This paper investigates a retailer's incentive of sharing the private demand information with a supplier who may encroach the retail channel by exerting a fixed entry cost. Although the conventional wisdom suggests that a retailer should withhold her private demand observation to keep the...

Problem definition: Outsourcing is a common operations strategy nowadays, but it may lead to an unintended consequence of supplier copycatting. When outsourcing, there is some subtle information that the manufacturer knows but is optional for the supplier to carry out the production task, such...