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Group Buying Commitment and Sellers’ Competitive Advantages

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  • Yuxin Chen
  • Xinxin Li

Abstract

This paper examines a model of duopoly firms selling to an exogenously formed buyer group consisting of members with heterogeneous preferences. Two research questions are addressed: (1) when is it optimal for a buyer group to commit to exclusive purchase from a single seller, and (2) how does the presence of group buying and the exclusive purchase commitment associated with it affect firms’ incentives to invest in quality improvement? We find that, even though exclusive purchase commitment benefits buyers when the competing products provide similar quality, it may lower buyer surplus if one product is significantly advantaged and/or the competing products are not highly differentiated horizontally. This result is robust even if the buyer group is formed endogenously. In addition, contingent on the similarity between the competing sellers’ investment costs, the sellers’ incentives to improve quality may be positively or negatively affected by the presence of group buying.

Suggested Citation

  • Yuxin Chen & Xinxin Li, 2013. "Group Buying Commitment and Sellers’ Competitive Advantages," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(1), pages 164-183, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jemstr:v:22:y:2013:i:1:p:164-183
    DOI: jems.12000
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Jeon, Doh-Shin & Menicucci, Domenico, 2014. "Buyer Group and Buyer Power When Sellers Compete," TSE Working Papers 14-543, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE), revised Nov 2017.
    3. Vernon N. Hsu & Guoming Lai & Baozhuang Niu & Wenqiang Xiao, 2017. "Leader-Based Collective Bargaining: Cooperation Mechanism and Incentive Analysis," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 19(1), pages 72-83, February.
    4. Jeon, Doh-Shin & Menicucci, Domenico, 2019. "On the unprofitability of buyer groups when sellers compete," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 265-288.
    5. Isabel Helmrath & Matthias Hunold & Johannes Muthers, 2022. "Joint procurement by heterogeneous buyers," Economics working papers 2022-14, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
    6. Chen, Ting & Xiong, Yu, 2024. "Product positioning of low-carbon products based on blockchain-enabled product communities," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    7. Doh-Shin Jeon & Domenico Menicucci, 2017. "The Benefits of Diverse Preferences in Library Consortia," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 65(1), pages 105-135, March.
    8. David E. Mills, 2017. "Buyer‐Induced Exclusive Dealing," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 84(1), pages 66-81, July.
    9. Jeon, Doh-Shin & Menicucci, Domenico, 2013. "When Is Building a Library Consortium Beneficial?," IDEI Working Papers 791, Institut d'Économie Industrielle (IDEI), Toulouse, revised 07 Apr 2014.
    10. Zhou, Yuan & Xie, Jinxing, 2014. "Potentially self-defeating: Group buying in a two-tier supply chain," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 42-52.

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