Nowadays, many mergers take place and industries tend to consolidate. The author claims to describe the observable fact of worldwide industrial consolidation and he is interested in business managers’ motivations and behaviours. Since oligopolies are a common phenomenon, with this book he desires to contribute to the current discussion regarding this omnipresent trend, which already can be seen when for example drinking coffee.

In the first chapter of Market Domination! the author explains key expressions like monopoly and the new oligopoly. He argues that there has always been an urge for companies to merge, but this urge has never been as strong as it is nowadays. Companies have the possibility to merge or acquire other companies, as long as it is within legal boundaries. In order to measure concentration, two methods are explained, namely the concentration ratio and the Herfindahl–Hirschman index, where the last one is often used in courts concerning antitrust cases. In addition, in antitrust cases, market-definition, narrow or broad, can also be determining for the outcome of a process. Moreover, companies strive to be number one or two in the market, resulting in the fact that they often define a narrow market leading to more oligopolies. The second chapter describes the complication of oligopolies and oligopsonies, hence situations in which there are only a small number of sellers or a small number of buyers respectively. Oligopsonies can be seen as middlemen, being in the position to squeeze the suppliers, where one can think of Wal-Mart, which, as a buyer, demands low prices from its sellers in order to offer low prices to consumers. In reality, combinations of oligopolies and oligopsonies, called oligonomies, often take place. Oligonomies are oligopolies in one direction and oligopsonies in the other. The author gives several examples of this phenomenon, such as the couple of major book publishers, being an oligopsony to authors and an oligopoly to readers. Also, he is of the opinion that this is actually justified, since only big corporations can serve the large number of transactions.

In the third chapter, motivations for growth are explained. Growth can be attained in terms of a growing net income, through a cost-cutting policy, higher prices, or productivity gains, and a growing gross income, as a consequence of taking competitors market share or selling new goods, resulting from mergers and acquisitions. The author distinguishes ways to grow in three categories, namely organic growth, meaning companies should continue doing what they are good at, vertical expansion, or horizontal expansion. Advantages, disadvantages and examples are provided by the author. Vertical expansion, for instance, can involve the buying out of layers in the same industry, such as Coca-Cola and PepsiCo buying out independent bottlers. Horizontal expansion, for example, should be carried out to areas that are close to the ones already owned by the companies, such as the chicken producer Tyson going into beef and pork production as well by acquiring another company, IBP. Besides this, the writer claims mergers and acquisitions come in waves. These waves can be the result of the loosening of antitrust legislation, or financial interests of principals, but the most important reasons are fear and anxiety for other companies to consolidate and the lessening of market power, in spite of the failure of the majority of the mergers to deliver synergies. The fourth chapter of Market Domination! elaborates on innovation and disruption. Innovation is important for survival, so companies should innovate in order to maintain their dominant position. Companies can engage in incremental innovations, where they improve their already existing products, or disruptive innovations, where they redefine products. Large companies often buy innovations done by smaller companies in order to obtain new products and patents, but also to keep up with upcoming trends. Examples are given of companies and their buyouts, such as organic milk. Intellectual property rights, such as patents, are important, where the author claims the situation is in favour of big companies, regarding innovations, patents, and legal staff. Also, the writer makes the legitimate point that the disadvantage of patented inventions is that patents are given out on small pieces of information, leading to fragmentation and entry barriers for small companies.

Consequently, the fifth chapter of Market Domination! discusses prices and costs. It could have been expected that prices for consumers would increase much when many oligopolies are present, which is also related to price signalling, but in reality it turns out that prices have remained approximately stable over the last years, where the Wal-Mart example can be used again to illustrate low and stable prices. Oligopolies can hold down consumer prices, which is all consumers care about, because of for example increased efficiency, pressure on suppliers, and pressure on wages. An additional cost advantage can result from the manipulation of public policy, which is discussed in Chapter 6. Chapter 6 continues to describe the fact that companies are eager to manipulate public policy, which can be beneficial on the local, national, or international level. Companies try to influence areas like antitrust laws, working hours, and taxes. Companies often feel pressured to engage in lobbying, since other companies behave like this as well. Large firms do not always succeed in lobbying, but it can be beneficial for them, which is illustrated by the writer with several examples. Chapter 7 illustrates the fact that when oligopolies exist and a few dominant players are present, these players become often more similar regarding their products and strategies. Imitation is a logical consequence when a company is successful, leading to more sameness. There already is a common language, but convergence can also be seen from personnel, products, common methods, joint ventures, trade associations, market discipline, mergers and acquisitions, and groupthink. For consumers, however, variety and choice are important. The author argues pseudovariety is present, meaning products are fabricated in almost the same way, leading to minor differences, with often the variety being present in packaging. Consumers then think they have a choice to make, while in fact this is an illusion. A clear example here is American beer. Consumers can pick beer from many yards shelf space, that all contain roughly the same product. Research has shown the abundance of choices makes consumers less happy, but producers keep on supplying an enormous amount of pseudovariety. The reason for this is that producers want to control much shelf space, but also because fatigued shoppers will buy the most standard and well-known products. Chapter 8 discusses market consolidation in the USA, which is more advanced than market consolidation in Europe. Market consolidation is harder in Europe because of differences between countries in language, culture and economies. In this chapter, three markets are analyzed, namely the soft drink industry, the movie industry, and the pharmaceutical industry, that all have to deal with aspects like innovation, disruption, layers of buyers and sellers, government policy, lobbying, personnel, and patents.

The strength of Market Domination! can be seen from the richness of practical examples given, from which the presence of oligopolies and industry consolidation is clarified. In the first chapters, the basics of monopolies, oligopolies, monopsonies and oligopsonies are explained clearly, leading to a comprehensible structure of the succeeding chapters about growth, innovation, prices, convergence, and choice. This book clearly shows a connection between theory and practice, which can be seen from, for instance, the relationship between consolidation and buying and selling power. Although the title suggests industry consolidation in general, the examples given are mainly situated in the USA. Some other examples are given, but it is not until Chapter 8 that the author acknowledges that industry consolidation is present more in the USA than in, for example, Europe. Also, in Chapter 4, the author claims large companies are advantaged regarding innovations and patents, whereas I think this is not always the case, because of the fact that, for instance, large companies have to deal with antitrust policy by the government against them. Furthermore, the author emphasizes industry consolidation and imitation, while he touches on antitrust policy. I am of the opinion that currently there is a more centralized action by the government regarding antitrust policy, which should be kept in mind while reading the book. In addition to this point, the author seems to overlook the impact of patents in Chapter 7. He argues imitation is a common phenomenon, which is partly true, but impeded by the limits of patent law. Once a new product is invented and patented, it cannot be immediately copied by other companies. Also, in Chapter 7, the writer argues there is not much to choose for consumers because of little variety. He is right in the fact that many American brands offer more or less the same products, but variety is largely increased by international trade. The above given example was about the sameness of American beer, while in fact variety is increased by e.g. European beer through worldwide trade.

All in all, the book is a well-written, comprehensible one, with many practice-related examples. Students can read this book straightforwardly and swiftly grasp the essence of consolidation and its effects. Market Domination! can be a step for students to study this material more in dept. In spite of the few concerns mentioned earlier, the book can serve as a guideline and an overview regarding the current oligopolies that influence consumer behaviour and consumer choice, and is in fact contributing to the discussion of market consolidation.