levhari, David & Srinivasan, T N, 1969. "Durability of Consumption Goods: Competition Versus Monopoly," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 59(1), pages 102-107, March.
    9. Frank M. Bass, 1969. "A New Product Growth for Model Consumer Durables," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 15(5), pages 215-227, January.
    10. E. Sieper & P. L. Swan, 1973. "Monopoly and Competition in the Market for Durable Goods," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 40(3), pages 333-351.
    11. Auernheimer, Leonardo & Saving, Thomas R, 1977. "Market Organization and the Durability of Durable Goods," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 45(1), pages 219-228, January.
    12. K. Sridhar Moorthy & I. P. L. Png, 1992. "Market Segmentation, Cannibalization, and the Timing of Product Introductions," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 38(3), pages 345-359, March.
    13. Swan, Peter L, 1970. "Durability of Consumption Goods," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 60(5), pages 884-894, December.
    14. Richard Schmalensee, 1974. "Market Structure, Durability, and Maintenance Effort," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 41(2), pages 277-287.
    15. Schmalensee, Richard, 1979. "Market Structure, Durability, and Quality: A Selective Survey," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 17(2), pages 177-196, April.
    16. Paul E. Green & Abba M. Krieger, 1985. "Models and Heuristics for Product Line Selection," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 4(1), pages 1-19.
    17. Rajeev Kohli & Ramesh Krishnamurti, 1987. "A Heuristic Approach to Product Design," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 33(12), pages 1523-1533, December.
    18. Swan, Peter L, 1977. "Product Durability under Monopoly and Competition: Comment," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 45(1), pages 229-235, January.
    19. Su, Teddy T, 1975. "Durability of Consumption Goods Reconsidered," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 65(1), pages 148-157, March.
    20. Muller, Eitan & Peles, Yoram C., 1990. "Optimal dynamic durability," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 14(3-4), pages 709-719, October.
    21. E. Kleiman & T. Ophir, 1966. "The Durability of Durable Goods," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 33(2), pages 165-178.
    22. Preyas Desai & Devavrat Purohit, 1998. "Leasing and Selling: Optimal Marketing Strategies for a Durable Goods Firm," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 44(11-Part-2), pages 19-34, November.
    23. Preyas S. Desai & Oded Koenigsberg & Devavrat Purohit, 2007. "Research Note--The Role of Production Lead Time and Demand Uncertainty in Marketing Durable Goods," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 53(1), pages 150-158, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sumitro Banerjee & David A. Soberman, 2013. "Product development capability and marketing strategy for new durable products," ESMT Research Working Papers ESMT-13-01, ESMT European School of Management and Technology.
    2. Vishal V. Agrawal & Stylianos Kavadias & L. Beril Toktay, 2016. "The Limits of Planned Obsolescence for Conspicuous Durable Goods," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 18(2), pages 216-226, May.
    3. Lingfei Cai & Xuan Shi & Jingrong Zhu, 2019. "Quality Recovery or Low-End Recovery? Profitability and Environmental Impact of Durable Product Recovery," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-37, March.
    4. Adem Örsdemir & Vinayak Deshpande & Ali K. Parlaktürk, 2019. "Is Servicization a Win-Win Strategy? Profitability and Environmental Implications of Servicization," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 21(3), pages 674-691, July.
    5. Jing, Fei & Lin, Jun & Zhang, Qiao & Qian, Yanjun, 2022. "New technology introduction and product rollover strategies," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 302(1), pages 324-336.
    6. Esma Koca & Tommaso Valletti & Wolfram Wiesemann, 2021. "Designing Digital Rollovers: Managing Perceived Obsolescence through Release Times," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 30(10), pages 3698-3712, October.
    7. Banerjee, Sumitro & Soberman, David A., 2013. "Product development capability and marketing strategy for new durable products," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 276-291.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Michael Waldman, 2004. "Antitrust Perspectives for Durable-Goods Markets," CESifo Working Paper Series 1306, CESifo.
    2. Adriano A. Rampini, 2019. "Financing Durable Assets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(2), pages 664-701, February.
    3. Vishal V. Agrawal & Stylianos Kavadias & L. Beril Toktay, 2016. "The Limits of Planned Obsolescence for Conspicuous Durable Goods," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 18(2), pages 216-226, May.
    4. Jayarajan, Dinakar & Siddarth, S. & Silva-Risso, Jorge, 2018. "Cannibalization vs. competition: An empirical study of the impact of product durability on automobile demand," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 641-660.
    5. Morton I. Kamien & Nancy Schwartz, 1975. "Optimal Capital Accumulation and Durable Goods Production," Discussion Papers 141, Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science.
    6. Marco Runkel, 1999. "Product Durability, Solid Waste Management and Market Structure," Volkswirtschaftliche Diskussionsbeiträge 78-99, Universität Siegen, Fakultät Wirtschaftswissenschaften, Wirtschaftsinformatik und Wirtschaftsrecht.
    7. Michael Waldman, 2003. "Durable Goods Theory for Real World Markets," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 17(1), pages 131-154, Winter.
    8. Gerstle, Ari D. & Waldman, Michael, 2016. "Mergers in durable-goods industries: A re-examination of market power and welfare effects," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(4), pages 677-692.
    9. Justin P. Johnson & Michael Waldman, 2010. "Leasing, Lemons, and Moral Hazard," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 53(2), pages 307-328, May.
    10. Qi, Lian & Sawhill, James, 2014. "How durable should durable products be made under different scenarios of technological advance?," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 75-82.
    11. Bitros, George C., 2009. "The Theorem of Proportionality in Mainstream Capital Theory: An Assessment of its Conceptual Foundations," MPRA Paper 17436, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Judith Chevalier & Austan Goolsbee, 2009. "Are Durable Goods Consumers Forward-Looking? Evidence from College Textbooks," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 124(4), pages 1853-1884.
    13. George Bitros, 2010. "The theorem of proportionality in contemporary capital theory: An assessment of its conceptual foundations," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 23(4), pages 367-401, December.
    14. Julián David Parada, 2008. "Tasa de depreciación endógena y crecimiento económico," Documentos de Trabajo 4594, Universidad del Rosario.
    15. Wilhelm, Wilbert E. & Xu, Kaihong, 2002. "Prescribing product upgrades, prices and production levels over time in a stochastic environment," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 138(3), pages 601-621, May.
    16. Daria Dzyabura & Srikanth Jagabathula, 2018. "Offline Assortment Optimization in the Presence of an Online Channel," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(6), pages 2767-2786, June.
    17. O. Cem Ozturk & Sriram Venkataraman & Pradeep K. Chintagunta, 2016. "Price Reactions to Rivals’ Local Channel Exits," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 35(4), pages 588-604, July.
    18. Joan Calzada & Tommaso M. Valletti, 2012. "Intertemporal Movie Distribution: Versioning When Customers Can Buy Both Versions," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 31(4), pages 649-667, July.
    19. Sreekumar R. Bhaskaran & Stephen M. Gilbert, 2005. "Selling and Leasing Strategies for Durable Goods with Complementary Products," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 51(8), pages 1278-1290, August.
    20. Dimitris Bertsimas & Velibor V. Mišić, 2019. "Exact First-Choice Product Line Optimization," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 67(3), pages 651-670, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:ormksc:v:30:y:2011:i:1:p:111-122. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.