Hervé Tanguy

Planning in firms as an interactive process

This paper discusses the possible uses of economic analysis for strategic planning decisions in firms. It proposes an approach which emphasizes the role of common knowledge for decentralized parallel decision processes. Planning is interpreted as an interactive process among a set of agents who use a plan to formalize a theory of action and an invalidating procedure. In the course of action the agents are supposed to cope with uncertainty as long as the chosen theory remains justified. This approach has strong connections with some recent trends in managerial economics and in particular with the current work in the production sphere which similarly illuminates the role of common knowledge through objective physical flows to promote global efficiency of the firm.

Internet et la distribution de biens physiques. Analyse de l'émergence de nouvelles structures verticales dans le secteur du vin

A lot of B-to-B and B-to-C projects have been set up by new comers in the wine sector. They lead the traditional stakeholders, involved in physical retailing, to reshape their own distribution strategies. In the first part of this paper, we analyze several models of wine distribution and the stakes raised by the introduction of the Internet technology. In the second part of the paper, we propose a theoretical analysis of (1) the opening of direct distribution channels for the producers, (2) the opening of new supply sources through market places for the distributors. Classification JEL : D43, L22, L81, O33, Q13

Are neighbors welcome ? e-buyer search, price competition and coalition strategy in the Internet retailing

We study the forces that drive the phenomenon of aggregation of merchant Web sites (B-to-C) competing in a differentiated electronic market, where the search cost for the consumers is independent from the adaptation/transportation cost they incur when the good they find does not match with their preference. We focus on the possibility for Internet sites to coalesce, which results in a reduction of the search cost to find other sites within the coalition. We do the static comparative of coalition structures (depending on whether there is little or high differentiation between partners), when firms compete in price. We find that firms prefer to coalesce with highly differentiated partners, and set in this case lower prices.

E-Consumers’ Search and Emerging Structure of Web-Sites Coalitions

This article summarizes the main results we obtained in an agent-based extension of an industrial organization analytical model4 for studying emerging coalition structures in electronic markets.