Seminar (Dept. of Marketing)

Title: Information Gathering about Competitors’ R&D: Good or Bad?

Speaker: Yuanfang Lin（Washington University）

Time: 10:00-11;30, December 13th ,2023（Wednesday）

Venue：Room 1008, Mingde Business Building

Language：English

Abstract：

Typically, intelligence gathering on competitors has been portrayed as being somewhat underhanded or sneaky: a form of skullduggery to acquire the secret recipe or corporate secrets of the competitor. We take a different perspective and characterize information gathering as effort focused on learning/understanding the status of a competitor’s R&D effort. We simplify the activity as learning whether the rival’s R&D has been successful before making decision about new product launch. When markets are characterized by a large and active segment of innovators (i.e., consumers who are excited and motivated to buy and use the most innovative product in the category), this motivates firms to engage in information gathering. We show how the clandestine information gathering on competitor’s R&D has positive effects on a) the focal firm, b) the competitor, c) R&D activity within the economy, and d) the probability of innovation being introduced to the marketplace. These benefits are based on how better-informed players make more efficient decisions. And the fundamental inefficiency of an R&D race is mitigated by such competitive information gathering activity.

Short biography：

Yuanfang Lin received Ph.D. degree in Marketing from Washington University in St. Louis. Currently Dr. Lin is Associate Professor of Marketing and MSc Graduate Program Coordinator at Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics, University of Guelph. Dr. Lin’s primary research interests include competitive strategies, consumer decisions under uncertainty, product innovation, pricing strategy, retailing and channel management. Dr. Lin’s research works have been published by journals including Marketing Science, Management Science, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Journal of Retailing, etc.