Pricing decisions and strategies selection of dominant manufacturer in dual-channel supply chain

This paper investigates the dominance strategies exerted by the dominant manufacturer for maintaining its dominant position in the channel system which is operating substitutable products and what influences they have on members of the whole channel system and the consumers. As to the channel system with two manufacturers and one retailer, the pricing decisions are depicted to compare the optimal choices made by the system members under the dominant manufacturer's wholesale price dominance strategy and channel dominance strategy, respectively. It shows that only the dominant manufacturer can necessarily benefit from the wholesale price dominance strategy. Furthermore, both dominant manufacturer and retailer can benefit from the channel dominance strategy, and consumers can also benefit from it. The channel dominance strategy, however, is not always the optimal choice for the dominant manufacturer. Whatever dominance strategy is it, the weak manufacturer will suffer loss, but in the channel dominance strategy, the market share proportion of the weak manufacturer will increase under certain circumstances. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.