Consumers may need help using an inherently complex or information-intensive product after purchase. This paper studies the incentive for a manufacturer or a retailer to invest in pre-sales service effort that would reduce the consumer's likelihood of seeking after-sales support. Because...

Traditionally, outlet stores were situated away from main stores in order to provide older, less desirable products at discounted prices. More recently, some firms have featured an outlet-within-a-store concept and offer consumers the experience of outlet shopping at the same location. With an...

We consider a distribution channel comprising of a supplier and a retailer, where the retailer can collect customer data, use it to profile them, and personalize its retail prices based on this information. Depending on the retailer's data collection ability, two personalized pricing strategies...