IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/revind/v42y2013i1p1-23.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Entry and Exit Behavior in the Absence of Sunk Costs: Evidence from a Price Comparison Site

Author

Listed:
  • Michelle Haynes
  • Steve Thompson

Abstract

This paper explores entry and exit at a price comparison site (PCS) where the sunk costs of participation are effectively zero. We first use an unbalanced panel of 295 products on NexTag.com to estimate an error correction model of net entry. Although the results support our characterization of the PCS as a zero sunk cost market in which potential sellers behave as Kirznerian entrepreneurs in responding to opportunities, it is clear the net entry flow involves participants with widely differing behavior. This is investigated by examining exit and re-entry decisions at the seller level, which reveal that size and reputation determine individual responses to market opportunities. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, LLC. 2013

Suggested Citation

  • Michelle Haynes & Steve Thompson, 2013. "Entry and Exit Behavior in the Absence of Sunk Costs: Evidence from a Price Comparison Site," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 42(1), pages 1-23, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:revind:v:42:y:2013:i:1:p:1-23
    DOI: 10.1007/s11151-012-9358-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11151-012-9358-4
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11151-012-9358-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Joel Waldfogel & Lu Chen, 2006. "Does Information Undermine Brand? Information Intermediary Use And Preference For Branded Web Retailers," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(4), pages 425-449, December.
    2. Karen Clay & Ramayya Krishnan & Eric Wolff, 2001. "Prices and Price Dispersion on the Web: Evidence from the Online Book Industry," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(4), pages 521-539, December.
    3. Varian, Hal R, 1980. "A Model of Sales," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(4), pages 651-659, September.
    4. Baumol, William J, 1982. "Contestable Markets: An Uprising in the Theory of Industry Structure," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 72(1), pages 1-15, March.
    5. Ganesh Iyer & Amit Pazgal, 2003. "Internet Shopping Agents: Virtual Co-Location and Competition," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(1), pages 85-106, November.
    6. Michael R. Baye & John Morgan & Patrick Scholten, 2006. "Persistent Price Dispersion in Online Markets," Chapters, in: Dennis W. Jansen (ed.), The New Economy and Beyond, chapter 6, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    7. Steve Thompson, 2009. "Grey Power: An Empirical Investigation of the Impact of Parallel Imports on Market Prices," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 9(3), pages 219-232, September.
    8. Cotterill, Ronald W & Haller, Lawrence E, 1992. "Barrier and Queue Effects: A Study of Leading U.S. Supermarket Chain Entry Patterns," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(4), pages 427-440, December.
    9. Michael R. Baye & John Morgan & Patrick Scholten, 2004. "Temporal Price Dispersion: Evidence from an Online Consumer Electronics Market," Working Papers 2004-04, Indiana University, Kelley School of Business, Department of Business Economics and Public Policy.
    10. Haynes, Michelle & Thompson, Steve, 2008. "Price, price dispersion and number of sellers at a low entry cost shopbot," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 459-472, March.
    11. Mitsuru Igami, 2011. "Does Big Drive Out Small?," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 38(1), pages 1-21, January.
    12. Michael R. Baye & John Morgan, 2001. "Information Gatekeepers on the Internet and the Competitiveness of Homogeneous Product Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(3), pages 454-474, June.
    13. Steven Salop & Joseph Stiglitz, 1977. "Bargains and Ripoffs: A Model of Monopolistically Competitive Price Dispersion," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 44(3), pages 493-510.
    14. Michael R. Baye & J. Rupert J. Gatti & Paul Kattuman & John Morgan, 2009. "Clicks, Discontinuities, and Firm Demand Online," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(4), pages 935-975, December.
    15. Stigler, George J., 2011. "Economics of Information," Ekonomicheskaya Politika / Economic Policy, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, vol. 5, pages 35-49.
    16. Stranger, Greg & Greenstein, Shane, 2008. "Pricing in the shadow of firm turnover: ISPs during the 1990s," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 625-642, May.
    17. Carree, M. A. & Thurik, A. R., 1999. "The carrying capacity and entry and exit flows in retailing," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 17(7), pages 985-1007, October.
    18. Rosenthal, Robert W, 1980. "A Model in Which an Increase in the Number of Sellers Leads to a Higher Price," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(6), pages 1575-1579, September.
    19. repec:bla:jindec:v:49:y:2001:i:4:p:521-39 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Geroski, P. A., 1995. "What do we know about entry?," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 421-440, December.
    21. Dennis W. Jansen (ed.), 2006. "The New Economy and Beyond," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 3965.
    22. Ganesh Iyer & Amit Pazgal, 2003. "Erratum: Internet Shopping Agents: Virtual Co-Location and Competition," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(2), pages 271-271, November.
    23. Fotopoulos, Georgios & Spence, Nigel, 1999. "Net entry behaviour in Greek manufacturing: consumer, intermediate and capital goods industries," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 17(8), pages 1219-1230, November.
    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. Cao, Zong-Hong & Zhou, Yong-Wu & Zhao, Ju & Li, Chang-Wen, 2015. "Entry mode selection and its impact on an incumbent supply chain coordination," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 1-13.
    2. Lindgren, Charlie & Daunfeldt, Sven-Olov & Rudholm, Niklas, 2021. "Pricing In Retail Markets With Low Search Costs: Evidence From A Price Comparison Website," HFI Working Papers 18, Institute of Retail Economics (Handelns Forskningsinstitut).
    3. Stephen McDonald & Colin Wren, 2018. "Multibrand pricing as a strategy for consumer search obfuscation in online markets," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(2), pages 171-187, June.

