A manufacturer commonly distributes through a set of retailers who are authorized to sell its product; demand-enhancing services may also be provided by the manufacturer. These services may be granted to all authorized retailers (uniform service provision) or to a favored few authorized...

We study potential alliance formation among three competing firms with asymmetric capacity: One large firm has ample capacity, and two small firms have limited capacity. Each firm can either operate independently or form an alliance with another firm. Due to antitrust laws, an alliance of all...