臺北市電影映演產業的產品差異化與空間競爭

Product Differentiation and Spatial Competition between Movie Theaters: Evidence from Taipei

本研究探討廠商在二維競爭時的產品差異化策略。戲院在片單及地理位置兩維度上進行差異化，但短期間戲院位置無法變動，片單差異度才是戲院的主要策略變數。實證結果顯示：臺北市戲院若兩兩配對，平均片單差異程度為0.5015（完全差異化為1）；而戲院距離與差異化程度為反向關係。這表示距離仍是臺北市電影映演市場的重要考量因素。此外，距離對差異化的影響是非線性的，若相距小於5公里，距離對差異化的影響就不顯著。戲院的相對規模亦影響其差異化決策，「大型對大型」的差異化競爭模式與「小型對小型」有別。所有權亦影響差異化程度。

Using data from Taipei film theaters, we study how firms decide on their degree of product differentiation when they compete in a two-dimensional space. Theaters compete on programming lists and locations; the programming list is the main strategic variable, while location is fixed in the short run. Using the degree of differentiation in weekly programing list as the dependent variable, we show that the degree of differentiation is negatively correlated with the distances to competitors. Our empirical results confirm that distance is still an important factor in Taipei's movie exhibition market. The results are consistent with the theoretical predictions in the literature on extended Hotelling models. But the relationship between distance and product differentiation could be non-linear since the negative correlation is insignificant when competitors are within 1 to 5 kilometers. We also find that if two theaters belong to the same chain, they are less likely to differentiate from each other.