    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. Lindgren, Charlie & Daunfeldt, Sven-Olov & Rudholm, Niklas, 2021. "Pricing In Retail Markets With Low Search Costs: Evidence From A Price Comparison Website," HFI Working Papers 18, Institute of Retail Economics (Handelns Forskningsinstitut).
    2. Michael R. Baye & J. Rupert J. Gatti & Paul Kattuman & John Morgan, 2009. "Clicks, Discontinuities, and Firm Demand Online," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(4), pages 935-975, December.
    3. Ratchford, Brian T., 2009. "Online Pricing: Review and Directions for Research," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 82-90.
    4. Ramnath K. Chellappa & Raymond G. Sin & S. Siddarth, 2011. "Price Formats as a Source of Price Dispersion: A Study of Online and Offline Prices in the Domestic U.S. Airline Markets," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 22(1), pages 83-98, March.
    5. Xulia González & Daniel Miles-Touya, 2018. "Price dispersion, chain heterogeneity, and search in online grocery markets," SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 9(1), pages 115-139, March.
    6. Ya-Ling Chiu & Jiangze Du & Jying-Nan Wang, 2022. "The Effects of Price Dispersion on Sales in the Automobile Industry: A Dynamic Panel Analysis," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(3), pages 21582440221, August.
    7. Haynes, Michelle & Thompson, Steve, 2008. "Price, price dispersion and number of sellers at a low entry cost shopbot," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 459-472, March.
    8. Tang, Zhulei & Smith, Michael D. & Montgomery, Alan, 2010. "The impact of shopbot use on prices and price dispersion: Evidence from online book retailing," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 28(6), pages 579-590, November.
    9. Bing Jing, 2007. "Product differentiation under imperfect information: When does offering a lower quality pay?," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 35-61, March.
    10. Gatti, J.R.J. & Kattuman, P., 2003. "Online Price Dispersion Within and Between Seven European Countries," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0343, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    11. Morgan, John & Orzen, Henrik & Sefton, Martin, 2006. "An experimental study of price dispersion," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 134-158, January.
    12. Dmitri Kuksov & Ashutosh Prasad & Mohammad Zia, 2017. "In-Store Advertising by Competitors," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 36(3), pages 402-425, May.
    13. Kenneth Gillingham, Hao Deng, Ryan Wiser, Naim Darghouth, Gregory Nemet, Galen Barbose, Varun Rai, and Changgui Dong, 2016. "Deconstructing Solar Photovoltaic Pricing," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3).
    14. Michael R. Baye & John Morgan, 2009. "Brand and Price Advertising in Online Markets," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 55(7), pages 1139-1151, July.
    15. Anania, Giovanni & Nisticò, Rosanna, 2014. "Price dispersion and seller heterogeneity in retail food markets," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 190-201.
    16. Anania, Giovanni & Nistico, Rosanna, 2012. "Price dispersion, search costs and consumers and sellers heterogeneity in retail food markets," 2012 Conference, August 18-24, 2012, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil 125594, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    17. Hackl, Franz & Kummer, Michael E. & Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf & Zulehner, Christine, 2014. "Market structure and market performance in E-commerce," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 199-218.
    18. Mark Armstrong & John Vickers, 2022. "Patterns of Competitive Interaction," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 90(1), pages 153-191, January.
    19. Alan L. Montgomery & Kartik Hosanagar & Ramayya Krishnan & Karen B. Clay, 2004. "Designing a Better Shopbot," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 50(2), pages 189-206, February.
    20. Carlin, Bruce I., 2009. "Strategic price complexity in retail financial markets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(3), pages 278-287, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Zero sunk costs; Entry and exit; Kirznerian entrepreneurs; L81; M13; L11;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L81 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Retail and Wholesale Trade; e-Commerce
    • M13 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - New Firms; Startups
    • L11 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms

    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:kap:revind:v:42:y:2013:i:1:p:1-23. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.