Market Structures in Business Management

8/28/23

As a business major, understanding market structure examples and what divides these different types of markets is a crucial step to becoming a successful businessman. As a way to classify and differentiate different types of businesses based on their nature of competition for goods and services, market structures help potential investors, businessmen, or entrepreneurs have a greater understanding of just how successful their potential business might turn out to be, and what they can do to grow their business. 

What are the Four Popular Market Structures? 

These market structure examples are four of the most popular (most common) ones you will come across. As a business student, you will quickly learn that each one of these creates and heavily influences every aspect of a business, from small mom-and-pop shops to major multinational chains. 

Perfect Competition

Where many firms offer a homogenous product. In these types of markets, there is a large pool of buyers and sellers, making the competition fair and the potential for revenue is plentiful if initiative is taken by business owners. This type of market is easy for any type of business to enter or exit.

Oligopoly Market 

As the opposite of monopolistic competition, an oligopoly indicates a market that has a wide variety of competitors. Market structure examples of oligopoly include pharmaceuticals, media, and the automotive industry. 

Monopoly Market 

A monopoly is a type of business marketing structure when the market is controlled by a single firm that provides an exclusive service or product. Since there is no competition, they have the power to set the price.  

Monopolistic Competition 

Monopolistic competition is when many companies offer similar, but not identical, products to one another. As a form of imperfect competition, there are many competitors, and the level of competition for entry is low (as long as you have a distinct service or product). In this type of market, no one firm has true control over the market. 

Why is Market Structure Important to a Business Management Degree? 

In courses that put an emphasis on critical thinking and analytical skills, knowing marketing structure will help give a contextual understanding of the work that is involved in getting a Business degree. As one of the most popular college majors, Business gives you a general overview of what you can expect in the field, from getting a core understanding of economics to financial accounting, business market structure plays an important role in all of these courses. 

The process of getting a business degree covers the full spectrum of business disciplines. The purpose of this is to prepare every student for the competitive world of business strategy. If you are curious about entering the business world, enroll for a degree in either Business Management or Business Administration. In these programs at Saint Augustine College, you may get a degree that can help you find a wide range of jobs in the private, government, and nonprofit sectors.