Personalized Pricing with Upstream Corporate Social Responsibility and Downstream Investment

This study evaluates personalized pricing in supply chain competition. We consider two supply chains, each comprising an upstream firm with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and a downstream firm investing in quality. A downstream firm's quality investment has two effects: it raises its own consumers' utility and induces the rival downstream firm to lower its price, consequently benefiting the rival's consumers. As personalized pricing is exploitative, the former effect is entirely captured. First, we find that under personalized pricing, a downstream firm's investment benefits only the rival's consumers. In response, the upstream firm with CSR sets a higher input price to expand the rival's market share and increase consumer surplus, which weakens downstream investment incentives and moderates quality competition. Second, we find that personalized pricing may harm consumers while remaining profitable for downstream firms.