Research on move sequence between competitive supply chains under a common stochastic demand

Supply chain competition has demonstrated its popularity in the advanced business world. In such a sophisticated structure often characterized with uncertainty, the move sequence of each member may play a decisive role. However, this problem has been under researched. To fill this gap, this paper considers a competitive supply chain structure consisting of two manufacturers and two retailers, with one manufacturer and one retailer composing a supply chain. One supply chain moves first, and then followed by the other one. In each supply chain, the manufacturer is the leader and the retailer is the follower. We explore the effects of move sequence and channel power on the system performance under a common stochastic demand. It is shown that the first-move supply chain can make more benefits than its competitor in launching a new product when the relative power of the manufacturers in each supply chain satisfies a certain condition. Furthermore, we discuss the results and propose some managerial insights.