Product market competition and analyst following

In this study, we investigate the link between product market competition and the extent of a firm’s analyst following. Our research is motivated by prior studies on analyst coverage, as well as the literature pertaining to the informational and monitoring role of product market competition. Using a sample of 520 French listed firms over 2000–2013, we find support to the hypothesis that the number of analysts following a firm decreases with the intensification of competition. This result suggests that the disciplinary power of product market competition makes investors more confident that firms are well monitored, which reduces their incentives to seek additional private information produced by financial analysts. In short, our findings corroborate previous evidence that there is a substitution effect between competition and other external corporate governance mechanisms, especially analyst following. Our results also shed more light on how the quality of firms’ monitoring mechanisms and information environment is affected by the intensity of product market competition.     

CEO Incentives and Customer‐Supplier Relations

This study explores how suppliers adjust their relation‐specific investments (RSI) in response to the different risk‐taking incentives provided by the customer firm to its CEO, during normal and transition periods. We investigate this relation using 17,553 customer–supplier transactions over the 1993–2013 period. We find strong evidence consistent with the risk‐taking argument. Specifically, we find that an increase in the risk‐taking incentives of customer CEOs leads to a decline in suppliers’ RSI in normal periods, but an increase in RSI during transition periods. We employ the FAS‐123R mandate to show that an exogenous reduction in customer CEO's incentive pay increases suppliers’ RSI. We reaffirm the effect with the passage of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act as a secondary quasi‐natural experiment. Finally, we examine several scenarios that either amplify or attenuate the observed relation, based on factors such as financial constraints, distress, growth opportunities, industry competition, and other firm characteristics. Our study contributes to the literature that examines the interplay between corporate policy and product market relationships.     

基于产品安全责任的供应链激励与竞争策略

从产品安全责任入手，基于批发价格合同，运用博弈论的基本思想，对四种情景中供应链的均衡进行分析："非竞争与非激励协调"、"非竞争与激励协调"、"竞争与非激励协调"和"竞争与激励协调"。结果显示：适度的批发价格合同激励协调措施能够提升制造商履行产品安全责任水平、市场需求量、供应链及其各成员的期望收益，但过度激励会降低市场需求量与分销商的期望收益，进而阻滞供应链总期望收益的增加；竞争将降低市场需求量、供应链及其各成员的期望收益；低度激励时竞争将降低制造商履行产品安全责任水平，高度激励时竞争将提升制造商履行产品安全责任水平；供应链采用批发价格合同激励协调机制能够增强其对外部的竞争能力，但过度竞争将降低制造商履行产品安全责任水平，进而对供应链及其各成员的利益造成损害。研究成果对供应链的产品安全责任管理实践有重要的指导意义。     

寡头市场产量与价格推测变差之间的关系

用于研究寡头垄断市场的推测变差方法,可以将各种寡头行为模型进行统一,本文在这个基础上,考察了产量推测和价格推测之间的关系。这种对应关系对于我们理解和指导实践,尤其是战略管理,都有一家的帮助。     

电子商务市场特征对产品创新影响的实证研究

根据电子商务价值理论,电子商务企业进行产品创新能有效提升或创造客户价值,但电子商务市场环境因素可能会影响电子商务企业的产品创新,而已有关于产品创新的研究大多聚焦于传统市场。依据电子商务客户价值、从众行为、多重创新、组织学习和信息过载等理论,以电子商务市场的两个主要特征市场信息和竞争强度为前导变量,构建它们对于电子商务企业产品创新倾向和电子商务企业绩效的影响模型,并提出变量间关系假设。通过收集中国最大B2C平台天猫商城内309家电子商务企业的数据,应用多元回归分析方法实证检验电子商务市场特征对产品创新的影响。研究结果表明,电子商务企业产品创新正向影响企业绩效;市场信息促进电子商务企业产品创新,但其效用受竞争强度的反向调节;竞争强度显著加强电子商务企业的产品创新倾向且不会影响企业创新绩效,因为在当前电子商务发展阶段和电子商务市场特性的作用下,产品创新能获得熊彼得租金,主导产品创新的是竞争脱离效应而非熊彼得效应。本研究结论对电子商务企业实践具有一定的指导意义。     

