Topic: Information Sharing and Manufacturer Rebate Competition

Speaker: Wang Yunjie, Business School, Renmin University of China

Time: March 21, 2025, 14:00

Venue: EMS 119

Abstract:

We investigate the incentive for a retailer to share private demand information with two rebate-offering manufacturers who sell substitutable products through the retailer. We show that the retailer’s incentive to share information depends on the proportion of rebate-sensitive consumers, the competition intensity, and whether the retailer can charge a side payment for sharing the information. When the retailer cannot charge a side payment, he will not voluntarily share information with a monopolistic manufacturer, but he may do so with none, one, or both of the manufacturers when there is competition. Interestingly, we find that more intense competition or a smaller proportion of rebate-sensitive consumers may benefit a manufacturer if it induces the retailer to share information with her. When the retailer can charge a side payment, we consider two cases: concurrent contracting and sequential contracting with the manufacturers for sharing the information. We show that the retailer always prefers concurrent contracting, which induces the system-optimal information sharing decision, over sequential contracting.

Guest Bio:

Wang Yunjie is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Management Science and Engineering at Renmin University of China's Business School. She obtained her Ph.D. from the Business School of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Her main research areas include supply chain management, platform economy, and sustainable operations. Her research findings have been published in top-tier international journals such as Management Science, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, and Production and Operations Management, with multiple papers being selected as ESI Highly Cited Papers. She has previously or is currently leading two projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China.