Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • March 1999 (Revised January 2000)
  • Background Note
  • HBS Case Collection

A Note on Microeconomics for Strategists

By: Kenneth S. Corts and Jan W. Rivkin
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:19
ShareBar

Abstract

Summarizes the core ideas about the microeconomics of markets that are most relevant to business strategy. Sections I and II develop two basic building blocks of any market, demand and supply. Section II discusses how demand and supply interact to determine the quantity of goods traded in a market and the price paid for those goods, with special attention to the way that external events influence the quantity traded and the price paid. Section IV presents the important benchmark of "perfect competition," in which equally matched firms compete so vigorously and market entry is so easy that no firm earns more than its cost of capital. Section V explores the ways that real markets depart form perfect competition. These departures lie at the heart of long-run profitability.

Keywords

Microeconomics; Cost; Cost of Capital; Market Entry and Exit; Business Strategy; Competition; Corporate Strategy

Citation

Corts, Kenneth S., and Jan W. Rivkin. "A Note on Microeconomics for Strategists." Harvard Business School Background Note 799-128, March 1999. (Revised January 2000.)
  • Educators
  • Purchase

About The Author

Jan W. Rivkin

Strategy
→More Publications

Related Work

    • March 2001
    • Faculty Research

    Corruption in International Business (A)

    By: Robert E. Kennedy and Rafael M. Di Tella
Related Work
  • Corruption in International Business (A) By: Robert E. Kennedy and Rafael M. Di Tella
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College