Monopoly Characteristics and Policy Analysis of China's Online Retail Market

The network retail industry has been in a highly centralized pattern. According to the relevant concepts in the traditional industrial organization theory, this highly concentrated market needs regulation. Behind the rapid development of industry is the hidden worry that is constantly exposed. In 2011, Taobao announced a substantial increase in annual fees and software service fees, which caused conflicts with small and medium sellers. In the price war in Jingdong, it may have been sold at a price lower than the cost. The traditional industrial organization theory usually thinks that the monopoly market structure is not good. Because of its pricing model based on its own marginal cost and marginal income, it will cause welfare losses to consumers, resulting in low market efficiency and unnecessary losses. This paper first expounds the basic connotation and judgment criteria of monopoly, analyzes the monopoly and characteristics of online retail industry in the "Internet +" era, and finally puts forward some governance strategies for the monopoly problems existing in the current online retail industry.

Markups and Concentration in the Context of Digitization: Evidence from German Manufacturing Industries

Recent empirical studies suggest that there is a rising trend of market power across sectors in advanced economies. We contribute to this line of research by providing industry-specific evidence for German manufacturing industries, based on representative high-quality firm-level data from official statistics that cover firms from all size classes with more than 20 employees (2005–2013). We compare firm-specific markups and industry concentration as market power indicators that reflect a market structure and a performance perspective, respectively. Our results do not suggest an overall average increase in market power in German manufacturing, but increasing markups and an increasing concentration in many industries. We demonstrate the complementarity of the indicators, as predicted by industrial organization theory. We also evaluate the competitive impact of digitization and find no clear evidence that digital transformation and market power go hand in hand.

Strategic Choices for Social Responsibility of Startups in China

This study uses the structure–conduct–performance analytical framework in industrial organization theory to analyze Chinese startups’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) assuming normalization after the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, we take the external impact of the pandemic on startups during the pandemic as a starting point for analyzing the changes in the structure of startups and their CSR performance. We find a positive correlation between the pandemic and the performance of startups. We propose that the CSR of startups is not simply altruism but must involve an “altruistic and self-interested” mechanism. Therefore, this study proposes that during the pandemic, startups need to rebuild their CSR model. Furthermore, the company’s “economic man” and “social man” are interdependent; economic, ethical, and legal responsibilities are parallel and charitable responsibilities remain the highest pursuit amid the pandemic. The social responsibility of startups as the COVID-19 pandemic normalizes is a strategic choice.

Individual Abuse of Collective Dominance in Cellular Communications: Problems of Identification

Recently, discussions about the validity of the Russian practice of establishing the facts of individual abuse of collective dominance have been escalating: many experts point to a contradiction between the meaning of collective dominance, in which a small number of companies have a joint dominant position, in connection with each other, and the possibility of an individual company to abuse this position. The purpose of the article is to assess the correctness of this approach in the context of recent antitrust cases in the cellular communications market – in particular, two cases against the mobile operator “Tele2”. In the article, the applied practice is assessed in relation to the currently known results in the field of economic theory, as well as international best practices in the application of the concept of collective dominance. The findings indicate that the conclusion of the FAS Russia on the presence of the dominant position of Tele2 as part of collective dominance and the possibility of the company to exercise its market power does not correspond to either foreign practice or industrial organization theory. The source of error in the qualification of behavior is largely due to the focus of the antimonopoly authority on quantitative criteria of collective dominance to the detriment of the analysis of qualitative criteria and behavior. This case illustrates a typical tendency for such cases not to investigate the behavior of other collectively dominant market participants in relation to the behavior of the company accused of individual abuse, as well as not to investigate consumer behavior, and, in particular, their real possibilities to switch and switching actions. The article was written on the basis of the RANEPA state assignment research programme.

Theory of industrial organization: The problem of defining the subject.

