Retailer-Led Marketplaces (Hervas-Drane & Shelegia 2025) | FT50 MgmtSci

Welcome to Revise and Resubmit, the podcast where we break down cutting-edge business research, one paper at a time.

Today, we’re diving into a fascinating study from Management Science, a prestigious FT50 journal—one of the top 50 business journals in the world. The paper is titled "Retailer-Led Marketplaces", authored by Andres Hervas-Drane and Sandro Shelegia, and published by INFORMS PubsOnline on March 28, 2025.

Retail giants aren’t just selling their own products anymore—they’re opening their digital storefronts to competitors, transforming themselves into powerful marketplace operators. But what happens when a retailer becomes both the host and the competitor? How do they balance marketplace fees, control over customer traffic, and their own product supply? And most importantly, what does this mean for competition, consumers, and policymakers?

Stick with us as we unpack the model behind these retailer-led marketplaces and explore how regulations might shift the balance of power in online retail.

A big thank you to Andres Hervas-Drane and Sandro Shelegia for their insightful research and to Management Science for publishing this influential work.

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Now, here’s the real question: Are retailer-led marketplaces creating fairer competition, or are they simply rewriting the rules in their favor? Let’s find out.

Reference

Andres Hervas-Drane; , Sandro Shelegia (2025) Retailer-Led Marketplaces. Management Science. Ahead-of-Print.https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.00315

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