竞争环境下的以旧换新策略

企业通过对拥有旧产品的老消费者提供以旧换新补贴能够提升自身销量与利润。然而，面临竞争对手时企业的以旧换新决策是否会受到影响?本文求解了先后进入市场的双寡头竞争企业所面临的以旧换新与定价博弈均衡，并分析了竞争存在与否对于企业以旧换新策略产生的影响。研究结果表明，第一，面对竞争时企业的定价决策受到市场中老消费者比例、两家竞争企业各自新产品的创新提升水平、老产品的使用残值这四个因素的共同影响。第二，当老产品残值相对较低而市场中老消费者数量适中时，两企业均不提供以旧换新可能成为博弈均衡，而其他条件下，两企业均提供以旧换新为博弈均衡。第三，先进入的企业没有动机单独为消费者提供以旧换新补贴。第四，竞争对手的存在对于先进入企业自身的以旧换新决策与相应的定价策略都产生了显著的影响。     

成长性、现有资产与β关系的上市公司实证研究

在资本资产定价模型(CAPM)中,β(系统风险)是决定资产定价的唯一因素。以我国A股上市公司为研究样本,通过将资产风险β分解为成长性风险βG和现有资产风险βA2个部分,探讨了公司的成长性和现有资产对β的影响。研究结果表明,总体上我国证券市场中上市公司的βA显著地大于βA,但不同行业间差异显著。进一步分析显示,若公司规模越大、账面市值比越高、同所处行业的市场竞争程度越低,不仅βG对β的影响更大,而且βG与βA间的差异也越明显。这表明,在我国证券市场中,βG既是β取值大小的重要因素,同时也是风险的主要来源。     

竞争环境下客户服务投入对企业利润影响的均衡分析

客户服务投入是企业吸引新顾客和维持现有顾客的重要手段之一。然而,服务投入究竟是否能给企业带来价值？对于这一问题,业界和学界都没有明确的答案。本文通过建模的方法研究在竞争的市场环境下,固有的市场因素对客户服务投入价值的影响。研究发现,服务竞争的市场均衡结构是两家厂商都投入客户服务。服务投入给企业带来的价值随着产品差异度的提高而提高,随着厂商自身市场份额的增加而增加。即,在产品差异度高的市场,服务投入更容易给企业带来价值。而在集中度高的市场,服务投入更容易给市场份额大的企业带来价值。     

面对共同供应商时的市场进入决策

研究了海外零售商在与本土零售商拥有相同供应商的情况下最优的市场进入策略,以及市场进入决策对供应商的定价决策和零售商的采购决策的影响.把进入决策分为3种类型,分别命名为"市场开拓型"、"采购导向型"和"双重收益型".研究发现当企业目标进入的市场规模比原有市场大时,企业的进入决策为"市场开拓型";而当企业的目标进入市场规模比原有市场小时,企业的进入决策为"采购导向型";当两个市场规模接近时,企业的进入决策为"双重收益型".还研究了市场进入成本对企业进入决策的影响.随着进入成本的增加,海外企业选择进入国内市场的可能性越来越小.而且当进入成本足够大的情况下,其进入只能为"市场开拓型"或"采购导向型",即不可能在两个市场同时获益.     

CEO Incentives,Takeover Protection and Corporate Innovation

This study examines the effects of CEO equity‐based compensation and anti‐takeover provisions on corporate innovation. Using a large sample of US firms over the period 1996–2014, we find that long‐term incentives have a stronger influence on innovation when combined with takeover threats. We also show that equity‐based compensation is more likely to spur innovation for small firms and firms in industries with high product market competition and innovation pressure. However, this effect is somewhat weaker in the presence of anti‐takeover provisions, suggesting that takeover protection encourages managerial shirking even when external competition is high. Finally, in addition to the existing evidence on the valuation effect of CEO equity‐based compensation, we identify innovation as an important channel through which managerial incentives can enhance firm value. Our results have potential implications for shareholders, managers and policymakers.     

Capacity Investment Under Responsive Pricing: Implications of Market Entry Choice*

We consider a manufacturer’s new market entry problem when it already has some established facility in its existing market. We consider two common market entry strategies: the export strategy and the foreign direct investment (FDI) strategy. In the export strategy the firm increases the capacity at its existing facility and subsequently allocates the output to the existing and the new market dynamically, depending on realized market conditions. The export strategy is a flexible strategy. In the FDI strategy, the firm invests in a dedicated capacity to serve the new market only. The FDI strategy is a (partially) dedicated strategy. We study these two strategies from a planning perspective, that is, how the firm’s strategy choice influences the optimal capacity levels. We find that the firm’s strategy choice can significantly impact the optimal capacity investment levels. We prove, for example, that the firm may enter the new market in the export strategy but not in the FDI strategy, even if the capacity investment cost is identical in the existing and the new market. In addition, we prove that the firm may invest a strictly higher capacity level in the export strategy than that in the FDI strategy. We also prove that new market entry in the FDI strategy may strictly decrease the firm’s supply to its existing market but this is not so in the export strategy, and hence policy makers should carefully consider the implications of trade regulations on firms’ market entry choices.     

