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The purpose of this study is to examine the relation between product market competition and audit fees by using firm-level product market competition measures and mitigating the endogeneity issues.

This study uses 12,136 US firms from 2004 and 2019. To ensure the robustness of the main findings, this study uses three firm-level product market competition measures and import trade tariff rate reductions of the USA as a quasi-natural experiment. This study also performs three cross-sectional tests and validation tests.

This study demonstrates that there is a negative relation between product market competition and audit fees and establishes a causal relation. Moreover, it reveals that the findings become more pronounced when auditors possess industry-specific expertise, when client firms are younger, and when operating within more homogeneous industries. Additionally, a validation analysis supports the findings.

This study offers significant insights for regulators by highlighting how product market competition plays a constructive role in overseeing firm management.

The authors contribute to the existing literature by showing that there is a negative association between product market competition and audit fees after controlling external monitoring mechanisms. The authors also find the causal relation. These findings indicate that competitive pressures originating from product markets exert a significant influence on disciplining a client firm’s management.

This study aims to analyse the effect of competition on retail fuel prices in a small European Union (EU) country with high market concentration.

The researchers use a panel data set to estimate a fuel price equation that includes supply and demand factors as well as time-fixed effects.

The study finds that more competitors in the local market decrease prices, whereas the high market share of oligopoly brands does not condition this effect. Additionally, independent brands set lower prices than wholesalers, and gas stations located near the borders of almost all neighbouring countries are associated with higher prices.

The study suggests that Slovenia’s retail fuel market maintains competitive pricing despite high oligopolistic shares because of historical regulatory influences that shaped firm behaviour and pricing strategies, along with geographical and economic factors such as Slovenia’s role as a transit country. External competitive pressures from neighbouring countries and high levels of traffic, combined with the remnants of regulatory structures, help prevent market abuses and keep fuel prices lower than in other EU countries.

It also indicates that policy should encourage fiercer competition in the local market by increasing the density of gas stations, especially from independent brands.

These findings may be associated with specific country characteristics. This paper introduces unique findings that shed light on the impact of a small market on competition, with a particular focus on highlighting the effect of oligopolistic brands.

The purpose of this paper is to present an oligopolistic version of the cobweb model that departs from the strict assumptions of perfect competition in the traditional cobweb model.

Introducing a model where n identical producers engage in Cournot competition, with output decisions influencing market prices. The paper retains the original assumptions of naive expectations and a linear model where price expectations of Cournot competitors are made simultaneously with production decisions. The investigation focuses on the model's behavior as the number of producers decreases or industry concentration increases. The authors also show empirical evidence when drawing the data from the pig sector in China and the USA.

The findings indicate that the cobweb model undergoes a transition from divergent to continuous and even convergent as the number of producers decreases or industry concentration increases. The incorporation of costs related to entry and exit from the market contributes to achieving a more stable equilibrium state.

The cobweb model has been primarily studied in an idealized market structure of perfect competition, and the assumptions that they share are not obviously appropriate to many agriculture markets. This study presents an alternative version of the cobweb model in an oligopolistic market that relaxes the strict assumptions of perfect competition. The authors show the dynamics of reduced competitor numbers or increased industry concentration on the convergence of the cobweb model based on subtle variations in parameters.

This study aimed to explore the determining factors for green bond markets in ASEAN plus three countries. In contrast to previous publications that primarily examined the incentives for green bonds and institutional differences among economies, the analysis focused on the role of competition among sub-financial sectors in fostering the growth of green bond markets.

This study adopted Driscoll and Kraay fixed effect panel methods to account for country-level heterogeneity and enhance efficiency, using quarterly data from 2016 to 2022.

The findings showed that healthy competition among sub-financial sectors was crucial for the growth of green bond markets. Growth in specific sub-financial sectors such as brown corporate bond and stock markets as well as banks contributed positively to these markets. Variables related to market microstructure also had no significant impact on green bonds but macroeconomic factors did.

The findings suggested that governments should promote healthy competition among sub-financial sectors and implement diverse policies to ensure the sustainable growth of green bond markets.

This study further pioneered the importance of competition among sub-financial sectors for the development of green bond markets.

This study aims to investigate whether various types of risks faced by the publicly listed commercial banks of India and Bangladesh are driven by market power and provides comparative insights from both economies.

By using the adjusted Lerner index to gauge bank market power and applying the generalised methods of moments (GMM) regression approach, the research delved into the relationship between bank market power and three distinct facets of risk across a sample of 26 publicly listed commercial banks in India and 22 listed banks in Bangladesh spanning from 2011 to 2022.

The results indicate that for Bangladesh, both “competition fragility” and “competition stability” viewpoints coexist simultaneously across all risk types, supporting a nonlinear relationship between market power and risk. However, in the Indian context, a nonlinear association exists only in the case of credit risk, while the relationship with insolvency risk is linear, substantiating the “competition fragility view”. Apart from market power and bank-specific variables, GDP growth rate has emerged as a prominent driver across all risk categories in both countries.

The filtration of banks is a limitation that might have influenced the outcomes. This study recommends that the Reserve Bank of India encourages further bank consolidation. Along the same line, Bangladesh Bank should closely oversee the growing competitive landscape. Furthermore, the regulators must monitor the elevated levels of non-performing loans to reduce credit risk so as to bolster the stability of their respective banking sectors.

This comparative study is the first attempt to analyse the market power and risk relationship and includes a novel bank-specific variable, i.e. technology, apart from other established variables.

This study aims to explain the effect of customer loyalty, financial performance and market power on Shariah compliance (SC).

This study investigates 101 fully-fledged Islamic banks (IBs) from 27 countries, and panel data regression methods were used to analyze the data. This study uses alternative empirical models and the generalized method of moment (GMM) system to address endogeneity problems.

