It maps a leader’s decision to the follower’s payoff-maximizing choice. The relevant choice can depend on the strategies available to the follower and on constraints such as prices, resources, and other conditions in the decision problem. Analysts use this relationship to represent how the follower’s action changes when the leader changes its prior move.
The prior move provides the context against which the follower evaluates alternatives. A change in the leader’s decision can alter which follower strategy produces the highest payoff, so leadership affects subsequent market behavior rather than determining only the leader’s own result. This linkage helps predict changes in quantities, prices, market shares, or profits.
Constraints limit the set of feasible strategies from which the follower can choose. Prices, available resources, and other restrictions may prevent the follower from selecting an unconstrained payoff-maximizing action. Consequently, the predicted response reflects both the follower’s objective and the permitted options, making explicit constraints important when interpreting equilibrium quantities, prices, or profits.
Once the follower’s best response is linked to the leader’s decision, the pair of choices can be evaluated as an equilibrium outcome. This analysis can indicate resulting quantities, prices, market shares, and profits. The equilibrium therefore captures not just an initial leadership decision, but the market consequences generated by the follower’s subsequent strategic adjustment.
They first identify the leader’s prior move and the follower’s available strategies. Next, they evaluate the follower’s payoff under the relevant constraints and select the best response. Representing that choice with a reaction function then allows the analyst to connect the follower’s action to the leader’s decision and assess possible equilibrium outcomes.
Applications include Stackelberg competition, contracting, procurement, and strategic entry. In each setting, the framework helps organize how one participant’s prior decision shapes another participant’s subsequent action. It can then support predictions about economically meaningful results, including quantities, prices, market shares, and profits, while preserving the strategic order of decisions.