Title
Commissions and Sales Targets Under Competition
Abstract
We consider a game between two capacity providers that compete for customers through a broker who earns commissions on sales and sells to both loyal and nonloyal customers. The providers compete by selecting commission margins and sales targets above which the margins on total sales increase. We study the contract form in equilibrium and the effect that sales targets have on the profit split between the providers and the broker. We show that in equilibrium, contracts require positive sales targets that can be best described as a mechanism for the larger provider to profit at the expense of the smaller provider. The effect of sales targets is different when commission margins are exogenous and the providers compete by setting targets. In this case, it is the low-margin provider who benefits from sales targets at the expense of the broker, who in this context resists the imposition of targets.This paper was accepted by Yossi Aviv, operations management.
Year
DOI
Venue
2014
10.1287/mnsc.2013.1885
Management Science
Keywords
Field
DocType
game theory,contract theory
Economics,Commission,Contract theory,Microeconomics,Sales management,Game theory
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
60
9
0025-1909
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
3
0.40
2
Authors
2
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Guillermo Gallego18516.65
Masoud Talebian281.81