8 Market Structure: Perfect Competition and Monopoly One of the most important decisions made by a manager is how to price the firm’s product. If the firm is a profit maximizer, the price charged must be consistent with the realities of the market and economic environment within which the firm operates. Remember, price is determined through the interaction of supply and demand. A firm’s ability to influence the selling price of its product stems from its ability to influence the market supply and, to a lesser extent, on its ability to influence consumer demand, as, say, through advertising. One important element in the firm’s ability to influence the economic environment within which it operates is the nature and degree of competition. A firm operating in an industry with many competitors may have little control over the selling price of its product because its ability to influence overall industry output is limited. In this case, the manager will attempt to maximize the firm’s profit by minimizing the cost of production by employing the most efficient mix of productive resources. On the other hand, if the firm has the ability to significantly influence overall industry output, or if the firm faces a downward-sloping demand curve for its product, the manager will attempt to maximize profit by employing an efficient input mix and by selecting an optimal selling price. Definition: Market structure refers to the environment within which buyers and sellers interact.
CHARACTERISTICS OF MARKET STRUCTURE There are, perhaps, as many ways to classify a firm’s competitive environment, or market structure, as there are industries. Consequently, no 313
