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Indecisive Customers and Sales Associates with Elevated Competitiveness

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Systemic Principles of Applied Economic Philosophies II

Part of the book series: Translational Systems Sciences ((TSS,volume 39))

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Abstract

This chapter, which is mainly based on Forrest and Anderson (Customers’ indecisiveness: A pricing strategy approach, Pennsylvania Economic Association 2017 Conference Proceedings, 80–95, 2017) and Forrest and McCarthy (Sales associates’ compensations: A game theoretic approach. Pennsylvania Economic Association 2017 Conference Proceedings, 52–64, 2017), investigates (a) the characteristics of market competition by employing the thinking logic of systems science, and (b) the problem of sales associates’ compensation (or sales force compensation). The importance of these topics is manifested in the fact that competition is one spirited characteristic of the market economy and continuously finding a new profitable market niche, an entrepreneurial behavior that makes competition increasingly intensive, is the key for success in running business enterprises. Rigorous deductions are provided in the language of game theory. Among other results, this chapter shows when market competition will intensify, under what conditions the existing loyal consumer base of an established firm will start to deteriorate, and how a firm should motivate and compensate its sales force to achieve additional success. The established results and the reasoning employed in this chapter can be directly applied to design new strategies for competition between firms in order for them to optimize their profits.

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Author notes

  1. Jeffrey Yi-Lin Forrest (Department of Accounting Economics Finance, Slippery Rock University, Slippery Rock, PA, USA; Email: Jeffrey.forrest@sru.edu), Melanie Anderson (Department of Accounting Economics Finance, Slippery Rock University, Slippery Rock, PA, USA; Email: melanie.anderson@sru.edu), and Larry McCarthy (Department of Accounting Economics Finance, Slippery Rock University, Slippery Rock, PA, USA; Email: larry.mccarthy@sru.edu) are equally contributed to this chapter.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Accounting Economics Finance, Slippery Rock University, Slippery Rock, PA, USA

    Jeffrey Yi-Lin Forrest, Melanie Anderson & Larry McCarthy

Authors
  1. Jeffrey Yi-Lin Forrest
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  2. Melanie Anderson
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  3. Larry McCarthy
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Correspondence to Jeffrey Yi-Lin Forrest .

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Forrest, J.YL., Anderson, M., McCarthy, L. (2023). Indecisive Customers and Sales Associates with Elevated Competitiveness. In: Systemic Principles of Applied Economic Philosophies II. Translational Systems Sciences, vol 39. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-7939-4_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-7939-4_10

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  • Print ISBN: 978-981-99-7938-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-99-7939-4

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