For example, the cost of resources needed by the industry may increase as production levels increase. This will cause the supply curve to rise in the long run. Characteristics There are three main attributes of monopolistic competition: • Different but similar products. - Basically, businesses in monopolistic competition are given this name because, even though the businesses compete for a specific set of consumers, there is something different about each company's product. Thus, each company can be considered a “mini-monopoly” for its specific product. • Large number of firms – This is what differentiates them from monopolies as there are a very large number of small firms within sectors with monopolistic competition. • Free entry and exit – Firms can freely enter a monopolistically competitive market when they find it profitable to do so, and they can exit when a monopolistically competitive market no longer exists.