Forms of Industrial Organization
Forms of Industrial Organization
Introduction
According to McConnell and Brue “Economists group industries into four distinct market structures: pure competition, pure monopoly, monopolistic competition, and oligopoly. These four market models differ in several respects: the number of firms in the industry, whether those firms produce a standardized product or try to differentiate their products from those of other firms, and how easy or how difficult it is for firms to enter the industry” (McConnell & Brue, 2005, chap. 21). As part of the MBA/501 course the learning team is tasked with identifying a company for each market structure, and describe the pricing and non-pricing strategies the companies identified use. As a team we have identified the cash crop coffee, AT&T, Toyota Motor Corporation and British Waterways. As part of the assignment the team was also tasked with providing a brief explanation of how the industry evolved using the “Market Structure” simulation.
Pure Competition
According to McConnell and Brue, “Pure competition involves a very large number of firms producing a standardized product (that is, a product identical to that of other producers, such as corn or cucumbers). New firms can enter or exit the industry very easily…. In a purely competitive market individual firms exert no significant control over product price. Each firm produces such a small fraction of total output that increasing or decreasing its output will not perceptibly influence total supply or, therefore, product price. In short, the competitive firm is a price taker” (McConnell & Brue, 2005, chap. 22). Coffee is a cash crop whose price varies in the world market depending on the supply and demand. According to the International Coffee Organization (ICO) in 1990 Vietnam produced 1.39 million bags (Each bag weighs 60 kg’s) of coffee in 2006. Vietnam produced 15 million bags of coffee that is an
References: CyberStreet (). A Chronology of Computer History. Retrieved August 11, 2007, from http://www.cyberstreet.com/hcs/museum/chron.htm Datamonitor (2006, November) Datamonitor (2007). British Waterways. Retrieved August 8, 2007, from Business Source complete database From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia () International Coffee Organization (). . Retrieved August 10, 2007, from http://dev.ico.org Kiley, D Lake Partners Strategy Consultants, Inc. (2001-2004). Out-Smart, Out-Execute. Retrieved August 11, 2007, from http://www.lakepartners.com/pdf/OutSmart.pdf McConnell, C Oracle ThinkQuest Education Foundation (). Micro competition. Retrieved August 11, 2007, from http://library.thinkquest.org/C004323/micro2.html Raman, A TBM Consulting Group (2007). TBM Consulting Group-Our Roots - Pricing Strategy. Retrieved August 10, 2007, from http://www.perfectengine.net/about/ourroots/pricing_strategy.php