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on Network Economics |
| By: | Piela, Jonas |
| Abstract: | -- |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:uwhdps:122011&r=net |
| By: | Roldan, Flavia (IESE Business School) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the effectiveness of two different antitrust policies by characterizing the network structure of market-sharing agreements that arises under those settings. Market-sharing agreements prevent firms from entering each other's market. The set of these agreements defines a collusive network, which is pursued by antitrust authorities. This article shows that under a constant probability of inspection and a penalty equal to a firm's limited liability, firms form collusive alliances where all of them are interconnected. In contrast, when the antitrust policy reacts to prices in both dimensions - probability of inspection and penalty - firms form collusive cartels where they are not necessarily fully interconnected. This implies that more competitive structures can be sustained in the second case than in the first case. Notwithstanding, antitrust laws may have a pro-competitive effect in both scenarios, as they give firms in large alliances more incentives to cut their agreements at once. |
| Keywords: | market-sharing; economic networks; antitrust authority; oligopoly; |
| JEL: | D43 K21 L41 |
| Date: | 2011–07–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ebg:iesewp:d-0932&r=net |
| By: | Maria Comune (University of Siena and Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei); Alireza Naghavi (University of Bologna and Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei); Giovanni Prarolo (University of Bologna and Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei) |
| Abstract: | With the rise of the knowledge economy, delivering sound innovation policies requires a thorough understanding of how knowledge is produced and diffused. This paper takes a step to analyze a new form of globalization, the so-called system of Global Innovation Networks (GINs), to shed light on how the protection of intellectual property rights (IPRs) influences their creation and development. We focus on the role of IPR protection in fostering international innovative activities in emerging economies (South), such as China and India, and more generally, how IPRs affect the development of GINs between newly industrialized countries and OECD countries. Using both survey-based firm-level and country-level global data, we find IPRs to be an important determinant of participation in GINS from a Southern perspective. We find IPR protection at home and its harmonization across county pairs foster South-North formation of GINs. We also find that a stringent regime in the destination country discourages foreign international innovative activities that originate in NICs. Both levels of our analysis confirm the ICT industry, particularly the hardware segment, to rely on IPRs when engaging in the international outsourcing and offshoring of innovation or in patenting activities abroad. |
| Keywords: | Gravity Model, Information Communication Technology, Innovation, Intellectual Property Rights, International collaborations, Networks |
| JEL: | D23 F53 O34 |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2011.59&r=net |
| By: | Massimo Riccaboni; Anna Romiti; Gianna Giudicati |
| Abstract: | Experience and socialization are key factors in determining customer commitment and renewal decisions in the service sector. To analyse the combined effect of experience and socialization, in this paper we introduce the concept of co-experience networks. A new methodological approach, originally applied in the field of social ethology, is devised to study reality-mined co-experience networks. By analysing a network of health club members over four years, we find that long-experienced clients have a lower chance to renew their contracts. On the other hand, central members in the co-experience network are stable and tend to renew their memberships. Further, since the members of the same reference group align their levels of commitment, renewal decisions are clustered in a small-world network. These findings contribute to our understanding of social dynamics and localized conformity in customer decision-making that can be used to plan marketing strategies to improve customer retention. |
| Date: | 2011–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:trt:disawp:2011/2&r=net |
| By: | Marc Bassoni (IRSIC - Institut de recherche en Sciences de l'information et de la communication (Mediasic EA 4262) - Université de la Méditerranée - Aix-Marseille II : EA4262); Félix Weygand (IRSIC - Institut de recherche en Sciences de l'information et de la communication (Mediasic EA 4262) - Université de la Méditerranée - Aix-Marseille II : EA4262, EUROMED MANAGEMENT - Euromed Management - Euromed Management) |
| Abstract: | Depuis quelques années, les réseaux sociaux et les usages qu'ils nourrissent ont pris une place significative au sein de la galaxie Internet. Parmi ces réseaux, ceux qui pratiquent la gratuité pour les utilisateurs finals n'ont pas encore stabilisé leur modèle économique et ce, malgré les audiences dont ils bénéficient (Facebook, par exemple). Pour ces réseaux, le défi est désormais de convertir leur succès d'estime en espèces sonnantes et trébuchantes ; en d'autres termes, de mettre leurs capacités de ciblage et de filtrage des internautes, et des communautés que ces derniers forment, au service d'annonceurs solvables. Comme le montre l'exemple de aka'aki, réseau social géolocalisé sur l'Internet mobile, la voie est étroite et le succès non encore garanti. La défiance croissante des internautes à l'endroit de la " marchandisation " des données privées constitue la limite principale du " business model " en gestation. |
| Keywords: | Multi-sided market ; Network externalities ; Social networks ; Geo-localization |
| Date: | 2011–04–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00625988&r=net |
| By: | Moraga-Gonzalez, Jose L. (IESE Business School); Wildenbeest, Matthijs R. (Indiana University) |
| Abstract: | Web search technologies are fundamental tools for navigating the Internet. One particular type of search technology is "shopbots", or comparison sites. The emergence of Internet shopbots and their implications for price competition and market efficiency are the focus of this paper. We develop a simple model where a price comparison site tries to attract (possibly vertically and horizontally differentiated) online retailers, on the one hand, and consumers, on the other. Analysis of the model reveals that differentiation among the products of the retailers and their ability to price discriminate between on- and off-comparison-site consumers play a critical role. When products are homogeneous, if online retailers cannot charge different on- and off-the-comparison-site prices, then the comparison site has incentives to charge fees so high that some firms are excluded, which generates price dispersion and an inefficient outcome. By contrast, when on- and off-comparison-site prices can be different, the comparison site attracts all the players to the platform and the allocation is efficient. A similar result obtains when products are horizontally differentiated. In that case, the comparison site becomes an aggregator of product information and no matter whether firms can price discriminate or not, the comparison site attracts all the players to the platform and an efficient outcome ensues. We argue that the lack of vertical product differentiation may also be critical for this efficiency result. In fact, we show that when quality differences are large, the comparison site may find it profitable to charge fees that effectively exclude low quality producers, thereby inducing an inefficient outcome. |
| Keywords: | shopbots; two-sided market; intermediation; price discrimination; product differentiation; |
| Date: | 2011–07–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ebg:iesewp:d-0933&r=net |