The common wisdom is that a retailer suffers when its wholesale supplier encroaches on the retailer's operations by selling directly to final consumers. We demonstrate that the retailer can benefit from encroachment even when encroachment admits no synergies and does not facilitate product...

Minimizing strife through vertical integration is commonly seen as the “holy grail” for long-term success in product distribution. In this paper, we take a different slant, showing that sometimes a separated channel that embodies a degree of discord can be helpful, particularly when a...