The benefit of collective reputation
研究两家长期经营的企业在集体品牌与独立品牌下的声誉模型，发现集体品牌虽长期引发搭便车，但短期能抑制滥用声誉的诱惑，效果取决于信号结构和消费者先验信念。
Abstract We study a model of reputation with two long‐lived firms who operate under a collective brand or as two individual brands. Firms' investments in quality are unobserved and can only be sustained through reputational concerns. In a collective brand, consumers cannot distinguish between the two firms. In the long run, this generates incentives to free‐ride on the other firm's investment, but in the short run, it mitigates the temptation to milk a good reputation. The signal structure and consumers' prior beliefs determine which effect dominates. We interpret our findings in light of the type of industry in which the firms operate.