This study finds that high profitability causes a decrease in SC. High levels of competition cause the IBs to make policies to increase their SC. However, the effect of competition on SC depends on the ownership status of the IBs – high levels of competition cause unlisted IBs to increase their SC. However, for listed IBs, severe competition weakens their SC.

This study focuses on interest-free IB deposit products as SC indicators.

This paper suggests regulators should control the IBs’ competition to increase the level of competition among IBs and conventional banks to increase the SC.

This study develops two SC indicators that focus on the relationship between the rate of return for investment account holders (RRIAH) and the interest rate (IR): the difference between the IR and the RRIAH and the elasticity of the RRIAH with the IR.

The study investigates the impact of the interaction effect of product market competition and rollover risk on the default risk of the firms.

The study used the sample of unbalanced panel data from Indian corporates without any survivability bias over the period from 2009 to 2020 consisting of 30,396 firm-year observations of 6,718 firms spread across 143 industry groups. The panel data regression tests the interaction effect in the context of the asset substitution problem, predation threat theory, competitive shock, and competitive risk.

The empirical results highlighted the dominance of the predatory effect of competition over the disciplinary advantage of short-term debts. The competitive shock to the industry results in a higher credit spread for refinancing short-term debt and significantly increases rollover risk for firms. Smaller firms have higher default risk from rollover losses than larger firms in the face of competition due to asset-substitution problems and strong rivalry. For firms with weaker fundamentals, the interaction effect of rollover risk and competition exacerbates the flight-to-quality problem, resulting in a systemic event.

The investors can benefit by factoring ex-ante the interdependence of competition, debt market illiquidity, and default premia while calculating the credit risk. The shareholders of competitive firms can reduce the moral hazard of refinancing the rollover losses and defaulting at a higher fundamental default threshold, by reducing sub-optimal utilization of funds by managers and agency costs.

As per the best of author knowledge, the present study is the first to study the moderating effect of product market competition in exacerbating default risk through the rollover channel.

This study explores the evolutionary relationship between multimarket contact (MMC) and competitive actions among multinational corporations (MNCs). It aims to enhance the understanding of international market competition by incorporating insights into dynamic competition and parent–subsidiary relationships.

A structured content analysis was used to identify the competitive actions of global shipping liners. The dataset includes 8,204 actions identified across nine global arenas. Data were collected from 6,553 monthly news articles on Alphaliner. The period covered is from January 1, 2015, to June 30, 2023.

The results indicate that a higher degree of MMC leads to greater competitive aggressiveness, supporting the combination of mutual forbearance and the Red Queen effect. Additionally, market importance triggers the mutual forbearance effect, whereas competitive rivalry is weaker for overlapping cross-market contacts. Furthermore, local competitive intensity increases MNCs' contact and echoes the Red Queen effect, especially for subsidiaries facing increasing pressure from local responsiveness.

Limitations include reliance on Alphaliner, potential inaccuracies from proxy variables, and unmeasured headquarters–subsidiary interactions. Future research should explore other industries and extend the study period for broader applicability and generalization.

By interlacing mutual forbearance with the Red Queen effect within a coopetition framework, managers can devise strategies to balance competition and collaboration, thereby ensuring long-term viability and growth in global markets.

This study extends the concept of MMC to the context of global shipping liners, a previously underexplored sector. Unlike earlier research, this study empirically examines MMC dynamics globally and integrates mutual forbearance and the Red Queen effect.

This study aims to investigate the impact of ex-ante regulatory interventions on emerging digital markets related to data sharing and combination practices. Specifically, it evaluates how such interventions influence market contestability by considering data network effects and the economic value of data.

The research uses agent-based modeling and simulations to analyze the dynamics of value generation and market competition related to the regulatory obligations on data sharing and combination practices.

Results show that while the promotion of data sharing through data portability and interoperability has a positive impact on the market, restricting data combination may damage value generation or, at best, have no positive impact even when it is imposed only on those platforms with very large market shares. More generally, the results emphasize the role of regulators in enabling the market through interoperability and service multihoming. Data sharing through portability fosters competition, while the usage of complementary data enhances platform value without necessarily harming the market. Service provider multihoming complements these efforts.

Although agent-based modeling and simulations describe the dynamics of data markets and platform competition, they do not provide accurate forecasts of possible market outcomes.

This paper presents a novel approach to understanding the dynamics of data value generation and the effects of related regulatory interventions. In the absence of real-world data, agent-based modeling provides a means to understand the general dynamics of data markets under different regulatory decisions that have yet to be implemented. This analysis is timely given the emergence of regulatory concerns on how to stimulate a competitive digital market and a shift toward ex-ante regulation, such as the regulatory obligations to large gatekeepers set in the Digital Markets Act.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the connection between earnings management, business strategy, and market competition.

The study utilizes data from non-financial companies listed on the Indonesia and South Korea Stock Exchange between 2017 and 2021, involving 2,598 firms from Indonesia and 3,256 firms from South Korea. We use data panel analysis to explore the relationships between variables.

Firms using cost leadership are prone to earnings management, while differentiation strategies are less inclined to do so. Market competition negatively correlates with earnings management in Indonesia and South Korea. Market competition moderates the relationship between differentiation strategy and earnings management in both countries. When profitability is considered, the results remain consistent, particularly in Indonesia.

This research enriches previous studies on earnings management and business strategy by examining the extent of industry competitiveness in developed and developing markets.

This finding is significant for managers, guiding them in the selection of an appropriate business strategy within a competitive environment.

This study is unique in that it examines the subject matter in both developed and developing countries, specifically Indonesia and South Korea, to compare the differences.