IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/inq/inqwps/ecineq2005-03.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The dynamics of socially responsible product differentiation and the habit formation of socially responsible consumers

Author

Listed:
  • Leonardo Becchetti

    (Economics Department, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”)

  • Nazaria Solferino

    (Economics Department, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”)

  • M. Elisabetta Tessitore

    (Economics Department, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”)

Abstract

In our model of socially responsible (SR) product differentiation two duopolists (a zero profit socially concerned producer and a profit maximizing producer) compete over prices and (costly) “socially and environmentally responsible” features of their products under a given law of motion of consumer’s habits. In a continuous time model in which the location of the zero profit socially responsible entrant is fixed and the profit maximizing producer (PMP) limits himself to price competition without SR imitation, we show that the optimal dynamic PMP’s price is always lower than his optimal static price since the PMP knows that, by leaving too much market share to his competitor, he will reinforce the habit of socially responsible consumption and loose further market share in the future. We also inspect the properties of equilibria when the PMP can imitate the entrant’s SR and we find that, in this case, the threshold triggering a PMP strategy of SR imitation and minimum price differentiation is higher in the dynamic than in the static case, depending on the PMP’s shadow cost of changes in consumer social responsibility.

Suggested Citation

  • Leonardo Becchetti & Nazaria Solferino & M. Elisabetta Tessitore, 2005. "The dynamics of socially responsible product differentiation and the habit formation of socially responsible consumers," Working Papers 03, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    • Handle: RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2005-03
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.ecineq.org/milano/WP/ECINEQ2005-03.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2005
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Steven Suranovic, 2002. "International Labour and Environmental Standards Agreements: Is This Fair Trade?," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(2), pages 231-245, February.
    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. Luca Lambertini & Arsen Palestini & Alessandro Tampieri, 2014. "CSR in an Asymmetric Duopoly with Environmental Externalities," DEM Discussion Paper Series 14-19, Department of Economics at the University of Luxembourg.
    2. Wirl, Franz & Feichtinger, Gustav & Kort, Peter M., 2013. "Individual firm and market dynamics of CSR activities," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 169-182.
    3. D'Alessio, Massimiliano & Maietta, Ornella Wanda, 2008. "The Determinants Of Innovation In The Italian Food Industry: The Role Of R&D Networking," 109th Seminar, November 20-21, 2008, Viterbo, Italy 44856, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    4. Pierre Kohler, 2006. "The Economics of Fair Trade: For Whose Benefit? An Investigation into the Limits of Fair Trade as a Development Tool and the Risk of Clean-Washing," IHEID Working Papers 06-2007, Economics Section, The Graduate Institute of International Studies, revised Oct 2006.

    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. Becchetti Leonardo & Giorgio Federico & Solferino Nazaria, 2011. "What to do in globalised economies if global governance is missing? The vicarious role of competition in social responsibility," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 58(2), pages 185-211, June.
    2. Busse, Matthias, 2004. "Trade, environmental regulations and the World Trade Organization : new empirical evidence," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3361, The World Bank.
    3. Fort, Ricardo & Ruben, Ruerd, 2009. "The impact of Fair Trade on banana producers in northern Peru," 2009 Conference, August 16-22, 2009, Beijing, China 50964, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    4. Becchetti, Leonardo & Solferino, Nazaria, 2005. "The dynamics of ethical product differentiation and the habit formation of socially responsible consumers," AICCON Working Papers 8-2005, Associazione Italiana per la Cultura della Cooperazione e del Non Profit.
    5. Becchetti, Leonardo & Federico, Giorgio & Solferino, Nazaria, 2005. "The game of social responsibility: pioneers, imitators and social welfare," AICCON Working Papers 15-2005, Associazione Italiana per la Cultura della Cooperazione e del Non Profit.
    6. Leonardo Becchetti & Furio Camillo Rosati, 2005. "The demand for socially responsible products: empirical evidence from a pilot study on fair trade consumers," Working Papers 04, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    product differentiation; social responsibility; fair trade;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets
    • L31 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise - - - Nonprofit Institutions; NGOs; Social Entrepreneurship

    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:inq:inqwps:ecineq2005-03. 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: Maria Ana Lugo (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ecineea.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.