Location decision of managerial firms in an unconstrained Hotelling model

This paper applies an unconstrained Hotelling linear city model to study the effects of managerial delegation on the firms’ location/product differentiation level in a duopoly industry. It is shown that managerial delegation strongly affects firms’ location/product differentiation choice, both in the simultaneous and sequential moves in one of the three-stage location-incentive-pricing game structure of the model. While sequential moves in the location distance/quality differentiation stage decrease the distance among firms, sequential moves in the incentive-pricing stages increase it. The social welfare consequences are analysed.