Competitive Pressure and the Adoption of Complementary Innovations

Abstract

Liberalization of the European automobile distribution system in 2002 limits the ability of manufacturers to impose vertical restraints, lead- ing to a substantial increase in competitive pressure among dealers. We estimate an equilibrium model of profit maximization to evaluate how dealers change their innovation adoption strategies following the elimination of exclusive territories. Using French data we evaluate the existence of complementarities between the adoption of software appli- cations and the scale of production. Firms view these innovations as substitutes and concentrate their effort in one type of software as they expand their scale of production. Results are robust to the existence of unobserved heterogeneity. (JEL: C35, L86, O31).