IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/vnm/wpdman/154.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Hotelling-Bertrand duopoly competition under firrm-specific network e effects

Author

Listed:
  • Marco Tolotti

    (Dept. of Management, Università Ca' Foscari Venice)

  • Jorge Yepez

    (Dept. of Economics, Università Ca' Foscari Venice)

Abstract

When dealing with consumer choices, social pressure plays a crucial role; also in the context of market competition, the impact of network/social effects has been largely recognized. However, the effects of firm-specifc social recognition on market equilibria has never been addressed so far. In this paper, we consider a duopoly where competing firms are differentiated solely by the level of social (or network) externality they induce on consumers' perceived utility. We fully characterize the subgame perfect Nash equilibria in locations, prices and market shares. Under a scenario of weak social externality, the firms opt for maximal differentiation and the one with the highest social recognition has a relative advantage in terms of profits. Surprisingly, this outcome is not persistent; excessive social recognition may lead to adverse coordination of consumers: the strongest firm can eventually be thrown out of the market with positive probability. This scenario is related to a Pareto inefficient trap of no differentiation.

Suggested Citation

  • Marco Tolotti & Jorge Yepez, 2018. "Hotelling-Bertrand duopoly competition under firrm-specific network e effects," Working Papers 06, Department of Management, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia.
    • Handle: RePEc:vnm:wpdman:154
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://virgo.unive.it/wpideas/storage/2018wp06.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2018
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Becker, Gary S, 1974. "A Theory of Social Interactions," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(6), pages 1063-1093, Nov.-Dec..
    2. repec:cup:cbooks:9780511771576 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Stefan Buehler & Daniel Halbheer, 2011. "Selling when Brand Image Matters," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 167(1), pages 102-118, March.
    4. Gatignon, Hubert & Robertson, Thomas S, 1985. "A Propositional Inventory for New Diffusion Research," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 11(4), pages 849-867, March.
    5. Aumann, Robert J, 1987. "Correlated Equilibrium as an Expression of Bayesian Rationality," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 55(1), pages 1-18, January.
    6. Lawrence Blume & Steven Durlauf, 2003. "Equilibrium Concepts for Social Interaction Models," International Game Theory Review (IGTR), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 5(03), pages 193-209.
    7. Vijay Mahajan & Eitan Muller & Frank M. Bass, 1995. "Diffusion of New Products: Empirical Generalizations and Managerial Uses," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 14(3_supplem), pages 79-88.
    8. Grilo, Isabel & Shy, Oz & Thisse, Jacques-Francois, 2001. "Price competition when consumer behavior is characterized by conformity or vanity," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(3), pages 385-408, June.
    9. William A. Brock & Steven N. Durlauf, 2001. "Discrete Choice with Social Interactions," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 68(2), pages 235-260.
    10. Colapinto, Cinzia & Sartori, Elena & Tolotti, Marco, 2014. "Awareness, persuasion, and adoption: Enriching the Bass model," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 395(C), pages 1-10.
    11. Gilboa, Itzhak & Matsui, Akihiko, 1991. "Social Stability and Equilibrium," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(3), pages 859-867, May.
    12. Aoyagi, Masaki, 2018. "Bertrand competition under network externalities," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 517-550.
    13. Katz, Michael L & Shapiro, Carl, 1985. "Network Externalities, Competition, and Compatibility," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(3), pages 424-440, June.
    14. Mark Armstrong, 2006. "Competition in two‐sided markets," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 37(3), pages 668-691, September.
    15. Buehler, Stefan & Halbheer, Daniel, 2012. "Persuading consumers with social attitudes," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 84(1), pages 439-450.
    16. Edward L. Glaeser & Bruce Sacerdote & José A. Scheinkman, 1996. "Crime and Social Interactions," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 111(2), pages 507-548.
    17. Griva, Krina & Vettas, Nikolaos, 2011. "Price competition in a differentiated products duopoly under network effects," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 85-97, March.
    18. George A. Akerlof, 1997. "Social Distance and Social Decisions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 65(5), pages 1005-1028, September.
    19. Enelow,James M. & Hinich,Melvin J., 1984. "The Spatial Theory of Voting," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521275156.
    20. Frank M. Bass, 1969. "A New Product Growth for Model Consumer Durables," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 15(5), pages 215-227, January.
    21. Luca Lambertini & Raimondello Orsini, 2013. "On Hotelling's ‘stability in competition’ with network externalities and switching costs," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 92(4), pages 873-883, November.
    22. Christophe Van den Bulte & Yogesh V. Joshi, 2007. "New Product Diffusion with Influentials and Imitators," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 26(3), pages 400-421, 05-06.
    23. Anthony Downs, 1957. "An Economic Theory of Political Action in a Democracy," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 65, pages 135-135.
    24. d'Aspremont, C & Gabszewicz, Jean Jaskold & Thisse, J-F, 1979. "On Hotelling's "Stability in Competition"," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 47(5), pages 1145-1150, September.
    25. Sergei Savin & Christian Terwiesch, 2005. "Optimal Product Launch Times in a Duopoly: Balancing Life-Cycle Revenues with Product Cost," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 53(1), pages 26-47, February.
    26. Ryoichi Saito & Nobuo Matsubayashi, 2018. "Sequential product positioning in the presence of an asymmetric network externality intensity," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(3), pages 320-334, April.
    27. Easley,David & Kleinberg,Jon, 2010. "Networks, Crowds, and Markets," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521195331.
    28. P.J. Lamberson & Scott E. Page, 2018. "First mover or higher quality? Optimal product strategy in markets with positive feedbacks," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(1), pages 40-52, March.
    29. Peres, Renana & Muller, Eitan & Mahajan, Vijay, 2010. "Innovation diffusion and new product growth models: A critical review and research directions," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 91-106.
    30. Nirvikar Singh & Xavier Vives, 1984. "Price and Quantity Competition in a Differentiated Duopoly," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 15(4), pages 546-554, Winter.
    31. Ehud Kalai, 2004. "Large Robust Games," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 72(6), pages 1631-1665, November.
    32. Konstantinos Serfes & Eleftherios Zacharias, 2012. "Location Decisions of Competing Networks," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(4), pages 989-1005, December.
    33. Mark Armstrong Author-Email: mark.armstrong@ucl.ac.uk Author-Workplace-Name: University College of London, 2006. "Competition in Two-Sided Markets," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 37(3), pages 668-691, Autumn.
    34. Franz Wirl, 2008. "Tragedy of the Commons in a Stochastic Game of a Stock Externality," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 10(1), pages 99-124, 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. Carlos Hernán González-Campo & Vanessa Zamora Mina, 2020. "Comportamiento de los agentes en el comercio electrónico según modelos de localización," Revista Facultad de Ciencias Económicas, Universidad Militar Nueva Granada, vol. 28(1), pages 47-65, June.
    2. Renato Soeiro & Alberto Pinto, 2021. "Group network effects in price competition," Papers 2110.05891, arXiv.org.

