隨著資訊的發展與全球化的趨勢，有效率的管理供應鏈間的整合是使企業快速且平穩成長的有效方式，利用長期合作的夥伴關係可以促使供應鏈管理績效之提升。而資訊分享可以改善通路中持有存貨的效率，所以好的需求資訊對製造商的利益來說具有正面而直接的影響，但是資訊對於製造商的利益來說也有負面而間接的策略性傷害，導致雙重邊際化及過高的零售價格。資訊分享可以使得供應鏈績效更好，但卻可能使得供應鏈夥伴間競爭性增加，因此，當供應鏈的協調變的越來越複雜時，資訊傳遞的重要地位即被突顯出來。
本研究考慮多供應商與單一零售商的兩階層供應鏈，並融入資訊分享的概念作為研究主軸，通常掌握越多的資訊就會擁有越大的協調與合作空間，對於存貨與市場的預測也將會越準確。然而，完全透明的資訊會帶來雙重邊際化問題，部分資訊分享則容易因為單方自身的利益，而散布不正確的資訊，更會造成需求與存貨的扭曲，產生所謂的長鞭效應，因此，在現今網絡發達的世界裡，資訊的分享是供應鏈協調中很重要的一環。本研究探討資訊分享與否之影響存貨成本與缺貨成本之變動情況，考量加入零售商促銷活動，即零售商可藉由促銷增加需求，致使供應商無法準確預測市場需求資訊，提升資訊分享之價值，期望可以藉由資訊分享提升雙方與整體供應鏈之利潤。
研究結果發現，在資訊分享下，不論供應商相關成本是否相同，隨著前期需求與當期需求相關性越高，供應商之存貨水準與總成本減少之比例也越多。而零售商促銷所增加需求之相關係數變大時，存貨水準與總成本減少比例也變大。因此，資訊分享之價值隨著需求相關性變大而提升，同時亦可降低存貨水準與總成本。

This paper develops a model to demonstrate the benefits of information sharing. In the past literatures, it is not clear how to identify the benefits of sharing demand information and to measure these benefits. In this paper, we study a distribution channel where a single retailer places various orders to multiple suppliers, and consider two scenarios which are with information sharing and without information sharing. Using analytical models, this paper aims at the value of information sharing for a simple two-level supply chain with nonstationary end demand. Numerical examples are provides to illustrate the gap between with information sharing and without information sharing. We have shown that information sharing provides benefits to the suppliers in two ways: (1) inventory reduction; and (2) expected cost reduction. Our analysis suggests that the value of sharing demand and promotion information can be quite high, especially when demand itself and the demand affected by promotions are significantly correlated over time.

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