Rivalry-restraint-based theoretical mechanisms predict that an industry's profits will increase when its firms engage in less price competition, or less direct competition, with each other. Competitive-advantage-based theoretical mechanisms predict that a firm's profits will increase when it...

This paper develops a model of information-acquisition decisions by firms that are competing in a "strategic factor market" (Barney 1986) to purchase a scarce resource whose value is unknown and differs across firms. The model builds on the argument that more accurate expectations about the...