국지최적화와 전체균일화

Local Optimizer or Global Equalizer: The Effect of Consumer Actions in the Market

이 연구는 해리슨 화이트의 생산시장의 이론 및 모형에서 나타난 사회적, 제도적 기초와 시장유형 간 관계를 발전시켜 생산자들이 균일한 이익률을 추구하는 전체균일화 행동을 하고 소비자들은 개별 생산자들이 갖는 고유의 품질 영역 내에서의 최적화를 요구하는 국지최적화 행동을 하는 시장유형을 검토한다. 생산자와 소비자들의 이런 행동 유형은 생산자인 기업들 사이에 경쟁적, 제도적 동형화 압력이 커지는 한편 문화자본과 취향 별로 분화된 소비자들의 요구가 커지는 현대에서 타난다. 정보기술로 인해 정보유통이 원활해지고 소비자들의 영향력이 커짐에 라 이런 시장은 더 많아질 것으로 예상된다. 이 연구는 생산자가 전체균일화 행동을 한다고 가정할 때, 집합적 소비자들이 전체균일화 행동을 하는 경우와 국지최적화 행동을 하는 두 시장을 비교한다. 그 결과 두 시장이 성립되는 파라미터 역은 다르게 나타난다. 소비자들의 지출 대비 만족 정도를 두 시장에서 비교한 과 소비자들이 생산자들에 대해 보다 적극적으로 개입하는 행위로 볼 수 있는 지최적화를 한다고 해서 항상 더 큰 만족을 누리는 것은 아니다. 시장 파라미터 역 별로 상대적 만족 정도가 다르게 나타나고 있어서 이 연구는 각 시장 유형내에서도 다양한 시장영역이 존재함을 보여준다. 이 연구는 시장의 사회적, 제도적 기초를 시장의 구조적 형태와 연결시킨 것으로서 경영학과 경제사회학에 함의를 지닌다. 실천적 함의는 기업은 자신을 둘러싼 시장이 어떤 방식의 최적화 기제를 갖고 있는지, 그 기제가 어떻게 바뀌고 있는지 유념해야 한다는 점이다.

This article examines how strategies of collective consumers affect market performance of consumers and producers, using a mathematical approach to the theory of production market in order to show that the production market is set with a variety of institutional, relational, and cultural characteristics. The market is often considered as a playground for atomic actors who seek higher profit in a relatively free space. Economic sociology approach to the market has argued that the market is filled with various social factors such as social relations, culture, social cognition, institutions, and power. One of the most visible and systematic research findings on the market from the sociological point of view is Harrison White’s production market theory and model. According to White, the production market is a social structure, where producers are embedded in flows of resource, discourse, and cognition. Their location is set by structural equivalence with other producers from both upstream and downstream. The producers solve the problem of uncertainty by paying attention to the whole structure of the market, especially the signals flowing out from an array of producers with different quality indices. The array, called market schedule, is historically maintained by structurally equivalent producers for years or decades. The market schedule is socially constructed by multiple producers who have different quality indices and thus different production volumes in the past. Producers expect one another to keep the quality and the production volume position. Based on the social ground, producers maximize the profit by choosing a proper production volume. Consumers cognize the value of each producer’s product, compare all the producers’ ratios of value to expenditure globally, and demand the ratio to be the same. This paper critically investigates the production market theory and model in order to show that his theory of market is based on certain social features though he did not clarify the central assumptions. A second purpose is to show that the social characteristics are embedded in th base of the market by indicating that the shifts in social characteristics of the production market and its actors’ actions cause a variation of market performance of producers and consumers. Lastly, this paper also aims at introducing a sociological theory of the production market, which has not been widely recognized or discussed in Korea. Extension and Development of Production Market Theories Market actors’ behaviors are not necessarily restricted to White’s market model and extend the theory and model by considering a more various combination of actors’ actions and institutional features behind diverse actions. White did not theorize social characteristics of different market strategies of producers and consumers. Different market strategies of actors are often the result of the actors’ relational, institutional and cultural positions. To show this aspect, this paper calls the market strategies as local optimization and global equalization. The producers optimize their behavior, but only locally. The consumers can compare and equalize the value ratios to expenditure globally, or over the whole market, but cannot optimize the ratio locally. In this sense, White’s production market is composed of a pair of local optimization by the producers and global equalization by the consumers. I built a 2 by 2 table and produced four combinations of producers’ and consumers’ two types of actions. White’s Market(2, 1) is one of them. In Market(2, 2), both producers and consumers optimize locally. Among the four combinations or market types, this article focuses on two types of markets in order to examine the effect of consumers’ actions on the market.