Formation of the structure of commodity markets and barriers to entry to them in the conditions of digitalization of the economy: the advertising factor

The article is addressed to a wide range of readers, including research economists, as well as those who teach and study the theory of industrial markets in universities, and is devoted to the formation of the structure of commodity markets — both traditional and modern digital. The authors try to make progress in revealing the nature of the influence of the intensity of advertising activity in the industry on the values of concentration indicators, the size of entry barriers, and other structural parameters of industry markets. Based on the analysis of data on the Russian markets of mobile communication services and pharmaceuticals, the fundamental applicability of the concept of «U-shaped inverted curve» for characterizing the relationship between the level of advertising intensity in the industry and the values of concentration indices is established. On this basis, the hypothesis is formulated that the influence of the level of advertising intensity, including as an industry entry barrier, on the structure of markets is more significant in conditions of low and / or moderate concentration. The authors argue that the processes of digitalization of the economy today not only dynamically change the boundaries of modern industry markets and the nature of competition in them, but also strengthen the potential of advertising communications as a significant factor in the formation of the structure of digital markets.