IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hit/hiasdp/hias-e-40.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

A Theory of Intermediation in Supply Chains Based on Inventory Control

Author

Listed:
  • QU, Zhan
  • RAFF, Horst
  • SCHMITT, Nicolas

Abstract

The paper shows that taking inventory control out of the hands of retailers and assigning it to an intermediary increases the value of a supply chain when demand volatility is high. This is because an intermediary can help solve two incentive problems associated with retailersi inventory control and thereby improve the intertemporal allocation of inventory. Adding an intermediary as a new link in a supply chain is also shown to reduce total inventory, to make shipments from the manufacturer less frequent and more variable in size, as well as to reduce social welfare.

Suggested Citation

  • QU, Zhan & RAFF, Horst & SCHMITT, Nicolas, 2016. "A Theory of Intermediation in Supply Chains Based on Inventory Control," Discussion paper series HIAS-E-40, Hitotsubashi Institute for Advanced Study, Hitotsubashi University.
    • Handle: RePEc:hit:hiasdp:hias-e-40
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hermes-ir.lib.hit-u.ac.jp/hermes/ir/re/28241/070_hiasDP-E-40.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kropf, Andreas & Sauré, Philip, 2014. "Fixed costs per shipment," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 166-184.
    2. Taylor Randall & Serguei Netessine & Nils Rudi, 2006. "An Empirical Examination of the Decision to Invest in Fulfillment Capabilities: A Study of Internet Retailers," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(4), pages 567-580, April.
    3. Andrew J. Clark & Herbert Scarf, 2004. "Optimal Policies for a Multi-Echelon Inventory Problem," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 50(12_supple), pages 1782-1790, December.
    4. Raymond Deneckere & Howard P. Marvel & James Peck, 1996. "Demand Uncertainty, Inventories, and Resale Price Maintenance," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 111(3), pages 885-913.
    5. Deneckere, Raymond & Marvel, Howard P & Peck, James, 1997. "Demand Uncertainty and Price Maintenance: Markdowns as Destructive Competition," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(4), pages 619-641, September.
    6. Jean Tirole, 1988. "The Theory of Industrial Organization," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262200716, December.
    7. Igal Hendel & Paolo Dudine & Alessandro Lizzeri, 2006. "Storable Good Monopoly: The Role of Commitment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(5), pages 1706-1719, December.
    8. Bulow, Jeremy I, 1982. "Durable-Goods Monopolists," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 90(2), pages 314-332, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Qu, Zhan & Raff, Horst & Schmitt, Nicolas, 2018. "Incentives through inventory control in supply chains," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 486-513.
    2. Wang, Hao, 2004. "Resale price maintenance in an oligopoly with uncertain demand," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 389-411, March.
    3. John Asker & Heski Bar-Isaac, 2010. "Exclusionary Minimum Resale Price Maintenance," NBER Working Papers 16564, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Yong Liu & Michael J. Fry & Amitabh S. Raturi, 2006. "Vertically restrictive pricing in supply chains with price‐dependent demand," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 53(6), pages 485-501, September.
    5. Hao Wang, 2001. "Resale Price Maintenance in an Oligopoly with Uncertain Demand," Working Papers 01-11, Ohio State University, Department of Economics.
    6. Hyun Jae Doh, 2010. "Multi-Product Retail Competition and Minimum Resale Price Maintenance," Korean Economic Review, Korean Economic Association, vol. 26, pages 361-400.
    7. Kathryn E. Spier, 2003. "“Tied to the Mast”: Most-Favored-Nation Clauses in Settlement Contracts," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 32(1), pages 91-120, January.
    8. Tian Xia & Richard Sexton, 2010. "Brand or Variety Choices and Periodic Sales as Substitute Instruments for Monopoly Price Discrimination," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 36(4), pages 333-349, June.
    9. Cindi Fleshman & Jonathan Willner, 2005. "Accounting For Social Costs Associated With Resale Price Maintenance," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 23(3), pages 429-435, July.
    10. Heiman, Amir & Ofir, Chezy, 2010. "The effects of imbalanced competition on demonstration strategies," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 175-187.
    11. Kohei Kawaguchi, 2021. "When Will Workers Follow an Algorithm? A Field Experiment with a Retail Business," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(3), pages 1670-1695, March.
    12. Xi Li & Krista J. Li & Yan Xiong, 2023. "Channel Coordination of Storable Goods," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 42(3), pages 538-550, May.
    13. John Asker & Heski Bar-Isaac, 2012. "Vertical Practices Facilitating Exclusion," Working Papers 12-20, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, Department of Economics.
    14. Raff, Horst & Schmitt, Nicolas, 2007. "Why parallel trade may raise producers' profits," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(2), pages 434-447, April.
    15. Edward Schlee, 2008. "Expected consumer’s surplus as an approximate welfare measure," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 34(1), pages 127-155, January.
    16. Gerstle, Ari D. & Waldman, Michael, 2016. "Mergers in durable-goods industries: A re-examination of market power and welfare effects," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(4), pages 677-692.
    17. Didier Laussel & Ngo V. Long & Joana Resende, 2020. "The curse of knowledge: having access to customer information can reduce monopoly profits," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 51(3), pages 650-675, September.
    18. Kenji, Matsui, 2011. "Resale price maintenance for supply chains distributing products with demand uncertainty," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(2), pages 375-387, December.
    19. Giovanni Cespa, 2008. "Information Sales and Insider Trading with Long‐Lived Information," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(2), pages 639-672, April.
    20. Saracho, Ana I., 2011. "Licensing information goods," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 187-199, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    intermediation; inventory; demand volatility; supply chain;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L11 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms
    • L12 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Monopoly; Monopolization Strategies
    • L22 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Organization and Market Structure
    • L81 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Retail and Wholesale Trade; e-Commerce

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hit:hiasdp:hias-e-40. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Digital Resources Section, Hitotsubashi University Library (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ashitjp.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.