Supply chains are fundamental to antitrust because no firm can exclude competitors without denying them access to inputs. But this does not mean that antitrust policy can reduce inflation caused by supply chain disruption or effectively redistribute wealth between different levels of a supply...

Contractual inefficiencies within supply chains increase an input price above its marginal cost, therefore they are considered detrimental to consumer surplus. We argue that such inefficiencies may be beneficial to consumers in quality-differentiated markets where the "finiteness property"...

Since the early 2000s, there has been rapid growth in the number and spread of supermarkets in southern Africa. This paper is a synthesis of key findings of studies undertaken in Botswana, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe on the expansion of supermarkets and the impact this has had on...

The paper shows that taking inventory control out of the hands of retailers and assigning it to an intermediary increases the value of a supply chain when demand volatility is high. This is because an intermediary can help solve two incentive problems associated with retailers' inventory control...

The aim of this paper is to report the findings of the study of the routes and the distance traveled by spices from the farming location to the consumer in traditional and organised retailing. This research study is primarily exploratory in nature, and the research instruments include interviews...

The paper shows that taking inventory control out of the hands of competitive or exclusive retailers and assigning it to a manufacturer increases the value of a supply chain especially for goods whose demand is highly volatile. This is because doing so solves incentive distortions that arise...

This paper discusses how a manufacturer and its retailers interact with each other to optimize their product marketing strategies, platform product configuration and inventory policies in a VMI (Vendor Managed Inventory) supply chain. The manufacturer procures raw materials from multiple...

The global growth of the Third-party Logistics (3PL) industry increases opportunities for providers but also increases the challenges in the business as the market becomes more complex and difficult to achieve integration of logistics. The present document is qualitative research. It is based on...

This paper introduces a new coordinating mechanism for a two-echelon service chain with a single service retailer and multiple suppliers. The retailer sells a bundled product with perishable demand to the end customer. Prior to the selling season, suppliers must make components available to the...