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The objective of this paper is to propose a consumer-behavior-based intelligence (CBBI) model to identify market structure so as to monitor product competition. Competitive intelligence extracted from Chinese e-business clickstream data is exploited to examine the relevance of consumers' heterogeneous behavioral feedback, namely, click, tag-into-favorite, time-of-browsing, add-into-cart, and remove-from-cart, to visualize the competitive product market structure and to predict product-level sales.

Our proposed CBBI model consists of visualization and prediction, which explore e-business clickstream data. We conduct the visualization and segmentation of market structure in the form of a perceptual map by employing K-means clustering algorithm and multidimensional scaling technique. Concurrently, we developed an updated Bayesian linear regression (BLR) to predict product-level sales by considering consumers' heterogeneous feedback. Our updated BLR specifically integrated the estimated knowledge of the previous periods to verify whether product sales are period-dependent due to the consumer memory effect in e-commerce, improving the conventional BLR of diffuse prior distribution setup in terms of mean absolute error (MAE) and root mean squared error (RMSE).

Considering the performance of consumers' heterogeneous actions, the present research visualized three different segments of the competitive market structure in a perceptual map, and its horizontal axis is shown as a signal of the ascending trend of product sales. The previous five-day period was ascertained to be the best size of a time window for the consumer memory effect on product sales prediction. This hypothesis is supported by the concept that product sales are period-dependent. The results of the proposed updated BLR indicate that consumer tag-into-favorite, add-into-cart, and remove-from-cart feedback have positive impacts on product-level sales while click and time-of-browsing have the opposite effect.

While the identified competitive product market structure elaborates consumer heterogeneous feedback toward alternative product choices, this paper contributes by extending those homogeneous consumer preferences-related marketing studies. The perceptual map's configuration in respect to period-dependent product sales facilitates the effective inclusion of consumer behavior application in product sales prediction research in e-commerce. This paper helps sellers and retailers better comprehend the impacts of heterogeneous feedback and the consumer memory effect on the degree of competition in the form of product sales. The research results also offer a managerial implication about shaping the competitive edge by conducting different product management strategies in e-commerce platforms.

To achieve a full understanding of the role of marketing from plan to profit requires a knowledge of the basic building blocks. This textbook introduces the key concepts in the art or science of marketing to practising managers. Understanding your customers and consumers, the 4 Ps (Product, Place, Price and Promotion) provides the basic tools for effective marketing. Deploying your resources and informing your managerial decision making is dealt with in Unit VII introducing marketing intelligence, competition, budgeting and organisational issues. The logical conclusion of this effort is achieving sales and the particular techniques involved are explored in the final section.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

This paper aims to examine the evolution of a competitive market structure over time through the lens of competitive group membership dynamics.

A new hidden Markov modeling approach is devised that accounts for the three sources of competitive heterogeneity involving managerial strategy, corporate performance and the impact of strategy on performance. In addition, some observed “entry” and “exit” states are considered to model firms’ entry into and exit from the market. The proposed model is illustrated with an investigation of the US banking industry based on a data set created from the COMPUSTAT database. This paper estimated the model within the Bayesian framework and devised a reversible jump Markov chain Monte Carlo estimation procedure to determine the number of latent competitive groups and uncover the characteristics of each group.

This paper shows that the US banking industry, contrary to the prior findings of having a relatively stable structure, has, in fact, gone through dramatic changes in the past number of decades.

Contrary to prior work that has primarily focused on managerial strategy to study market evolutions, the competitive groups perspective accounts for all three sources of intra-industry competitive heterogeneity. In addition, unlike prior research, the analysis is not limited to firms remaining in the panel of study for the entire observation period. Such limitation results in missing the various changes that occur in the competitive market structure because of the new entrants or the struggling firms that do not survive in the market.

Plus Factors have long played an important role in inferring a price agreement from the totality of the evidence. In response to changes in the case law, economists have proposed two alternative paths for the future of price fixing analysis. This paper evaluates the suggested approaches and recommends retaining the enhanced Plus Factor methodology.

By carefully defining the Plus Factor concept, three key components of the analysis emerge: (1) information on communications associated with the alleged agreement, (2) economic considerations affecting market competition, and (3) characteristics that serve to differentiate explicit from tacit collusion.

Developments rationalizing the Plus Factor concept show promise, as the methodology is not more closely related to economic theory. On the other hand, replacement of the Plus Factor methodology with one focused on market performance seems problematic. By abandoning the Plus Factor concept, the economist loses a key institutional constraint on over-aggressive enforcement.

