IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/81522.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Mechanism behind Product Differentiation: An Economic Model

Author

Listed:
  • Harashima, Taiji

Abstract

The strategy of product differentiation has been viewed as very important in the field of business administration, but it has not necessarily been viewed as an important source of large differences in firms’ profits in the field of economics. In this paper, this apparent contradiction is examined based on the concepts of “ranking preference and value.” In the proposed model, if a product’s implicit rank is higher, households will purchase the product far more often than competing products even if their qualities are almost identical and the tastes of households are uniformly distributed. Even a slight difference in quality can result in a clear difference in implicit ranks and consequently large differences in firms’ profits. Therefore, the effects of differentiation are amplified by ranking preference, and product differentiation efforts are truly very important for firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Harashima, Taiji, 2017. "The Mechanism behind Product Differentiation: An Economic Model," MPRA Paper 81522, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:81522
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/81522/1/MPRA_paper_81522.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Suresh Kotha & Bhatt L. Vadlamani, 1995. "Assessing generic strategies: An empirical investigation of two competing typologies in discrete manufacturing industries," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(1), pages 75-83.
    2. Adler, Moshe, 1985. "Stardom and Talent," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(1), pages 208-212, March.
    3. Lex Borghans & Loek Groot, 1998. "Superstardom and Monopolistic Power: Why Media Stars Earn More Than Their Marginal Contribution to Welfare," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 154(3), pages 546-546, September.
    4. Avner Shaked & John Sutton, 1982. "Relaxing Price Competition Through Product Differentiation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 49(1), pages 3-13.
    5. Victor Ginsburgh & David Throsby, 2006. "Handbook of the economics of art and culture," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/1673, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    6. Lillis, Anne M., 2002. "Managing multiple dimensions of manufacturing performance -- an exploratory study," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 497-529, August.
    7. Jaskold Gabszewicz, J. & Thisse, J. -F., 1979. "Price competition, quality and income disparities," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 340-359, June.
    8. Arnoud De Meyer & Jinichiro Nakane & Jeffrey G. Miller & Kasra Ferdows, 1989. "Flexibility: The next competitive battle the manufacturing futures survey," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(2), pages 135-144, March.
    9. Steven C. Salop, 1979. "Monopolistic Competition with Outside Goods," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 10(1), pages 141-156, Spring.
    10. Harashima, Taiji, 2016. "Ranking Value and Preference: A Model of Superstardom," MPRA Paper 74626, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Baines, Annette & Langfield-Smith, Kim, 2003. "Antecedents to management accounting change: a structural equation approach," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 28(7-8), pages 675-698.
    12. Jaskold Gabszewicz, J. & Thisse, J. -F., 1980. "Entry (and exit) in a differentiated industry," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 327-338, April.
    13. Adler, Moshe, 2006. "Stardom and Talent," Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture, in: V.A. Ginsburgh & D. Throsby (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 25, pages 895-906, Elsevier.
    14. Suresh Kotha & Daniel Orne, 1989. "Generic manufacturing strategies: A conceptual synthesis," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(3), pages 211-231, May.
    15. J. Solnick, Sara & Hemenway, David, 1998. "Is more always better?: A survey on positional concerns," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 373-383, 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. Harashima, Taiji, 2018. "Superstars in Team Sports: An Economic Model," MPRA Paper 86360, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Harashima, Taiji, 2019. "Why Is Executive Compensation So High? A Model of Executive Compensation," MPRA Paper 91326, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    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. Harashima, Taiji, 2018. "Superstars in Team Sports: An Economic Model," MPRA Paper 86360, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Harashima, Taiji, 2016. "Ranking Value and Preference: A Model of Superstardom," MPRA Paper 74626, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Corchón Luis Carlos & Zudenkova Galina, 2013. "The Welfare Effects of Location and Quality in Oligopoly," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 13(2), pages 1143-1178, July.
    4. Budzinski, Oliver & Kohlschreiber, Marie & Kuchinke, Björn & Pannicke, Julia, 2019. "Does music quality matter for audience voters in a music contest?," Ilmenau Economics Discussion Papers 122, Ilmenau University of Technology, Institute of Economics.
    5. Kurt R. Brekke & Luigi Siciliani & Odd Rune Straume, 2017. "Horizontal mergers and product quality," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 50(4), pages 1063-1103, November.
    6. Tauman, Yair & Urbano, Amparo & Watanabe, Junichi, 1997. "A Model of Multiproduct Price Competition," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 77(2), pages 377-401, December.
    7. Budzinski, Oliver & Pannicke, Julia, 2017. "Does popularity matter in a TV song competition? Evidence from a national music contest," Ilmenau Economics Discussion Papers 106, Ilmenau University of Technology, Institute of Economics.
    8. Etro, Federico, 2016. "Research in economics and industrial organization," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(4), pages 511-517.
    9. Alessio Emanuele Biondo & Alfio Giarlotta & Alessandro Pluchino & Andrea Rapisarda, 2016. "Perfect Information vs Random Investigation: Safety Guidelines for a Consumer in the Jungle of Product Differentiation," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(1), pages 1-26, January.
    10. Moresi, Serge & Schwartz, Marius, 2023. "Product innovation with vertical differentiation: Is a monopolist's incentive weaker?," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    11. Popovic, Milenko, 2009. "Dynamic Models of Arts Labor Supply," MPRA Paper 19397, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Gulati, Namrata & Ray, Tridip, 2016. "Inequality, neighbourhoods and welfare of the poor," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 214-228.
    13. Olmos, Marta Fernandez & Martinez, Jorge Rosell, 2011. "The Quality-Quantity Trade-off in the Principal-Agent Framework," Agricultural Economics Review, Greek Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 11(1), pages 1-12, January.
    14. Roy, Malabika, 2006. "Effect of subsidy and entry into the informal sector with interlinkage," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 383-397.
    15. Fullerton, Don & Metcalf, Gilbert E., 2002. "Tax incidence," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 26, pages 1787-1872, Elsevier.
    16. Dieter Pennerstorfer & Nora Schindler & Christoph Weiss & Biliana Yontcheva, 2020. "Income Inequality and Product Variety: Empirical Evidence," Economics working papers 2020-17, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
    17. L. Colombo & L. Lambertini, 2003. "Dynamic Advertising Under Vertical Product Differentiation," Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, Springer, vol. 119(2), pages 261-280, November.
    18. Cellini, Roberto & Siciliani, Luigi & Straume, Odd Rune, 2018. "A dynamic model of quality competition with endogenous prices," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 190-206.
    19. Brekke, Kurt R. & Siciliani, Luigi & Straume, Odd Rune, 2010. "Price and quality in spatial competition," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 471-480, November.
    20. Bergemann, Dirk & Valimaki, Juuso, 2002. "Entry and Vertical Differentiation," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 106(1), pages 91-125, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Product differentiation; Ranking preference; Ranking value; Monopoly power: Monopoly profits; Marketing strategy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D42 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Monopoly
    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection
    • M10 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - General
    • M31 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Marketing and Advertising - - - Marketing
    • M37 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Marketing and Advertising - - - Advertising

    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:pra:mprapa:81522. 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.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.