| Article ID: | iaor20121917 |
| Volume: | 40 |
| Issue: | 2 |
| Start Page Number: | 78 |
| End Page Number: | 83 |
| Publication Date: | Mar 2012 |
| Journal: | Operations Research Letters |
| Authors: | Perakis Georgia, Sun Wei |
| Keywords: | retailing, simulation: analysis, combinatorial optimization |
We consider the impact of partial positive externalities (imperfect complementarity) among downstream retailers on supply chain performance. We show that double marginalization may fail to exist in a decentralized setting when some retailers carry multiple imperfect complements. By giving a precise characterization on the degree of complementarity, we prove that a decentralized supply chain loses at least 25% of the optimal profit and that its performance degrades rapidly with the complementarity effect.