IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wut/journl/v3y2013p71-89id1089.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Price patterns in an oligopoly with switching cost and uncertain demand

Author

Listed:
  • Mateusz Zawisza
  • Bogumił Kamiński

Abstract

Characteristics of price patterns have been investigated in an oligopoly market with costs for switching a provider. Two regimes of a company’s access to information have been considered. In the benchmark scenario, firms make decisions based on perfect information about demand. In the other – more realistic scenario – they conduct market research to estimate an unknown demand curve and therefore face uncertainty regarding their profit function, which in turn leads to suboptimal decision making. The authors inspected how a company’s access to information on demand, costs for switching a provider and the rate of market renewal influence price patterns on the market. It has been shown that positive switching cost is a sufficient condition for price dispersion, as well as imperfect information about the company's profit function, e.g. from market research. The average price under the perfect information regime is lower than under market research based price setting, a higher switching cost makes it easier for companies to coordinate their prices and a higher rate of market renewal softens the influence of the switching cost on market price.

Suggested Citation

  • Mateusz Zawisza & Bogumił Kamiński, 2013. "Price patterns in an oligopoly with switching cost and uncertain demand," Operations Research and Decisions, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Faculty of Management, vol. 23(3), pages 71-89.
  • Handle: RePEc:wut:journl:v:3:y:2013:p:71-89:id:1089
    DOI: 10.5277/ord130306
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ord.pwr.edu.pl/assets/papers_archive/1089%20-%20published.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.5277/ord130306?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. Jean Tirole, 1988. "The Theory of Industrial Organization," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262200716, December.
    2. Perloff, Jeffrey M & Salop, Steven, 1984. "Equilibrium with product differentiation," Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley, Working Paper Series qt4cq0m6s3, Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley.
    3. Spiegler, Ran, 2014. "Bounded Rationality and Industrial Organization," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199334261, Decembrie.
    4. Samuelson, William & Zeckhauser, Richard, 1988. "Status Quo Bias in Decision Making," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 7-59, March.
    5. Jeffrey M. Perloff & Steven C. Salop, 1985. "Equilibrium with Product Differentiation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 52(1), pages 107-120.
    6. Schmalensee, Richard, 1983. "Product Differentiation Advantages of Pioneering Brands: Errata," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 73(1), pages 250-250, March.
    7. Schmalensee, Richard, 1982. "Product Differentiation Advantages of Pioneering Brands," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 72(3), pages 349-365, June.
    8. Beggs, Alan W & Klemperer, Paul, 1992. "Multi-period Competition with Switching Costs," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 60(3), pages 651-666, May.
    9. Paul Klemperer, 1987. "The Competitiveness of Markets with Switching Costs," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 18(1), pages 138-150, Spring.
    10. Vega-Redondo,Fernando, 2003. "Economics and the Theory of Games," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521772518, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. repec:wut:journl:v:3:y:2013:id:1089 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Guy Aridor & Yishay Mansour & Aleksandrs Slivkins & Zhiwei Steven Wu, 2020. "Competing Bandits: The Perils of Exploration Under Competition," Papers 2007.10144, arXiv.org, revised Oct 2024.
    3. Susanne Wied-Nebbeling, 2007. "Fringe firms: Are they better off in a heterogeneous market?," Working Paper Series in Economics 31, University of Cologne, Department of Economics.
    4. Wisnicki, Bartlomiej, 2022. "Consumer inertia fosters product quality," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    5. Simon P. Anderson & Regis Renault, 1999. "Pricing, Product Diversity, and Search Costs: A Bertrand-Chamberlin-Diamond Model," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 30(4), pages 719-735, Winter.
    6. repec:ags:aaea22:343858 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Allen N. Berger & Astrid A. Dick, 2007. "Entry into Banking Markets and the Early‐Mover Advantage," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 39(4), pages 775-807, June.
    8. Horst Raff & Marc von der Ruhr, 2007. "Foreign Direct Investment in Producer Services: Theory and Empirical Evidence," Applied Economics Quarterly (formerly: Konjunkturpolitik), Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, vol. 53(3), pages 299-321.
    9. Giuliano Masiero & Hugh Gravelle, 2000. "Quality incentives under a capitation regime: the role of patient expectations," Departmental Working Papers 2000-07, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.
    10. Richard G. Frank & David S. Salkever, 1991. "Pricing, Patent Loss and the Market For Pharmaceuticals," NBER Working Papers 3803, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Raff, Horst & Kim, Young-Han, 1999. "Optimal export policy in the presence of informational barriers to entry and imperfect competition," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 99-123, October.
    12. Giovanni B. Ramello, 2006. "What'S In A Sign ? Trademark Law And Economic Theory," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(4), pages 547-565, September.
    13. Tufano, Peter, 1989. "Financial innovation and first-mover advantages," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 213-240, December.
    14. Chen, Yongmin & Rosenthal, Robert W., 1996. "Dynamic duopoly with slowly changing customer loyalties," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 269-296, May.
    15. Unterschultz, James R. & Lerohl, Mel L. & Peng, Yanning & Gurung, Rajendra Kumar, 1998. "A Nutraceutical Industry: Policy Implications for Future Directions," Project Report Series 24051, University of Alberta, Department of Resource Economics and Environmental Sociology.
    16. Charles J. Thomas, 2014. "How the Nature of Product Differentiation Affects Procurement Competition," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 81(2), pages 323-344, October.
    17. Geroski, P. A., 2000. "Models of technology diffusion," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(4-5), pages 603-625, April.
    18. Gravelle, Hugh & Masiero, Giuliano, 2000. "Quality incentives in a regulated market with imperfect information and switching costs: capitation in general practice," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(6), pages 1067-1088, November.
    19. Ushchev, Philip & Zenou, Yves, 2018. "Price competition in product variety networks," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 226-247.
    20. Mitsukuni Nishida, 2025. "Entry Order, Performance, And Geography: The Case Of The Convenience‐Store Industry In Japan," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 66(2), pages 787-822, May.
    21. Zan Zhang & Guofang Nan & Minqiang Li & Yong Tan, 2022. "Competitive Entry of Information Goods Under Quality Uncertainty," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(4), pages 2869-2888, April.
    22. Ernst R. Berndt & Linda T. Bui & David H. Lucking-Reiley & Glen L. Urban, 1996. "The Roles of Marketing, Product Quality, and Price Competition in the Growth and Composition of the U.S. Antiulcer Drug Industry," NBER Chapters, in: The Economics of New Goods, pages 277-328, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    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:wut:journl:v:3:y:2013:p:71-89:id:1089. 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: Adam Kasperski (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iopwrpl.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.