This paper models frequency of introductions of newer generations of an intermediate-product sold by an upstream 'developer' firm to downstream manufacturer firms. The manufacturers use the intermediate product to manufacture final products, and are heterogeneous in the time it takes them to...

We study the effects of entry in a downstream market where firms (e.g., Compaq and IBM; CVS and Safeway) buy an input (e.g., microprocessor, grocery items) from an upstream supplier (e.g., Intel, Procter & Gamble) and sell their output to consumers. We show demand conditions where, contrary to...

Unprecedented changes in the economics of interaction, mainly as a result of advances in information and telecommunication technologies such as the Internet, are causing a shift toward more networked forms of organizations such as horizontal alliances---that is, alliances among firms in similar...

Upward channel decentralization occurs when firms choose to not manufacture products by themselves and procure products from upstream suppliers. Current voices from marketing scholars and practitioners have predominantly focused on the cost benefits when production is outsourced to lower-cost...

Network caches are the storage centers in the supply chain for content delivery---the digital equivalent of warehouses. Operated by access networks and other operators, they provide benefits to content publishers in the forms of bandwidth cost reduction, response time improvement, and handling...

This paper provides insights about when versioning is an optimal strategy for information goods. Our characterization of this class of goods is that variable costs are invariant with quality, including the special case of zero variable costs. Our analysis assumes a monopoly firm that has an...

This paper examines the economics of pricing practices at artificial reproductive clinics, which have introduced money-back guarantees (MBGs) for in vitro fertilization. We identify incentives for clinics to offer MBGs and evaluate the impact on couples' choices and on social welfare....

Store brands play many beneficial roles for retailers. While some roles such as creating a quality image for the retailer require relatively strong store brands, other roles such as segmentation of customers by income require lesser strong store brands. This paper shows another role of store...

The merger of distributed object technology, agent systems and electronic commerce enables a new generation of useful information services. With the advent of interoperable information services, markets featuring software agents as information service/product providers can be created. Meta...