A Duopoly Model in Cournot Markets for Chain-to-Chain Competition Using Visitors in Supply Chains: A Game Theoretic Approach

In this paper, we consider a Cournot Market for Chain-To-Chain Competition, which includes two distinct competing supply chains. Each supply chain has one Manufacturer, one Visitor, and one Retailer. The Retailer is in common between the two chains. This article will investigate the impact of using visitors to attract retailers as much as possible by the manufacturer. Each visitor should try to convince retailers to order more by paying a cost named Visit Cost in this article. After selling each unit of considered products, the manufacturer would pay a percentage of the wholesale price. It is assumed that there is a Stackelberg game between the manufacturer and visitor in each supply chain, in which the manufacturer is the leader. Furthermore, there is a Nash competition between manufacturers and the retailer.