Competition in a Multimarket Environment: The Case of Market Exit
Competition in a Multimarket Environment: The Case of Market Exit
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多市场环境中的竞争：市场退出案例
DOI：
10.1287/orsc.8.2.126
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发表时间：
1997
影响因子：
4.1
通讯作者：
J. Murmann
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
W. Boeker;J. Goodstein;John Stephan;J. Murmann
对竞争的研究通常有两个基本假设：竞争发生在行业或市场的边界内，市场或行业中的所有公司都同样受到竞争压力的影响。多点竞争的概念挑战了这两个假设。多点理论阐述了跨多个市场的公司之间不同程度的联系如何影响单个市场的竞争。其主要论点是，跨市场的公司之间的高水平联系将导致相互容忍，导致多点竞争对手避免相互咄咄逼人的攻击。克制源于这样一个事实，即高水平的市场间联系使公司能够对发生市场以外的多点竞争对手的咄咄逼人的行动做出反应。这种可能性增加了激进举措的潜在成本，并起到了可信的威慑作用，特别是如果一家公司可以在几个市场做出反应的话。此外，多点竞争有助于企业解读竞争对手的意图并发出自己的信号，从而减少代价高昂的误解的可能性。作者详细阐述了这些想法，以检验医院在特定服务市场与竞争对手的跨市场接触程度如何影响其退出该市场的可能性。他们发现，医院不太可能退出他们遇到大量多点竞争对手的市场。相互容忍的结果是，在多点竞争对手共享的市场上，竞争竞争减少了，从而减轻了通常会促使市场退出的压力类型。由于竞争程度较低，多点竞争对手共享的市场相对更适合运营，退出的可能性也更小。多点竞争对手并没有激烈竞争，而是似乎对彼此采取了“活生生”的方式。跨市场的多点接触可能会减轻个别市场内的竞争压力，这一事实对几种情况下公司之间的联系有影响。多市场接触可以发生在不同的产品或服务市场，也可以发生在不同的地理市场，从而为调查新兴跨国公司之间的竞争提供了一个有趣的视角。真正的跨国公司，通过成功地整合全球业务，同时仍然解决当地市场关切，被一些人视为拥有在国际竞争中取得成功所必需的能力。也许跨国公司，因为他们有一个综合的决策结构，可以协调他们的行动，以减少在他们共享的市场上彼此之间的竞争。如果是这样的话，由跨国企业主导的市场可能会变得比目前的国际竞争状况所预测的更加稳定。
Studies of competition typically have two underlying assumptions: that competition occurs within the boundaries of industries or markets and that all firms in a market or industry are affected equally by competitive pressures. The concept of multipoint competition challenges both assumptions. Multipoint theory addresses how different levels of contact between firms across multiple markets affect competition in individual markets. Its main argument is that high levels of contact between firms across markets will induce mutual forbearance, causing multipoint competitors to refrain from aggressively attacking each other.The restraint stems from the fact that high levels of intermarket contact enable a firm to respond to an aggressive action by a multipoint rival in markets other than the one in which the action takes place. That possibility raises the potential costs of aggressive moves and serves as a credible deterrent, especially if a firm can respond in several markets. In addition, multipoint competition helps firms to interpret their rivals' intentions and signal their own, reducing the likelihood of costly misunderstandings.The authors elaborate on those ideas to examine how a hospital's degree of intermarket contact with its competitors in a particular service market affects the likelihood that it will exit that market. They find that hospitals are less likely to exit markets in which they meet large numbers of their multipoint rivals. As a result of mutual forbearance, competitive rivalry is reduced across the markets that multipoint rivals share, lessening the types of pressures that typically prompt market exit. With lower levels of competitive rivalry, markets shared by multipoint rivals are relatively more hospitable environments in which to operate and are less likely to be exited. Rather than competing intensely, multipoint rivals appear to adopt a “live and let live” approach toward each other.The fact that multipoint contact across markets may lessen competitive pressures within individual markets has implications for the contact between firms in several settings. Multimarket contact can occur across different product or service markets and also across different geographic markets, thus affording an intriguing perspective for the investigation of the rivalry between emerging transnational firms. True transnationals, by successfully integrating global operations while still addressing local market concerns, have been seen by some as having the capabilities necessary for successful performance in international competition. Perhaps transnational firms, because they have an integrated decision-making structure, can coordinate their actions to reduce competitive rivalry with each other across the markets they share. If so, markets dominated by transnationals may become more stable than the current state of international competition would predict.