ABSTRACT
In 2004, the authors participated in a Sloan Foundation workshop at the University of Washington.1 The workshop topic was the role of intermediaries in global supply chains. The sixteen academic attendees, mostly professors or lecturers at U.S. universities, represented the economics (three attendees), sociology (seven attendees), and business (six attendees) disciplines. One active discussion centered on the distribution of power among the intermediaries. Several attendees argued that retailers hold the strongest hand in the supply chain, creating a “monopsony” where they control product access to the markets.
