Easy Money: What does it have to say about Economics?

To ‘delineate’ is to describe in general the boundaries of something. When applying the word in business, “Market Delineation” is the method of outlining the geographic range of the demand for a product. In simpler terms, this is how a business monitors and controls its sales spread over a certain location. It’s possible to evaluate the current economic activity of the specific location being looked at as well as predictions on future levels being made that can affect the business’ profitability. Other factors that can dent the business’ success involve not conforming to ethical laws and the social standards of a business as evidenced in the novel.
“Market Dominance” is the measurement of a company’s control over the total number of sales (Vatiero, 2006). The same can be applied when talking about a specific product or a service in terms of how much they are sold, in comparison to other company’s offering the same product or service. Market dominance is usually enjoyed by those companies which have been around for a long time gradually building its trust and reputation amongst consumers. Newer firms entering the market look to gain a very small percentage of the total number of sales relying more on word of mouth and low prices to pierce the supremacy of the larger multinationals.
Competition vs. Co-operation
When two people or groups sit down to sort out their issues, certain beliefs belonging to each person will be evident enough as to let you know beforehand how each person is going to go about negotiating. The most notable of beliefs are either being ‘competitive’ or ‘cooperative’. The competitive approach will most likely always result in the decision being a win-lose with one party walking away the ‘victor’ if you like. Usually when this approach is taken, the root of the issue stems from there being no loyalty between both sets. It is related to ‘distributive bargaining’ somewhat which also ends in a win-lose situation albeit not so much one-sided as a straight up competitive decision. This way of working things out is often seen as destructive.
A cooperative approach to negotiations is usually more based on ‘bargaining’ and both groups looking for a win-win result at the end of it. Parties that are able to sort out their issues this way are more likely to progress on to bigger and better things as a level of trust and respect is formed. This type of resolution is also thought of as a constructive resolution process.
The three main economic groups represented in the novel are the Serbian mafia, the Stureplan crowd, and Abdulkarim's cocaine dealers, all of which have their own competitors in their own right whilst also controlling different parts of Stockholm’s economy. The Serbian Mafia ran a series of different ventures all at the same time; mentioned in the book were the smuggling of intoxicants, the prostitution ring and the debt collection along with the coat checks scheme they were running at various nightclubs around the city. The coat check scheme had two main competitors in the form of the Hell’s Angel gang and club king Goran Boman which formed sort of an oligopoly within the coat check market. (Lapidus, 2011, Page 59)
‘Turkish wore baggy pants from an outlet or something. Huge cuffs on his shirts. I mean, he’s a real tool’ (Lapidus, 2011, p26)
As well as being one of the main suppliers of drugs, Abdulkarim and the Arabs provided cabs to the people of Stockholm. Looked at as the head of the Arabs, amongst the Stureplan crowd and society in general, he was often regarded as a scoundrel.
‘The Arab would occasionally do tests. One of his men would pretend to be a customer and take a ride with JW. Afterwards, the Arab would compare what his controller had paid with what JW wrote in his log’ (Lapidus, 2011, p49)
This check that Abdulkarim found necessary to carry out in turn hurt his business as it meant fewer customersand more time spent driving around his