In a decentralized assembly supply chain, independent suppliers produce a set of complementary components from which an assembler assembles a final product and sells it to the market. In such a channel, several competitive forces interact with one another to affect the price and quantity...

A common phenomenon that occurs in any decentralized multilocation system is stock imbalance, whereby some locations have unsatisfied demands while others are overstocked. The system can be rebalanced by using a search process that is driven by either the customers or the retailers. In a...