Until advocates can address the difficulties associated with using performance evidence to identify price fixing, the standard Plus Factor concept appears more appropriate. Thus, antitrust analysts should continue to use the Plus Factor methodology to infer agreements in price fixing investigations, as long as the economic rationalization of the specific Plus Factor is clearly presented.

The paper synthesizes a number of recent contributions to the price fixing literature and addresses key issues of interest to the enforcement community. By providing a critique of the proposed policy shift to use performance evidence to infer price fixing liability, the study serves to justify continued application of the Plus Factor methodology.

In this study, we develop understanding of factors that shape the propensity of market incumbents to collaborate in response to the threat posed by new market entrants. We are particularly interested in instances when a market's competitive structure becomes unsettled by new entrants who engage in nonconforming strategic tactics. In such situations, we propose two factors – strategic similarity among competitors and market-share instability – will systematically shape competitors' collaborative response to new entrants. To test our theory, we use data on strategic tactics and collaborative dynamics in the US airline industry from 1989 to 2010. We demonstrate that greater strategic similarity among a market's incumbents increases the likelihood of cooperation in response to the threat of a nonconforming new entrant, while greater market-share instability reduces cooperative response. Through this study, we extend existing understanding of the contextual circumstances under which established competitors recognize their mutual interests and band together.

In this chapter, the author outlines the link between organization design and competitive strategy, focusing on rivalry. A firm’s organization design choices can affect its competitive advantage as well as the strategic decisions of its rivals. Therefore, organization design can influence the nature and intensity of competitive interactions between firms. To illustrate this effect, the author focuses on the literature on divisionalization and offers a set of propositions as examples. Taken together, the author makes three main observations: (1) a firm’s competitive position and objectives are reflected in its organizational choices; (2) heterogeneity in competitive position and objectives lead to heterogeneity in organization design choices across firms; and (3) organization design and competitive strategy are interdependent processes. The author concludes by discussing the implications for strategy and management research and pointing out some opportunities for future research.

The expansion of the Islamic banking industry seems to accentuate the banking competition in MENA and Southeast Asia where conventional and Islamic banks coexist. In this context, the research aims\ to examine the competitive conditions and the market power of the conventional and Islamic banks during the period 2004-2009 in MENA and Southeast Asia region.

The authors use a variety of structural and non-structural measures related to the traditional approach and the new empirical approach of the industrial organization. The methodology is based on set of measures of the competition and market power. The first measure is a set of concentration ratios (C3, C5) and Herfindahl-Hirschman index (HHI). The second measures are the Panzar and Ross H statistic and the Lerner index based on econometric estimations with the aim of evaluating the structure of market and measuring its power in terms of price setting.

The results indicate that under the HHI index, both markets are low concentrated, while according to the concentration ratios, the Islamic market is considered as moderately concentrated. The estimations results, through the H-PR-statistic of Panzar and Ross related to degree of competition and the Lerner index of market power, indicate that both markets are characterized by a monopolistic competition and the Islamic banking expressed a high degree of market power.

The research focuses exclusively on the countries where the data are available and excludes the other countries where competition and market power might have different forms.

In a competitive environment, each bank is required to analyze the structure of its market and competitive conditions, in order to develop a business strategy and effective action plans. In the context of the multiplication of the Islamic banks in the MENA and Southeast Asia, the enhancement of Islamic bank competitiveness by offering new products is determinant for their success.

To the best of the authors' knowledge few studies have examined this subject in a comparative analysis between the Islamic and conventional banks. So the authors contribute to the literature on Islamic banking by considering a sample of Islamic and conventional banks operating in the same countries in order to examine the existence or not of difference between them.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of industry structure and macroeconomic indicators on return on equity (ROE) of listed financial services firms.

Herfindahl–Hirschman Index concentration scales were used to categorise industries into competitive, moderate and concentrated segments, while Arbitrage Pricing Model principles were used to capture the effect of macroeconomic fundamentals on ROE. Generalised method of moments estimator was used to model random effects which were supported by the Hausman test.

Findings suggest that the influence of macroeconomic fundamentals on ROE deteriorates as one moves from competitive to concentrated industries. ROE is volatile in concentrated markets and less volatile in competitive markets. Concentrated markets generally enjoy monopoly profits. Gross domestic product and interest rates have a positive impact on ROE, while inflation, unemployment and exchange rates have a negative effect.

This study highlights the need to apply appropriate business strategies and policies depending on the structure of the industry. Competitive advantage strategies may assist in sustaining profits of firms in competitive markets. Regulators need to be proactive and stress test the impact of a policy on industry performance before implementation because competitive and concentrated markets react differently to external shocks. Risk tolerant investors may invest in volatile markets such as Russia and South Africa, while risk-averse investors may prefer to invest in less volatile markets such as India and China.