Market Structure and Innovation
Which market conditions are optimal for effective and sustained innovation to occur? This is a question that has vexed economists and business academics for many years.
High levels of research and development spending are frequently observed in oligopolistic markets, although this does not always translate itself into a fast pace of innovation.
The recent work of William Baumol (2002) provides support for oligopoly as market structure best suited for innovative behaviour. Innovation is perceived as being “mandatory” for businesses that need to establish a cost-advantage or a significant lead in product quality over their rivals. “As soon as quality competition and sales effort are admitted into the sacred precincts of theory, the price variable is ousted from its dominant position…But in capitalist reality as distinguished from its textbook picture, it is not that kind of competition which counts but the competition which commands a decisive cost or quality advantage and which strikes not at the margins of profits and the outputs of the existing firms but at their foundations and their very lives. This kind of competition is as much more effective than the other as a bombardment is in comparison with forcing a door.”
Supernormal profits persist in the long-run in all oligopoly and these can be used to finance research and development.
无市场结构与创新
哪种市场配置能最优地促成有效和持续的创新？这个问题已困扰经济学者和商业学者多年了。
在寡头垄断市场中，经常可以注意到有大量的研发资金支出，但这些努力并不总能够转化成快速的创新。
威廉·鲍莫尔（2002）最近的一项研究为寡头市场结构最适合创新的观点提供了有力支持。一些企业的创新之处是建立凌驾于对手之上的成本优势，或者在产品质量上创造巨大领先等等，但这些被看作是企业的“义务”。企业竞争优势是个神圣不可侵犯的领域，一旦此方面的理论开始考虑质量竞争和促销活动对企业竞争优势的影响，那么价格变量将被驱逐出其主导地位。但是在资本主义现实世界里，现实与书本上的画面大相径庭，竞争并不是人们所想象的那样。真正的竞争在于拥有产品生产成本或者质量上的绝对优势，而且真正的竞争打击的不是现存企业的边际收益或者产量，而是他们存在的基础和方式。这种竞争就像轰炸之于砸门，比其他竞争形式都要有效得多。
从长期来看，超额利润在寡头市场中是存在的，这些利润可以用来为研发提供经费。