Factors Influencing Objectives of Firms



There are many factors influencing a firm in deciding their objectives. They are; 
1) Market structure (number of competitors), 
2) Activities of competitors,
3) Relative power of different groups within the firm,
4) Views of potential consumers,  
5) Legal restraints for implementation, 
6) Sector in which the firm operate.
The firm in the imperfect competition may choose a number of objectives as given below and choose an appropriate output positions to achieve their respective goal.
1) Profit maximisation: - Firms seeks to maximise profit where MC= MR. Monopolists earn super-normal profit in long run because of the barriers to entry. 
2) Sales maximisation:- Monopolists seeks to maximise sales revenue by MR = 0,   where the total revenue is at its peak.  Directors of companies prefer in order to increase their salaries, and make it more difficult for another firm to take over the company.
3) Normal profit: - State owned monopolies prefer to run at break even, which is at normal profits, where average cost equals average revenue. 
4) Optimum output: - Some state owned monopolies prefer to achieve productive efficiency by producing at the optimum output. They operate at minimum average cost output where marginal cost equals average cost.   
5) Socially optimum output: -  [Allocation-efficient output] It is achieved where price (average revenue) is equal to marginal cost.
6) Predatory pricing output: - Firm set its price with the objective of driving a competitor out of the market or discouraging potential rivals from entering the market.  They keep rice above the normal profit level but below the maximum profit level.   
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