IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/mgtdec/v43y2022i6p2326-2346.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Pricing leadership decisions of competing firms with consumer learning

Author

Listed:
  • Rui Hou
  • Zibin Cui
  • You Zhao

Abstract

We consider two competing firms that sell two quality‐differentiated products over two periods, in which the high‐ or low‐quality firms have the option to act as a pricing leader or follower in the first or second periods. Two groups of consumers make their purchase decisions in the first or second periods, with the former consumers using the experience available to the latter from online communities (e.g., TikTok). Our analysis indicates that competition intensity and consumers' reviews are two interacting forces that steer the equilibrium decisions of the two competing firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Rui Hou & Zibin Cui & You Zhao, 2022. "Pricing leadership decisions of competing firms with consumer learning," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(6), pages 2326-2346, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:mgtdec:v:43:y:2022:i:6:p:2326-2346
    DOI: 10.1002/mde.3528
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/mde.3528
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/mde.3528?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. Amir, Rabah & Stepanova, Anna, 2006. "Second-mover advantage and price leadership in Bertrand duopoly," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 55(1), pages 1-20, April.
    2. Bing Jing, 2011. "Social Learning and Dynamic Pricing of Durable Goods," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(5), pages 851-865, September.
    3. Hamilton, Jonathan H. & Slutsky, Steven M., 1990. "Endogenous timing in duopoly games: Stackelberg or cournot equilibria," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 2(1), pages 29-46, March.
    4. De Giovanni, Pietro & Zaccour, Georges, 2019. "Optimal quality improvements and pricing strategies with active and passive product returns," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 248-262.
    5. Yiangos Papanastasiou & Nicos Savva, 2017. "Dynamic Pricing in the Presence of Social Learning and Strategic Consumers," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(4), pages 919-939, April.
    6. Yi‐Ling Cheng & Takatoshi Tabuchi, 2020. "First mover advantage by product proliferation in multiproduct duopoly," International Journal of Economic Theory, The International Society for Economic Theory, vol. 16(1), pages 106-118, March.
    7. Scott M. Gilpatric & Youping Li, 2021. "Endogenous Price Leadership and Product Positioning," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 58(2), pages 287-302, March.
    8. Monic Sun, 2012. "How Does the Variance of Product Ratings Matter?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(4), pages 696-707, April.
    9. Angela S. Bergantino & Claudia Capozza & Mauro Capurso, 2018. "Pricing strategies: who leads and who follows in the air and rail passenger markets in Italy," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(46), pages 4937-4953, October.
    10. Xu Guan & Yulan Wang & Zelong Yi & Ying‐Ju Chen, 2020. "Inducing Consumer Online Reviews Via Disclosure," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 29(8), pages 1956-1971, August.
    11. Davide Crapis & Bar Ifrach & Costis Maglaras & Marco Scarsini, 2017. "Monopoly Pricing in the Presence of Social Learning," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(11), pages 3586-3608, November.
    12. Seaton, Jonathan S. & Waterson, Michael, 2013. "Identifying and characterising price leadership in British supermarkets," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 31(5), pages 392-403.
    13. Yushan Hu & Ben G. Li, 2021. "The production economics of economics production," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 228-255, February.
    14. Nathan H. Miller & Gloria Sheu & Matthew C. Weinberg, 2021. "Oligopolistic Price Leadership and Mergers: The United States Beer Industry," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(10), pages 3123-3159, October.
    15. Chris Forman & Anindya Ghose & Batia Wiesenfeld, 2008. "Examining the Relationship Between Reviews and Sales: The Role of Reviewer Identity Disclosure in Electronic Markets," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 19(3), pages 291-313, September.
    16. Yang Liu & Juan Feng & Xiuwu Liao, 2017. "When Online Reviews Meet Sales Volume Information: Is More or Accurate Information Always Better?," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 28(4), pages 723-743, December.
    17. Pnina Feldman & Yiangos Papanastasiou & Ella Segev, 2019. "Social Learning and the Design of New Experience Goods," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(5), pages 1502-1519, April.
    18. Juan Feng & Xin Li & Xiaoquan (Michael) Zhang, 2019. "Online Product Reviews-Triggered Dynamic Pricing: Theory and Evidence," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 30(4), pages 1107-1123, December.
    19. Frago Kourandi & Jan Krämer & Tommaso Valletti, 2015. "Net Neutrality, Exclusivity Contracts, and Internet Fragmentation," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 26(2), pages 320-338, June.
    20. Chen, Jing & Chen, Bintong & Li, Wei, 2018. "Who should be pricing leader in the presence of customer returns?," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 265(2), pages 735-747.
    21. Man Yu & Hyun-Soo Ahn & Roman Kapuscinski, 2015. "Rationing Capacity in Advance Selling to Signal Quality," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 61(3), pages 560-577, March.
    22. Chung, Hwan & Lee, Eunkyu, 2017. "Asymmetric relationships with symmetric suppliers: Strategic choice of supply chain price leadership in a competitive market," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 259(2), pages 564-575.
    23. Li, Yimeng & Xiong, Yu & Mariuzzo, Franco & Xia, Senmao, 2021. "The underexplored impacts of online consumer reviews: Pricing and new product design strategies in the O2O supply chain," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 237(C).
    24. Wu, Cheng-Han & Chen, Chieh-Wan & Hsieh, Chung-Chi, 2012. "Competitive pricing decisions in a two-echelon supply chain with horizontal and vertical competition," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(1), pages 265-274.
    25. Ma, Lijun & Zhao, Yingxue & Xue, Weili & Cheng, T.C.E. & Yan, Houmin, 2012. "Loss-averse newsvendor model with two ordering opportunities and market information updating," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(2), pages 912-921.
    26. Steve Dowrick, 1986. "von Stackelberg and Cournot Duopoly: Choosing Roles," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 17(2), pages 251-260, Summer.
    27. Zhang, Dali & Xu, Huifu & Wu, Yue, 2009. "Single and multi-period optimal inventory control models with risk-averse constraints," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 199(2), pages 420-434, December.
    28. Niu, Baozhuang & Chen, Lei & Liu, Yaoqi & Jin, Yong, 2019. "Joint price and quality decisions considering Chinese customers' variety seeking behavior," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 97-107.
    29. Dmitri Kuksov & Ying Xie, 2010. "Pricing, Frills, and Customer Ratings," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(5), pages 925-943, 09-10.
    30. Bhattacharjee, Sudip & Ramesh, R., 2000. "A multi-period profit maximizing model for retail supply chain management: An integration of demand and supply-side mechanisms," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 122(3), pages 584-601, May.
    31. Ye, Taofeng & Yang, Huiqiang, 2020. "Price and Quality Management with Strategic Consumers: Whether to Introduce a High or Low Product Variant," Applied Mathematics and Computation, Elsevier, vol. 386(C).
    32. Man Yu & Laurens Debo & Roman Kapuscinski, 2016. "Strategic Waiting for Consumer-Generated Quality Information: Dynamic Pricing of New Experience Goods," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(2), pages 410-435, 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. Li, Feng & Du, Timon C. & Wei, Ying, 2023. "This is what’s in store for you: How online social learning affects product positioning," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).

