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Organizational Design and the Intensity of Rivalry

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  • Govert Vroom

    (Krannert School of Management, Purdue University, 403 West State Street, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907)

Abstract

We analyze the effect of managerial compensation schemes and organizational structure on competitive behavior in imperfectly competitive product markets. Previous research suggests that in cases of strategic substitutability, firms tend to choose organizational structures and compensation systems that commit the firm to behaving aggressively in the product market, reducing firm and industry profits. In contrast, we show that while compensation and structure in isolation lead to excessive aggressiveness, the combination of these two internal choice variables may reverse the outcome--organizational design can be used as a commitment device to reduce competitive rivalry. Finally, we find that in equilibrium, firms may choose to be different; one firm is decentralized and uses incentives that commit it to being aggressive, while the other is centralized and uses incentives that commit it to being soft. Hence, endogenous firm heterogeneity in the form of organizational differentiation allows firms to avoid a mutually detrimental outcome.

Suggested Citation

  • Govert Vroom, 2006. "Organizational Design and the Intensity of Rivalry," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(11), pages 1689-1702, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:52:y:2006:i:11:p:1689-1702
    DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.1060.0586
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Tobias Kretschmer & Phanish Puranam, 2008. "Integration Through Incentives Within Differentiated Organizations," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 19(6), pages 860-875, December.
    2. Alex Dickson & Ian A. MacKenzie & Petros G. Sekeris, 2022. "Non‐linear revenue evaluation," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 69(5), pages 487-505, November.
    3. Thépot, Jacques & Netzer, Jean-Luc, 2008. "On the optimality of the full-cost pricing," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 282-292, October.
    4. David Gaddis Ross, 2012. "On Evaluation Costs in Strategic Factor Markets: The Implications for Competition and Organizational Design," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(4), pages 791-804, April.
    5. Rupayan Pal, 2010. "Cooperative Managerial Delegation, R&D And Collusion," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(2), pages 155-169, April.
    6. Xingguang Chen & Zhentao Zhu, 2019. "Interactional Effects Between Individual Heterogeneity and Collective Behavior in Complex Organizational Systems," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 53(1), pages 289-313, January.
    7. Yang, Yadi, 2021. "Experiments on the hold-up problem and delegation," Other publications TiSEM b564ed18-ab0b-4eb1-8188-3, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    8. Buccella Domenico & Meccheri Nicola, 2024. "Management Centrality in Sequential Bargaining: Implications for Strategic Delegation, Welfare, and Stakeholder Conflict," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 24(1), pages 159-193, January.
    9. Fariza ACHCAOUCAOU & Merce BERNARDO & Jose M. CASTAN, 2009. "Determinants of Organisational Structures: An Empirical Study," REVISTA DE MANAGEMENT COMPARAT INTERNATIONAL/REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL COMPARATIVE MANAGEMENT, Faculty of Management, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 10(3), pages 566-577, July.
    10. Yasuhiro Arai & Noriaki Matsushima, 2023. "The impacts of suppliers and mutual outsourcing on organizational forms," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 56(1), pages 114-132, February.
    11. Jumpei Hamamura, 2022. "Weight assigned to a rival's profit by an advantaged firm in relative performance evaluation with Cournot–Bertrand competition," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(7), pages 2838-2844, October.
    12. Christian Ruzzier & Ricard Gil, 2015. "’Make or Buy’ as Competitive Strategy: Evidence from the Spanish Local TV Industry," Working Papers 119, Universidad de San Andres, Departamento de Economia, revised Feb 2015.
    13. Alex Dickson & Ian A. MacKenzie & Petros G. Sekeris, 2019. "Non-linear revenue evaluation in oligopoly," Discussion Papers Series 611, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    14. Metin Sengul, 2019. "Organization design as a competitive choice: an application to the study of innovation," Journal of Organization Design, Springer;Organizational Design Community, vol. 8(1), pages 1-9, December.
    15. Ricard Gil & Christian A. Ruzzier, 2018. "The Impact of Competition on “Make-or-Buy” Decisions: Evidence from the Spanish Local TV Industry," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(3), pages 1121-1135, March.
    16. Hamamura, Jumpei, 2019. "Unobservable transfer price exceeds marginal cost when the manager is evaluated using a balanced scorecard," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 22-28.
    17. Olivier Chatain, 2014. "How do strategic factor markets respond to rivalry in the product market?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(13), pages 1952-1971, December.

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