Title: Countering grey market threat using service effort

Authors: Xuemei Su; Samar K. Mukhopadhyay

Addresses: College of Business Administration, California State University Long Beach, Long Beach, CA 90840, USA ' Lubar School of Business, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI 53201, USA

Abstract: Grey markets are likely when there is a significant price difference of the same product in two different markets. A grey marketer can buy the product in the low-price market and sell it in the high-price market starting an unauthorised channel. This paper studies the role of service effort in the authorised channels in fighting grey market under two scenarios. One is when the prices are not under the manufacturer's control and second, when they are. We find that the manufacturer's profit is significantly improved when he proactively adjusts the service levels in different markets. When service provision can be used in conjunction with pricing strategies, the manufacturer's profit is further improved. One surprising finding is that, when certain conditions are satisfied, the manufacturer actually benefits more from grey market than from the authorised channel in the high price market.

Keywords: supply chain management; grey market; service.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSS.2019.104301

International Journal of Services and Standards, 2019 Vol.13 No.1/2, pp.22 - 45

Received: 26 Mar 2018
Accepted: 29 Jul 2019

Published online: 02 Jan 2020 *

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