Conclusion
We consider manufacturer encroachment with endogenous product quality under three different information structures, i.e., full information, asymmetric information, and no information, to explore the effects of encroachment and information on the product quality and profits of chain members. Under the case of asymmetric information where a signaling game arises, only the separating equilibrium satisfies the intuitive criterion so that the low-type retailer has to distort her order quantity downward to costly signal her type. By examining the effects of encroachment on the quality, we find that encroachment decreases quality if the manufacturer’s direct selling cost is intermediate, and increases quality otherwise. Under each information structure, encroachment benefits the retailer under an intermediate direct selling cost when she deters the manufacturer from selling directly (which eliminates the negative competition effect caused by encroachment). The manufacturer is always better off with encroachment since the added channel can either increase demand or serve as an effective threat to the retailer and allow the manufacturer to use the quality and wholesale price decisions more aggressively to extract profit from the retailer channel.