IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/wzbmdy/fsiv9733.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Interdivisional information sharing: the strategic advantage of knowing nothing

Author

Listed:
  • Neubauer, Silke

Abstract

Divisional managers of multiproduct firms often only have precise information about market conditions of their own market. They may have expectations about the demand function of markets served by other divisions. When divisional profits are linked due to interrelated costs or demand parameters, it may be advantageous for a firm to provide each division with information about the other division's demand parameters. I study the incentives of owners to implement such an information structure and the value of intrafirm information sharing in a two firm - two market setting where there are interdivisional cost linkages. It is shown, that the value of bilateral information consists of a (positive) efficiency and a (negative) revenue effect, the weight of which depends on the incentive scheme used to evaluate managers. Regardless of managers' incentive scheme, owners of both firms always choose interdivisional information sharing, even if profits are lower than in a situation of noninformation.

Suggested Citation

  • Neubauer, Silke, 1997. "Interdivisional information sharing: the strategic advantage of knowing nothing," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Market Dynamics FS IV 97-33, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
  • Handle: RePEc:zbw:wzbmdy:fsiv9733
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/51185/1/250472953.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Miguel González‐Maestre, 2000. "Divisionalization and Delegation in Oligopoly," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(3), pages 321-338, June.
    2. repec:bla:econom:v:61:y:1994:i:242:p:213-19 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Richard N. Clarke, 1983. "Collusion and the Incentives for Information Sharing," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 14(2), pages 383-394, Autumn.
    4. Vives, Xavier, 1984. "Duopoly information equilibrium: Cournot and bertrand," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 71-94, October.
    5. Esther Gal-Or, 1988. "The Advantages of Imprecise Information," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 19(2), pages 266-275, Summer.
    6. Jean-Pierre Ponssard, 1976. "On the Concept of the Value of Information in Competitive Situations," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(7), pages 739-747, March.
    7. Gal-Or, Esther, 1985. "Information Sharing in Oligopoly," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 53(2), pages 329-343, March.
    8. Neubauer, Silke, 1997. "The consequences of endogenous timing for diversification strategies of multimarket firms," Discussion Papers, various Research Units FS IV 97-34, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    9. Dixon, Huw David, 1992. "Inefficient Diversification in Multimarket Oligopoly with Diseconomies of Scope," CEPR Discussion Papers 732, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    10. Steven D. Sklivas, 1987. "The Strategic Choice of Managerial Incentives," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 18(3), pages 452-458, Autumn.
    11. Alfred D. Chandler, 1969. "Strategy and Structure: Chapters in the History of the American Industrial Enterprise," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262530090, December.
    12. David J. Teece, 2003. "Towards an Economic Theory of the Multiproduct Firm," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Essays In Technology Management And Policy Selected Papers of David J Teece, chapter 15, pages 419-446, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Andreu, Enrique & Neven, Damien & Piccolo, Salvatore, 2023. "Price authority and information sharing with competing supply chains," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    2. Cornand, Camille & Dos Santos Ferreira, Rodolphe, 2020. "Cooperation in a differentiated duopoly when information is dispersed: A beauty contest game with endogenous concern for coordination," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 101-111.
    3. Chang, Chun-Hao & Prakash, Arun J. & Yeh, Shu, 2004. "Sale of monopoly information and behavior of rivaling clients: A theoretical perspective," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 283-304.
    4. Fischer, Paul E. & Verrecchia, Robert E., 2004. "Disclosure bias," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 223-250, December.
    5. Markus Christen, 2005. "Research Note---Cost Uncertainty Is Bliss: The Effect of Competition on the Acquisition of Cost Information for Pricing New Products," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 51(4), pages 668-676, April.
    6. Bernd Theilen, 2007. "Delegation and Information Sharing in Cournot Duopoly," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 92(1), pages 21-50, September.
    7. Jiang, Li & Hao, Zhongyuan, 2024. "Holding diverse market beliefs by firms: Information flow, profit performances, and channel structure," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    8. Ackert, Lucy F. & Church, Bryan K. & Sankar, Mandira Roy, 2000. "Voluntary disclosure under imperfect competition: experimental evidence," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 81-105, January.
    9. Esther Gal-Or & Mordechai Gal-Or & Anthony Dukes, 2007. "Optimal information revelation in procurement schemes," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 38(2), pages 400-418, June.
    10. Carolyn M. Callahan & E. Ann Gabriel, 1998. "The Differential Impact of Accurate Product Cost Information in Imperfectly Competitive Markets: A Theoretical and Empirical Investigation," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(4), pages 419-455, December.
    11. Hemant Bhargava & Antoine Dubus & David Ronayne & Shiva Shekhar, 2024. "The Strategic Value of Data Sharing in Interdependent Markets," CESifo Working Paper Series 10963, CESifo.
    12. Lagerlof, Johan N.M., 2007. "Insisting on a non-negative price: Oligopoly, uncertainty, welfare, and multiple equilibria," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 861-875, August.
    13. Qiu, Qijun & Hao, Zhongyuan & Jiang, Li, 2022. "Strategic information flow under the influence of industry structure," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 298(3), pages 1175-1191.
    14. Xu, Su Xiu & Lu, Qiang & Huang, George Q. & Zhang, Ting, 2013. "Scope economies, market information, and make-or-buy decision under asymmetric information," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(1), pages 339-348.
    15. Mariana Cunha & Paula Sarmento & Hélder Vasconcelos, 2014. "Uncertain Efficiency Gains and Merger Policy," FEP Working Papers 527, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.
    16. Piccolo, Salvatore & Tarantino, Emanuele & Ursino, Giovanni, 2015. "The value of transparency in multidivisional firms," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 9-18.
    17. Jha, Aditya & Fernandes, Kiran & Xiong, Yu & Nie, Jiajia & Agarwal, Neelesh & Tiwari, Manoj K., 2017. "Effects of demand forecast and resource sharing on collaborative new product development in supply chain," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 207-221.
    18. Le Pape, Nicolas & Zhao, Kai, 2014. "Horizontal mergers and uncertainty," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 8, pages 1-31.
    19. Fabio Tramontana, 2013. "Information exchange in a Cournot duopoly with nonlinear demand function," DEM Working Papers Series 049, University of Pavia, Department of Economics and Management.
    20. Amir, Rabah & Jin, Jim Y. & Troege, Michael, 2010. "Robust results on the sharing of firm-specific information: Incentives and welfare effects," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(5), pages 855-866, September.

    More about this item

    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:zbw:wzbmdy:fsiv9733. 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/wzbbbde.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.