供应链中纵向信息获取和横向信息共享策略研究

研究由一个制造商和两个零售商组成的二级供应链中,零售商之间的横向信息共享策略和制造商的信息获取以及最优定价问题。在模型中,制造商同时为两家零售商提供等价商品,零售商向消费者销售商品且进行价格竞争。以Bertrand博弈为研究手段,求解了零售商的均衡销售价格、订货量决策和信息共享策略,制造商的最大利润和最优批发价格,以及供应链利润。分析比较了在制造商不同的信息获取策略下,零售商、制造商和供应链的利润。研究表明,零售商之间完全信息共享始终为占优策略。但制造商获取下游信息时会使得自身利润增加,零售商利润减少,因此零售商不会主动把信息共享给制造商。考虑到下游的边界均衡解,供应链的利润变化还与市场的不确定性和产品的替代性有关。当产品替代性较高或产品替代率较低且市场的不确定性处于中间水平时,制造商获取信息后供应链利润增加,此时制造商可以用部分增加的利润成功购买零售商信息。该模型为上游制造商提供了最优定价和信息获取策略,也为下游零售商提供了求解自身最优销售价格、订货量和信息共享决策的方法。     

Reputation for Quality

We propose a model of firm reputation in which a firm can invest or disinvest in product quality and the firm's reputation is defined as the market's belief about this quality. We analyze the relationship between a firm's reputation and its investment incentives, and derive implications for reputational dynamics. Reputational incentives depend on the specification of market learning. When consumers learn about quality through perfect good news signals, incentives decrease in reputation and there is a unique work–shirk equilibrium with ergodic dynamics. When learning is through perfect bad news signals, incentives increase in reputation and there is a continuum of shirk–work equilibria with path‐dependent dynamics. For a class of imperfect Poisson learning processes and low investment costs, we show that there exists a work–shirk equilibrium with ergodic dynamics. For a subclass of these learning processes, any equilibrium must feature working at all low and intermediate levels of reputation and shirking at the top.     

Strategic Sourcing in the Presence of Uncertain Supply and Retail Competition

This study develops an analytical model to evaluate competing retail firms' sourcing strategies in the presence of supply uncertainty. We consider a common supplier that sells its uncertain supply to two downstream retail firms engaging in price competition in a horizontally differentiated product market. The focal firm has a dual‐sourcing option, while the rival firm can only source from the common supplier. We assess the system‐wide effects of supply uncertainty on the focal firm's incentive to pursue the dual‐sourcing strategy. We find that the focal firm's dual‐sourcing strategy can create a win–win situation that leads to increased retail prices and expected profits for both firms. Furthermore, under certain conditions, we show that it is beneficial for the focal firm to strategically source from the common supplier, even if its alternative supplier offers a lower wholesale price. Overall, we identify two types of incentives for adopting the dual‐sourcing strategy: the incentive of mitigating supply risk through supplier diversification and the incentive of strategic sourcing for more effective retail competition.     

产品市场竞争影响企业慈善捐赠的实证研究

基于企业慈善捐赠的动机视角,利用我国沪深两市的676家上市公司作为研究样本,检验产品市场竞争是否对企业慈善捐赠产生影响,研究结果表明:与处于正常竞争程度行业企业相比,处于强竞争行业的企业和处于弱竞争行业的企业都趋向捐赠更少,产品市场竞争程度与企业捐赠之间呈"∩"型关系。检验了规模、盈利能力、负债水平、直接接触消费者、所有制等因素对企业捐赠的影响,研究结果进一步支持企业慈善捐赠的经济动机观点。     

