Contacto multimercado y solapamiento de mercado en las cajas de ahorros

Abstract

As a general rule, analysis of business rivalryhas focused on the study of the features of the markets, industries or populations. Recent studies, however, emphasize the importance of the specific competitivefeatures of companies when it comes to evaluating thedegree of competitiveness that arises in a given market. The aim of this study is to analyze, from a descriptive standpoint, the development of two of these features ¿ the degree of multi-market contact and the overlapping of the market domain ¿ in the Spanish savings banks sector. Results show how, alongside increased competitiveness stemming from the greater overlapping of the market domains of the institutions, there has also been an increase in the potential for tolerance due to the larger number of multi-market contacts. Consequently, any inference regarding the level of market rivalry should be based not only on the consideration of measures that summarize the competitive position in a particular market, but also on indicators reflecting the global position of the savings banks inrelation to their competitors.