Fixed margin price undercutting: An adequate entry strategy in a market with switching costs?

Florian Bartholomae (), Karl Morasch and Rita Orsolya Seebode

Managerial and Decision Economics, 2019, vol. 40, issue 7, 787-798

Abstract: Purpose We try to determine the best strategy for entering a market with switching costs that is initially served by a monopolistic incumbent. Findings We show that an offer to undercut the incumbent by a fixed margin (FM) dominates traditional entry with a binding price offer (BO) as this conditional pricing strategy restrains the ability of the incumbent to block entry by limit pricing. Combining FM with a price ceiling (PC) insures customers against future price increases and turns out to be optimal for markets with elastic demand as long as cost uncertainty is not an issue. Conclusion Using a more elaborate entry strategy may facilitate entry in markets with switching costs. However, as these strategies may decrease welfare, they should be closely monitored by antitrust authorities.

Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1002/mde.3043

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:mgtdec:v:40:y:2019:i:7:p:787-798

Access Statistics for this article

Managerial and Decision Economics is currently edited by Antony Dnes

More articles in Managerial and Decision Economics from John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().