Supplier competition and its impact on firm׳s sourcing strategy

Most research on firms׳ sourcing strategies assumes that wholesale prices and reliability of suppliers are exogenous. It is of our interest to study suppliers׳ competition on both wholesale price and reliability and firms׳ corresponding optimal sourcing strategy under complete information. In particular, we study a problem in which a firm procures a single product from two suppliers, taking into account suppliers׳ price and reliability differences. This motivates the suppliers to compete on these two factors. We investigate the equilibria of this supplier game and the firm׳s corresponding sourcing decisions. Our study shows that suppliers׳ reliability often plays a more important role than wholesale price in supplier competition and that maintaining high reliability and a high wholesale price is the ideal strategy for suppliers if multiple options exist. The conventional wisdom implies that low supply reliability and high demand uncertainty motivate dual-sourcing. We notice that when the suppliers׳ shared market/transportation network is often disrupted and demand uncertainty is high, suppliers׳ competition on both price and reliability may render the sole-sourcing strategy to be optimal in some cases that depend on the format of suppliers׳ cost functions. Moreover, numerical study shows that when the cost or vulnerability (to market disruptions) of one supplier increases, its profit and that of the firm may not necessarily decrease under supplier competition.     

Multi‐Product Quality Competition: Impact of Resource Constraints

We study a multi‐product firm with limited capacity where the products are vertically (quality) differentiated and the customer base is heterogeneous in their valuation of quality. While the demand structure creates opportunities through proliferation, the firm should avoid cannibalization between its own products. Moreover, the oligopolistic market structure puts competitive pressure and limits the firm's market share. On the other hand, the firm has limited resources that cause a supply‐side fight for adequate and profitable production. We explicitly characterize the conditions where each force dominates. Our focus is on understanding how capacity constraints and competition affect a firm's product‐mix decisions. We find that considering capacity constraints could significantly change traditional insights (that ignore capacity) related to product‐line design and the role of competition therein. In particular, we show that when the resources are limited, the firm should offer only the product that has the highest margin per unit capacity. We find that this product could be the diametrically opposite product suggested by the existing literature. In addition, we show that for intermediate capacity levels, whereas the margin per unit capacity effect dominates in a less competitive market, proliferation and cannibalization effects dominate in a more competitive market.     

内在激励对企业外在激励供给策略的影响研究

在员工拥有内在激励的情形下,探讨企业对于外在激励的最优供给策略。研究表明:随着员工内在激励水平的提高,企业对于外在激励的最优供给水平并不一定因此而降低;在员工内在激励发生变化的情形下,企业是否增加、减少或维持其外在激励的供给水平,实际上取决于收益函数对员工努力水平的二阶导数;随着员工内在激励的提高,无论企业所提供的最优外在激励是增加、减少或不变,员工的总激励总会提高;且企业利润是员工内在激励的增函数。     

When Should a Firm Open its Source Code: A Strategic Analysis

Deciding to open the source code of a software product has advantages and disadvantages. The disadvantage is that the firm loses the revenue from the software. The advantage is that the users' network can contribute to the quality of the software code, which increases the demand for the software and for a complementary product. Demand for the complementary product also goes up, because demand for a product increases when the price of its complement decreases, and under open source, the price of the software product drops down to zero. This paper examines the strategic interactions at work here, within a duopoly framework, and tries to determine the circumstances under which it is optimal for a firm to open its code. We find that firms open the source code when there is a competitive software‐product market, a less competitive complementary‐product market, and when the complementary product is of high quality. Furthermore, it is more profitable for the firm to open the source code if its competitor also does so. When this happens the incentive to open the code can even be higher than in a monopoly situation. More intense competition induces symmetric equilibria in which both firms choose the same strategy.     

经济周期波动视角下现金持有在企业产品市场定价中的竞争效应研究

现金储备支撑企业价格策略,产品价格相对成本的变化是价格决策的重要方面,影响企业产品市场竞争表现,因此本文利用制造业上市公司数据,重点研究现金持有对相对价格竞争行为及相对价格变动在产品市场竞争中发挥的作用,以及这种作用程度在经济不同时期是否有所差别,最后依据相对价格变动的中介效应研究现金持有影响产品市场竞争绩效的作用路径。研究结果表明,企业现金持有越充足,其在产品市场上价格相对成本而言下降的可能性和幅度也更大,进而为企业在产品市场上带来的竞争优势就越明显,但在经济周期不同阶段,作用程度不同。同时企业的价格竞争行为是现金持有支持企业获取竞争绩效的一种路径。本文的研究丰富了现有文献,为我国上市公司增强竞争力提供了一定的理论和实证依据。