IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/bejeap/v25y2025i2p371-387n1003.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Strategic Brand Proliferation: Monopoly versus Duopoly

Author

Listed:
  • Inomata Kentaro

    (Faculty of Law, 13108 Tokoha University , 1-30 Mizuochicho Aoi-ku, Shizuoka 420-0831, Japan)

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to investigate whether the existence of a rival firm can encourage another firm to proliferate its brand. To do so, we compare the incentive to invest in brand proliferation in monopoly and the one in duopoly. We find that in duopoly there are asymmetric equilibria where only one firm proliferates its brand but the other does not even if they are identical. In that case, the incentive to invest in brand proliferation is stronger in duopoly than in monopoly if two firms provide closer substitutes. Further we also show that the multi-product firm increases its profit by providing closer substitutes. It implies that an incumbent can deter entry with commitment by proliferating its brand. Such a result is in contrast with Judd [RAND J. Econ 16 (1985) 153].

Suggested Citation

  • Inomata Kentaro, 2025. "Strategic Brand Proliferation: Monopoly versus Duopoly," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 25(2), pages 371-387.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:bejeap:v:25:y:2025:i:2:p:371-387:n:1003
    DOI: 10.1515/bejeap-2023-0322
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/bejeap-2023-0322
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1515/bejeap-2023-0322?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
    ---><---

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

    More about this item

    Keywords

    brand proliferation; multi-product firm (MPF); product differentiation; Cournot competition; substitutes and complements;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

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

    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:bpj:bejeap:v:25:y:2025:i:2:p:371-387:n:1003. 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: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.com .

    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.