Title: Cost reduction, quality improvement: strategic incentives in a duopoly

Authors: Zhiying Liu; Yi He

Addresses: School of Management, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, 232206, China ' School of Management, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, 232206, China

Abstract: How to achieve the innovation is becoming more urgent for the firms, in general, process innovation and product innovation are two primary types of innovation which firms adopt. This paper aims to describe a mechanism on the choice between cost reduction and quality improvement in a duopoly. In detail, we study the optimal invest strategies of each channel member in three different scenarios, utilising game theory and optimisation theory, the optimal invest strategies and price policies of each channel member are obtained and compared in three different scenarios. Finally, we analyse the effects of price sensitivity coefficient and innovation cost coefficients on two firms' profits in three scenarios by using the numerical analysis.

Keywords: cost reduction; quality improvement; price policies; competition; strategic incentives; process innovation; product innovation; investment strategy; game theory; optimisation; price sensitivity coefficient; innovation cost coefficient.

DOI: 10.1504/IJAMS.2014.060905

International Journal of Applied Management Science, 2014 Vol.6 No.2, pp.152 - 170

Published online: 02 Jul 2014 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article