Oligopolies: Big Four Banks, Optus And Telstra

An oligopolistic market is one that has several dominant firms with the power to influence the market they are in; an example of this could be the supermarket industry which is dominated by several firms such as Tesco, Sainsbury’s, and Waitrose etc... Furthermore an oligopolistic market can be defined in terms of its structure and its conduct, which involve various different aspects of economics.

This would be “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 as 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. “The relative elasticities of these two segments is directly based on the

1) An Oligopolistic market structure is a structure where very few large businesses sell a particular standard Good or differentiated Good, and to whose market entry proves difficult. This in turn, gives little control over product pricing because of mutual interdependence (with the exception of collusion among businesses) creating a non-price competition meaning they are the ‘price setters’. A good rule to help classify an

An oligopoly is “a market situation in which relatively few sellers [like Burger King, McDonald’s] compete and high start-up costs form barriers to keep out new competitors [like Five Guys Burgers and Fries]” (Boone and Kurtz, 2012, p. 80). Within this competitive fast food burger industry, the main product being offered is a hamburger.

Oligopolies have been around ever since there is trade. However, it has only recently gained grounds in this age of globalisation. Never before has oligopolistic competition been so fiercely contested across so many industries.

There are many models of market structure in the field of economics. They include perfect competition on one end, monopoly on the other end, and competitive monopoly and oligopoly somewhere in the middle. In this paper, we will focus on the oligopoly structure because it is one of the strongest influences in the United States market. Although oligopolies can also be global, we will focus strictly on the United States here. We will define oligopoly, give key characteristics important to the oligopoly structure, explain why oligopolies form, then give an example of an oligopoly in today’s economy. Finally, we will discuss the benefits and costs in this type of market structure.

A. firms in the industry have some degree of market power. B. firms in the industry are typically characterized by very diverse product lines. C. the actions of one seller have no impact on the profitability of other sellers. D. products typically sell at a price that reflects their marginal cost of production.

An Oligopoly refers to a market structure where-by the suppliers have formed some form of cartel and are acting in unison. In such a case the suppliers have the power to determine the price of the commodity and may set any price.

There are four types of market structures: Monopolistic Competition, Monopoly, Oligopoly, and Perfect Competition. Monopolistic Competition is also known as competitive market. In this market structure, there are a large number of firms that produce similar but somewhat differentiated products for the same target customers. The market share is also divided among large number of firms making it difficult for one firm to become the market leader. On the other hand, Monopoly is a type of market structure in which only one firm controls the whole industry. There are strict barriers to entry for new firms due to governmental restrictions or the monopolistic power of the firm itself. In Oligopoly, the whole industry is dominated by a few large scale firms that set prices, introduce innovative products, and use heavy campaigns to attract buyers. All other small scale firms follow the changing market patterns set by these oligopolistic firms. Lastly, perfect competition is a market structure in which there are a larger number of firms that produce similar as well as differentiated products for

An oligopoly exists when a few firms control most of the industry. There are many industries in the American economy that are controlled by oligopolies. The automotive industry, Smartphones, cellular service providers, film companies, and toothpaste are all industries considered oligopolies. Each of these industries is dominated by just a few corporations. To the average consumer, it can sometimes be unclear just how much a single corporation controls. Companies will regularly merge under one parent company yet retain their individual names. This leads to the appearance of choice yet, no matter what, our money is going to one of the same few companies. Due to the amount of control these corporations have over the industry, they can often behave in an almost monopolistic

The first company that comes to mind when I think of an oligopoly is the company Best Buy. Although Best Buy is apparently the leader in its market not, a couple decades ago there was more competition. Companies like Radio Shake and Circuit City were also majors players in the electronics department store arena. I was only a child when Best Buy began their take over, so I am not sure exactly what their marketing campaign was back then. I would however assume that whatever their marketing strategy was it was successful in attracting new customers who must have become brand loyal. I came to that conclusion simply because Circuit City and Radio Shack were both very well-known and industry leaders, 20 & 30 years ago and now they no longer

While a monopoly usually involves one firm with significant control on the market, an oligopoly contains a few firms. An oligopoly is a market structure where a few companies selling identical or differentiated products control the marketplace. The few players in an industry are usually quite large compared to the market for the product, thus giving these few players an advantage at market control. There are barriers to entry in oligopolies that include patents or government grants, ownership of resources, cost prohibitive barriers, brand equity and diminishing average cost.

One of the oligopolistic behaviors is mergers. In 2010 Black+Decker merged with Stanley Works creating an increase in market control. In 2014 the company created a Innovation Team to develop new markets, new business models, breakthrough technology and industry shaping solutions. No matter what market structure a company falls under you will always need to take the good with the bad.

In oligopoly market, each firm has substantial market power with high degree of interdependence. The key for success in a oligopoly market is to gain more market share than the competitors. Increasing the price can lead to loss of market share to the competitors, so in the oligopoly market, if a firm decreases the price, the other firms will always follow, but if a firm increase the price, the other firms will not follow. The demand curve is kinked.

Oligopolistic Markets are less common, but still prevail in the modern economy. An Oligopolistic business is one with few competitors, basing its revenue off of “outsmarting” its opponents by analyzing their decisions and predicting the outcome. Having an analysis of an opponent provides the basis for Oligopoly, as income is based on providing a product that has more features than another product, released to the public around the same time. The Cellular industry provides a pristine example of the Oligopolistic Market.