IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pdn/ciepap/91.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Strategic Formation of Customer Relationship Networks

Author

Listed:
  • Sonja Brangewitz

    (University of Paderborn)

  • Claus-Jochen Haake

    (University of Paderborn)

  • Philipp Moehlmeier

    (Bielefeld University)

Abstract

We analyze the stability of networks when two intermediaries strategically form costly links to customers. We interpret these links as customer relationships that enable trade to sell a product. Equilibrium prices and equilibrium quantities on the output as well as on the input market are determined endogenously for a given network of customer relationships. We investigate in how far the substitutability of the intermediaries' products and the costs of link formation influence the intermediaries' equilibrium profits and thus have an impact on the incentives to strategically form relationships to customers. For networks with three customers we characterize locally stable networks, in particular existence is guaranteed for any degree of substitutability. Moreover for the special cases of perfect complements, independent products and perfect substitutes, local stability coincides with the stronger concept of Nash stability. Additionally, for networks with n customers we analyze stability regions for selected networks and determine their limits when n goes to infinity. It turns out that the shape of the stability regions for those networks does not significantly change compared to a setting with a small number of customers.

Suggested Citation

  • Sonja Brangewitz & Claus-Jochen Haake & Philipp Moehlmeier, 2015. "Strategic Formation of Customer Relationship Networks," Working Papers CIE 91, Paderborn University, CIE Center for International Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:pdn:ciepap:91
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://groups.uni-paderborn.de/wp-wiwi/RePEc/pdf/ciepap/WP91.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dawid, Herbert & Hellmann, Tim, 2014. "The evolution of R&D networks," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 158-172.
    2. Stuart, Harborne Jr, 1997. "The supplier-firm-buyer game and its m-sided generalization," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 21-27, August.
    3. Goyal, Sanjeev & Joshi, Sumit, 2004. "Erratum to "Networks of collaboration in oligopoly": [Games Econ. Behav. 43 (1) (2003) 57-85]," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 219-219, January.
    4. John William Hatfield & Scott Duke Kominers, 2012. "Matching in Networks with Bilateral Contracts," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 4(1), pages 176-208, February.
    5. Adam M. Brandenburger & Harborne W. Stuart, 1996. "Value‐based Business Strategy," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(1), pages 5-24, March.
    6. John William Hatfield & Ravi Jagadeesan & Scott Duke Kominers, 2020. "Matching in Networks with Bilateral Contracts: Corrigendum," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 12(3), pages 277-285, August.
    7. Michael Ostrovsky, 2008. "Stability in Supply Chain Networks," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(3), pages 897-923, June.
    8. Anna Nagurney & Tilman Wolf, 2014. "A Cournot–Nash–Bertrand game theory model of a service-oriented Internet with price and quality competition among network transport providers," Computational Management Science, Springer, vol. 11(4), pages 475-502, October.
    9. Rachel E. Kranton & Deborah F. Minehart, 2001. "A Theory of Buyer-Seller Networks," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(3), pages 485-508, June.
    10. Hatfield, John William & Kominers, Scott Duke, 2013. "Vacancies in supply chain networks," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 119(3), pages 354-357.
    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. Ata Atay & Marina Núñez, 2019. "Multi-sided assignment games on m-partite graphs," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 279(1), pages 271-290, August.
    2. Nava, Francesco, 2015. "Efficiency in decentralized oligopolistic markets," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 315-348.
    3. Itkonen, Juha, 2017. "Efficiency and dependency in a network of linked permit markets," Bank of Finland Research Discussion Papers 20/2017, Bank of Finland.
    4. Hatfield, John William & Kominers, Scott Duke, 2017. "Contract design and stability in many-to-many matching," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 78-97.
    5. Hatfield, John William & Kominers, Scott Duke, 2013. "Vacancies in supply chain networks," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 119(3), pages 354-357.
    6. Bando, Keisuke & Hirai, Toshiyuki, 2021. "Stability and venture structures in multilateral matching," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    7. Klijn, Flip & Yazıcı, Ayşe, 2014. "A many-to-many ‘rural hospital theorem’," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 63-73.
    8. Chao Huang, 2023. "Multilateral matching with scale economies," Papers 2310.19479, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2025.
    9. Quint, Daniel, 2014. "Imperfect competition with complements and substitutes," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 266-290.
    10. Marzena Rostek & Nathan Yoder, 2020. "Matching With Complementary Contracts," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 88(5), pages 1793-1827, September.
    11. Tayfun Sönmez & Tobias B. Switzer, 2013. "Matching With (Branch‐of‐Choice) Contracts at the United States Military Academy," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 81(2), pages 451-488, March.
    12. Adachi, Hiroyuki, 2017. "Stable matchings and fixed points in trading networks: A note," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 65-67.
    13. P. Jean‐Jacques Herings & Yu Zhou, 2022. "Competitive Equilibria In Matching Models With Financial Constraints," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 63(2), pages 777-802, May.
    14. Herings, P. Jean-Jacques, 2018. "Equilibrium and matching under price controls," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 222-244.
    15. Tam'as Fleiner & Zsuzsanna Jank'o & Ildik'o Schlotter & Alexander Teytelboym, 2018. "Complexity of Stability in Trading Networks," Papers 1805.08758, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2019.
    16. Hatfield, John William & Plott, Charles R. & Tanaka, Tomomi, 2016. "Price controls, non-price quality competition, and the nonexistence of competitive equilibrium," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 134-163.
    17. Scott Duke Kominers & Alexander Teytelboym & Vincent P Crawford, 2017. "An invitation to market design," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 33(4), pages 541-571.
    18. Kadam, Sangram Vilasrao, 2017. "Unilateral substitutability implies substitutable completability in many-to-one matching with contracts," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 56-68.
    19. Hatfield, John William & Immorlica, Nicole & Kominers, Scott Duke, 2012. "Testing substitutability," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 75(2), pages 639-645.
    20. Kominers, Scott Duke & Hatfield, John William & Nichifor, Alexandru & Ostrovsky, Michael & Westkamp, Alexander, 2021. "Chain stability in trading networks," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 16(1), January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • C70 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - General
    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection
    • D85 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Network Formation
    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:pdn:ciepap:91. 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: WP-WiWi-Info The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask WP-WiWi-Info to update the entry or send us the correct address or the person in charge The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask the person in charge to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cipadde.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.