In the first essay, I analyze a symmetric duopolistic market where each firm's choice regarding certain quality attributes such as the environmental friendliness of its product is its own private information. I find that the extent of horizontal differentiation between firms plays a crucial role...

In this note, we analyze the equilibrium outcomes of pricing games with product differentiation in relation with the extent of market coverage. It is a received idea in the IO literature that the horizontal and vertical models of product differentiation are almost formally equivalent. We show...

Earlier theoretical literature on mass customization maintains that customization reduces product differentiation and intensifies price competition. In contrast, operations management studies argue that customization serves primarily to differentiate a company from its competitors. Interactive...

This paper challenges the assumption commonly used in the theoretical literature on customization that consumers always get their ideal varieties when they purchase a customized product. I adopt Hotelling's horizontal diffierentiation model with two firms competing for a continuum of consumers....