    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. Juan Feng & Xin Li & Xiaoquan (Michael) Zhang, 2019. "Online Product Reviews-Triggered Dynamic Pricing: Theory and Evidence," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 30(4), pages 1107-1123, December.
    2. Bingsheng Liu & Wenwen Zhu & Yinghua Shen & Yuan Chen & Tao Wang & Fengwen Chen & Maggie Wenjing Liu & Shi‐Hao Zhou, 2022. "A study about return policies in the presence of consumer social learning," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 31(6), pages 2571-2587, June.
    3. Wang, Jiayun & Shum, Stephen & Feng, Gengzhong, 2022. "Supplier’s pricing strategy in the presence of consumer reviews," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 296(2), pages 570-586.
    4. Qiao, Haike & Su, Qin, 2021. "Distribution channel and licensing strategy choice considering consumer online reviews in a closed-loop supply chain," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    5. Xin, Baogui & Song, Yaping & Xie, Lei, 2024. "Dynamic pricing and service customization strategy for IoT-based smart products," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    6. Lu Xiao & Hang Zhang & Yong Qin, 2020. "Competitive Pricing of Innovative Products with Consumers’ Social Learning," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-13, May.
    7. Yang, Rui & Tang, Wansheng & Dou, Mengdi & Zhang, Jianxiong, 2021. "Pricing and investing in co-creation with customers for a duopoly," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 237(C).
    8. Xin Yan & Xiaohua Han, 2022. "Optimal pricing and remanufacturing entry strategies of manufacturers in the presence of online reviews," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 316(1), pages 59-92, September.
    9. Cui Zhao & Xiaoshuai Peng & Zhendong Li, 2023. "The influence of online customer reviews on two-stage product strategy in a competitive market," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 326(1), pages 411-503, July.
    10. Fan, Huirong & Khouja, Moutaz & Gao, Jie & Zhou, Jing, 2023. "Incorporating social learning into the optimal return and pricing decisions of online retailers," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    11. Chen, Jing & Chen, Bintong & Li, Wei, 2018. "Who should be pricing leader in the presence of customer returns?," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 265(2), pages 735-747.
    12. Matsui, Kenji, 2019. "A supply chain member should set its margin later if another member's cost is highly uncertain," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 275(1), pages 127-138.
    13. Cui Zhao & Xiaojun Wang & Yongbo Xiao & Jie Sheng, 2022. "Effects of online reviews and competition on quality and pricing strategies," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 31(10), pages 3840-3858, October.
    14. Li, Feng & Du, Timon C. & Wei, Ying, 2023. "This is what’s in store for you: How online social learning affects product positioning," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    15. Tao Lu & May Yuan & Chong (Alex) Wang & Xiaoquan (Michael) Zhang, 2022. "Histogram Distortion Bias in Consumer Choices," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(12), pages 8963-8978, December.
    16. Shihong Xiao & Ying-Ju Chen & Christopher S. Tang, 2022. "Customer Review Provision Policies with Heterogeneous Cluster Preferences," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(7), pages 5025-5048, July.
    17. Scott M. Gilpatric & Youping Li, 2021. "Endogenous Price Leadership and Product Positioning," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 58(2), pages 287-302, March.
    18. Xiaofang Wang & Yaoyao Yang & Jun Zhuang, 2023. "Pricing Decisions with Social Interactions: A Game-Theoretic Model," Decision Analysis, INFORMS, vol. 20(1), pages 40-54, March.
    19. Bikram P. Ghosh & Michael R. Galbreth, 2023. "The weight of the crowd, social information credibility, and firm strategy," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 32(4), pages 1079-1095, April.
    20. Kempf, Hubert & Rota-Graziosi, Grégoire, 2010. "Endogenizing leadership in tax competition," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(9-10), pages 768-776, October.

    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:wly:mgtdec:v:43:y:2022:i:6:p:2326-2346. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/7976 .

    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.