The object of analysis in the industrial organization theory remains debatable. A comparative approach applied to solve the problem in the study shows that the object in the industrial organization theory is conventionally interpreted as different forms of applied, i. e. industrial, microeconomics. The author views industrial market as a structural component of economy with its own laws of development. If the object of analysis in the industrial organization theory is the industry itself, then the subject should be focused on studying the driving forces which determine the direction of its development. The objects of analysis in the current industrial markets theory and in microeconomic analysis match due to their common methodology – the statistical analysis. Given the industry’s dynamic nature, it would be the most appropriate to reproduce the approach which combines systematic and dynamic methods. This approach demonstrates that industry’s evolution is driven by the resolution of contradictions between the firm and market conditions. The direct cause of market changes are shown to be the changes in the productive forces, and the direct driving force is the firm. While changing, the firm creates new market conditions which accumulate and trigger qualitative transformations of the market, forcing it to adapt to the changes in a new way. An on-going contradiction between them becomes the engine of development for both the industry and the firm. This interpretation of the object in the industrial organization theory and the reproduced methodology used provide ample opportunities for solving two theoretically and pragmatically crucial problems – defining the causes and factors of the industrial markets development, and defining the patterns in product markets development, which allows us to predict the process of market evolution. Further analysis of the internal development will reveal the evolutionary nature of the industries and markets and give some insights into the nature of their interaction with the society’s productive forces and public institutes being the reflections of the production relationships.

Towards Rail-Road Online Exchange Platforms in EU-Freight Transportation Markets: An Analysis of Matching Supply and Demand in Multimodal Services

The European Union (EU) is confronted with too low a share of inland rail freight transport. The implementation of two-sided online exchanges for rail-road freight transport could increase this share. However, such exchanges focusing on the EU market are mainly designed for single modes of transport. Their matching of supply and demand for multimodal services, especially including rail, is still in its infancy. This paper applies a maturity growth framework to speed up the implementation of such multimodal online exchanges. The framework integrates insights from industrial organization theory, platform economy theory, and maturity growth theory. Online exchanges, summarized in a new taxonomy, are compared to study their practices on matching supply with demand on the exchange, especially for multimodal services. Data is collected from case studies, exchange websites and semi-structured interviews. The analysis shows the emergence of new market actors and business models, including digital freight forwarders. These offer a variety of transport mode solutions for EU inland and EU related global freight transport. Maturity in matching supply and demand appears to result from clear objectives to provide benefits to the exchange participants, notably by digitizing the data for transaction completion and providing real time support for operational issues. In this context of rising online exchanges, especially in road and global multimodal transport (air, ocean, and road), the competition to capture a fragmented freight market seems to steadily increase. A similar maturity analysis of exchanges could not be found.

Firm and industry effects: the importance of sample design

Purpose This paper aims to examine how sample design affects the relative importance of firm and industry factors in explaining performance variations. Design/methodology/approach Using a sample of 14,204 Spanish firms over a 10-year time frame, this study uses partial sensitivity analysis to examine the biases in results as a consequence of three methodological relevant concerns: outliers, industry classification and period. Findings Results indicate that the industry effect, supported by the industrial organization theory, has been underestimated in the empirical tests. Originality/value This study examines the biases in results as a consequence of three methodological relevant concerns (outliers, sector classification and period), which have not been sufficiently studied to date. Moreover, the study provides some new evidence favourable to the Industrial Organization (IO) perspective, which could have been biased and underestimated by the literature, as most of the analyses do not consider the methodological issues studied in this paper.

EXPLAINING SOCIAL ENTERPRISE: TOWARD A THEORETICAL MODEL

This paper introduces the maximization of installed capacity instead of profit maximization, as an element that allows for understanding the economic behavior of Informal Social Enterprise (ISE) in the market. The reconsideration of the theoretical framework that explains the competitive behavior of this type of firm, according to the Social Business Type 2 (SB2) Yunus proposal or necessity-driven entrepreneurship, is important because they are recognized as a mechanism to mitigate the poverty effects of recessionary period faults in the distribution of wealth. The results obtained through the contrast between theoretical evidence and the essential assumptions of industrial organization theory suggests that ISEs have a Cournot competition behavior.