This paper explores the relation between product life cycle and price competition by referring a case of ten durable goods in Japanese market. The author discovers that five patterns of the relation have existed. This result implies that, besides product life cycle, the difference of product characteristics and industrial structure affects price competition.
This essay examines bad research questions in academic writing in the business administration field. First, we investigate a research question that is not suitable for academic papers but more likely business reports. Second, we brief through three kinds of research questions which are academic but still not good; (1) an ‘unlearned’ research question that prior studies have already answered though the researcher is unaware of due to lack of knowledge; (2) an ‘unanswerable’ research question owing to its nature or lack of researcher’s capability and resources; (3) an ‘unfit’ research question which cannot be answered because the data collected is unsuitable. Further, we discuss how to avoid such bad research questions.