Location decision of managerial firms in an unconstrained Hotelling model

Abstract 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.