ECON616 1501B 02ph2ip - 1898 Words

AutoEdge’s Market Fit Phineas C. Cody CTU Online Phase 2 IP ECON616-1501B-02 Professor: Hagen Introduction In order to answer the question as where AutoEdge fits in its industry in comparison to its competitors it will be helpful to look at market structure and the various areas or types of market structure. So what is a market structure? A market structure may be defined as â€Å"the characteristics of the market† (Whatiseconomics, 2014). The word characteristics is the key to fully grasping this seemingly simple definition of what market structure is. Market structure or the characteristics of the market can be sorted into two categories where one is organizational characteristics and the other is competitive†¦show more content†¦This would be â€Å"a market structure in which a few firms dominate† (Economics Online, 2015). When this occurs the market takes on a different appearance that is said to be highly concentrated because there may be several businesses operating in the same market. Heavy hitters in the retail industry would be mass merchant entities such a s Wal-mart, Costco, and Target. These massive retailers have a share interest in controlling the retail market by manipulating various barriers of entry. Similar to those barriers of entry that are associated with a monopolized market, higher costs and such, these giants can also manipulate pricing to ensure that a newcomer could not compete. Price undercutting or predatory pricing may be done even at a loss for these retail giants if means keeping the oligopoly market structure with fewer new competitors. Various may be use these oligopolists strong name and customer loyalty base. Often times an oligopoly may experience a kinked-demand curve where there are two distinct segments with different elasticities that combine to form a kink. The kinked-demand curve is a good way to explain price rigidity in oligopoly where one segment is relatively more elastic in prices increasing and the other segment is less elastic in prices decreasing. â€Å"The relative elasticities of these two s egments is directly based on the