This paper investigates the roles of price-matching guarantee as a response to `showrooming' (quality free-riding) and as a tool for predation. Employing a duopoly vertical differentiation model, we find that price-matching guarantee raises consumer surplus but its impact on social surplus is...

Showrooming, the phenomenon of consumers visiting a brick-and-mortar (B&M) store to learn about products but then buying online to obtain lower prices, is attracting increased attention both in business practice and in academic literature. It is considered a major threat to the B&M retailers,...

We empirically examine consumer showrooming phenomenon in the footwear industry. Using transaction-level data from a large online footwear retailer and offline store entry data from four major footwear retail chains in the U.S., we quantify the effect of offline store entry on the competing...