Information sharing in an e-tailing supply chain for fresh produce with supplier encroachment

This paper considers an e-tailing supply chain for fresh produce (E-FSC) composed of a supplier investing in freshness-keeping effort and an e-retailer providing value-added service. We study the e-retailer's information sharing strategy with supplier encroachment. First, we discuss the supplier's encroachment strategy without or with information sharing and indicate that the e-retailer may profit more from encroachment. Second, we explore the e-retailer's information sharing strategy under two scenarios. Under the independent scenario, the e-retailer may share information when the freshness sensitivity is comparatively high, which cannot affect the supplier's encroachment strategy. Under the interactive scenario, the e-retailer influences the supplier's encroachment strategy through an information sharing strategy. The e-retailer may share (withhold) information to induce (deter) encroachment when the competition intensity is comparatively low or high (moderate). Finally, we discuss the influence of the entry cost on E-FSC members' profits, which finds that increasing entry cost may improve the supplier's profit.