Taking industry structuring seriously: A strategic perspective on product differentiation

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Makadok, Richard; Ross, David Gaddis
• 署名单位: Emory University; Columbia University
• 刊物名称: STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0143-2095
• DOI: 10.1002/smj.2033
• 发表日期: 2013
• 页码: 509-532
• 关键词: product differentiation; industry structure; Competitive advantage; Rivalry; collusion

摘要

Given legal impediments to consolidation and collusion, firms often resort to product differentiation to attain market power. This paper provides a formal analysis of product differentiation as a tool for such industry structuring at both the firm and industry level. We examine: how industry structure differs when firms collaborate on their differentiation decisions, and when the profitability of such collaboration is greatest; how an individual firm's differentiation decisions affect subsequent market outcomes under price competition, such as margin, market share, and profit; how mere differentiation differs from a differentiation advantage'; and how changing a firm's differentiation affects its rivals through both positive externalities (by restraining rivalry) and negative externalities (by shifting competitive advantage). Our results have implications for empirical research, strategy theory, and pedagogy.