Consumers seek for not only base functionalities of products they buy but also fairness in transactions. In this work, we investigate how such fairness-seeking behavior affects a manufacturer's distribution channel structure selection. Specifically, the manufacturer can sell the product directly...

We consider an e-tailer's upstream supplier who wants to encroach into retailing to earn additional revenue. The supplier needs to decide whether or not to enter the retail market by either selling to consumers on an e-tailer's platform by paying commission fees (agency encroachment) or opening...

In practice, agency e-commerce is also referred to as e-marketplace, where copycats that have nearly identical “consumption quality” with the genuine products are commonly observed. The e-marketplace may not have incentives to combat copycats, so we observe many brands are using a truly new...