Direct selling by suppliers improves system-wide information flow

Consider a bilateral monopoly selling to a market with uncertain demand. The retailer has access to a demand signal. The supplier can add a direct channel, which grants it market access as well. The supplier and the retailer can acquire signals from each other with payments. We show that direct selling by the supplier improves information flow to realize system-wide information transparency, which has mixed effects on the profits for the retailer and the system. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.