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 and thereby improve the intertemporal allocation of inventory …

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 when retailers have to allocate inventory across sales periods, and …

The paper shows that taking inventory control out of the hands of competitive of 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 when retailers have to allocate inventory across sales periods, and …