Our objective is to understand how a firm’s product development capability (PDC) affects the launch strategy for a durable product that is sequentially improved over time in a market where consumers have heterogeneous valuations for quality. We show that the launch strategy of firms is...

We introduce a model of product development in a firm. Our model describes the process as a multi-stage contest (i.e., race) with an endogenous length (with one stage or two stages) between two workers. We model the payments to workers from the new product using the normatively appealing Nash...

Kerstin Schmidt entwickelt ein analytisches Modell verteilter Produktentwicklungsprozesse, welches individuelle Zielsetzungen, existierende Unsicherheiten sowie insbesondere substitutionale Abhängigkeiten zwischen den Zulieferern hinsichtlich der von ihnen zu entwickelnden Komponenten...

We analyze the strategic behavior of firms when demand is determined by a rule of thumb behavior of consumers. We assume consumer dynamics where individual consumers follow simple behavioral decision rules governed by imitation and habit as suggested in consumer research. On this basis, we...