IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/rje/bellje/v13y1982iautumnp418-438.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Uncertain Imitability: An Analysis of Interfirm Differences in Efficiency under Competition

Author

Listed:
  • S.A. Lippman
  • R.P. Rumelt

Abstract

Causal ambiguity inherent in the creation of productive processes is modeled by attaching an irreducible ex ante uncertainty to the level of firm efficiency that is achieved by sequential entrants. Without recourse to scale economies or market power, the model generates equilibria in which there are stable interfirm differences in profitability, an above-normal industry rate of return, and a lack of entry even when firms are atomistic price-takers. The free-entry equilibrium for rational noncollusive firms is characterized for atomistic firms and for firms of fixed size, and some analytic results are obtained for the more realistic case in which firms have an arbitrary cost function. Numerical results for the associations implied between concentration, industry profitability, fixed entry costs, and the dispersion of firm profitabilities are obtained for selected cases.

Suggested Citation

  • S.A. Lippman & R.P. Rumelt, 1982. "Uncertain Imitability: An Analysis of Interfirm Differences in Efficiency under Competition," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 13(2), pages 418-438, Autumn.
    • Handle: RePEc:rje:bellje:v:13:y:1982:i:autumn:p:418-438
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0361-915X%28198223%2913%3A2%3C418%3AUIAAOI%3E2.0.CO%3B2-R&origin=repec
    File Function: full text
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to JSTOR subscribers. See http://www.jstor.org for details.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:rje:bellje:v:13:y:1982:i:autumn:p:418-438. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.rje.org .

    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.