Competition, Relativism and Market Choice

大多数标准的微观经济学理论关注的是绝对水平 关键的决策变量，而不是他们的重要性， 代理商之间的相对规模。 企业利润最大化 条件将边际成本的绝对水平与 边际收入的绝对水平。 但这是从大多数 商人们认为至关重要的战略行为。 为 例如，两个公司在现有的市场上竞争，比如说，主机 电脑 一家公司正试图决定是否进入一个新的 目前还不存在的市场，比如说个人电脑。 的决定 进入取决于对公司竞争对手将如何 做 计算一家公司相对于其竞争对手的表现是 与将边际成本与绝对成本 边际收入水平。 本项目的贡献来自于开发和测试 直接基于相对价值的产品选择理论 比较。 这个想法是，一个公司在一个市场上落后， 有动机转移到另一条具有更高方差的线上 结果，就像游艇比赛中的落后船经常会转向一样， 从目前的方向，希望受益于一个 风中意想不到的变化，这将使新的课程， 快一点 在游艇比赛中，领先者最大化他的机会， 通过跟随对手的策略获胜， 在新的方向，因为领导保持他的相对 挑战者的优势。 如果风向有利， 挑战者，领导者也受益。 如果没有，领导者 仍有可能保持领先 出于同样的原因， 在原来的市场上领先的公司可能会被卷入竞争， 新市场。 这个项目的目标是提供经验检验 对跨行业公司产品开发战略的影响 行业和其他可观察到的特征，如年龄 公司、启动成本和企业固有的风险。 高质量和原创性的初步工作， 这方面的研究人员表明，他们有能力 实现这一目标。

Most of standard microeconomic theory focuses on the absolute level of crucial decision variables rather than on the importance of their relative magnitude among agents. The firm's profit maximization condition compares the absolute level of marginal costs with the absolute level of marginal revenue. But this abstracts from most of the strategic behavior that businessmen consider crucial. For example, two firms compete in an existing market, say, main frame computers. One firm is trying to decide whether to enter a new currently nonexistent market, say, personal computers. The decision to enter depends on expectations about what the firm's rival will do. Calculations about how one firm does relative to its rival are as important as calculations that align marginal cost with absolute levels of marginal revenue. The contribution of this project comes from developing and testing empirically a theory of product choice based directly on relative comparisons. The idea is that a firm that is behind in one market has an incentive to move into another line with higher variance outcomes, much like the trailing boat in yacht racing will often veer off from the current direction in the hopes of benefitting from an unexpected shift in the wind that would make the new course the faster one. In yacht racing, the leader maximizes his chances of winning by following the strategy of his opponent and also veering off in the new direction because the leader maintains his relative advantage over the challenger. If the wind shifts favorably for the challenger, the leader benefits as well. If it does not, the leader is still likely to maintain his lead. For the same reasons the firm that led in the original market may be drawn into competition in the new market. The goal of this project is to provide empirically testable implications for the product development strategies of firms across industries and by other observable characteristics, such as age of the firm, start-up costs, and inherent riskiness of the business. The high quality and originality of the preliminary work by the investigators on this subject show they have the ability to accomplish this goal.