    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. Musatov, Daniil & Savvateev, Alexei & Weber, Shlomo, 2016. "Gale–Nikaido–Debreu and Milgrom–Shannon: Communal interactions with endogenous community structures," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 282-303.
    2. Wang, Wei & Lyu, Gaoyan, 2020. "Sequential product positioning on a platform in the presence of network effects," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 229(C).
    3. Le Breton, Michel & Weber, Shlomo, 2009. "Existence of Pure Strategies Nash Equilibria in Social Interaction Games with Dyadic Externalities," CEPR Discussion Papers 7279, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. Dunia López-Pintado & Duncan J. Watts, 2008. "Social Influence, Binary Decisions and Collective Dynamics," Rationality and Society, , vol. 20(4), pages 399-443, November.
    5. Emilio Barucci & Marco Tolotti, 2012. "Identity, reputation and social interaction with an application to sequential voting," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 7(1), pages 79-98, May.
    6. Simone Marsiglio & Marco Tolotti, 2020. "Motivation crowding‐out and green‐paradox‐like outcomes," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 22(5), pages 1559-1583, September.
    7. Yannis Ioannides, 2006. "Topologies of social interactions," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 28(3), pages 559-584, August.
    8. Savvateev, Alexei & Weber, Shlomo & Musatov, Daniil, 2015. "Gale-Nikaido-Debreu and Milgrom-Shannon: Market Interactions with Endogenous Community Structures," CEPR Discussion Papers 10641, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    9. Meihan He & Jongsu Lee, 2020. "Social culture and innovation diffusion: a theoretically founded agent-based model," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 30(4), pages 1109-1149, September.
    10. Colapinto, Cinzia & Sartori, Elena & Tolotti, Marco, 2014. "Awareness, persuasion, and adoption: Enriching the Bass model," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 395(C), pages 1-10.
    11. Steven N. Durlauf & Yannis M. Ioannides, 2010. "Social Interactions," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 2(1), pages 451-478, September.
    12. Laussel, Didier & Resende, Joana, 2014. "Dynamic price competition in aftermarkets with network effects," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 106-118.
    13. Chen, Ying-Ju & Zenou, Yves & Zhou, Junjie, 2022. "The impact of network topology and market structure on pricing," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 204(C).
    14. Blume,L.E. & Durlauf,S.N., 2005. "Identifying social interactions : a review," Working papers 12, Wisconsin Madison - Social Systems.
    15. Teck-Hua Ho & Shan Li & So-Eun Park & Zuo-Jun Max Shen, 2012. "Customer Influence Value and Purchase Acceleration in New Product Diffusion," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 31(2), pages 236-256, March.
    16. Grajzl, Peter & Baniak, Andrzej, 2012. "Mandating behavioral conformity in social groups with conformist members," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 82(2), pages 479-493.
    17. Buehler, Stefan & Halbheer, Daniel, 2012. "Persuading consumers with social attitudes," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 84(1), pages 439-450.
    18. Jullien, Bruno & Pavan, Alessandro & Rysman, Marc, 2021. "Two-sided Markets, Pricing, and Network Effects," TSE Working Papers 21-1238, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    19. Grodner, Andrew & Kniesner, Thomas J. & Bishop, John A., 2011. "Social Interactions in the Labor Market," Foundations and Trends(R) in Microeconomics, now publishers, vol. 6(4), pages 265-366, September.
    20. Alexei Parakhonyak & Nick Vikander, 2019. "Optimal Sales Schemes for Network Goods," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(2), pages 819-841, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Consumer choice game; Duopoly price competition; Hotelling Location model; Network Externalities; Large Games; Social interaction;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets
    • C72 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Noncooperative Games
    • C63 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Computational Techniques
    • D71 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Social Choice; Clubs; Committees; Associations

    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:vnm:wpdman:154. 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: Marco LiCalzi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/mdvenit.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.