Unilateral Technology Sharing among Competitors in Markets with Heterogeneous Consumers

Abstract

AbstractThis paper explains why some firms share their technology with competitors. We consider a Hotelling market where duopolists sell products with different qualities. This market consists of heterogeneous consumers, comprising three groups in terms of their valuations of product quality. We show that when consumers’ preferences for product quality are sufficiently heterogeneous, a high-quality firm benefits from sharing quality-enhancing technology.