Information sharing in supply chains with heterogeneous retailers

Abstract

This work analyses partial information sharing involving retailers with different operational configurations. Retailers are characterized by four operational factors, i.e., demand variance, lead time average, forecasting period and inventory policy. The findings show that the performance improvement based on information sharing depends on retailers’ operational factors. Consequently, partial information sharing structures need to be carefully designed in order to achieve a substantial performance improvement. The results also serve to provide innovative recommendations to supply chain managers in order to efficiently implement information sharing mechanisms at retailers.