Strategic interactions in the TAC 2003 supply chain tournament The TAG 2003 supplychain game presented automated trading agents with a challenging strategic problem. Embedded within a complex stochastic environment was a pivotal strategic decision about initial procurement of components. Early evidence suggested that the entrant field was headed toward a selfdestructive, mutually unprofitable equilibrium. Our agent, DEEP MAIZE, introduced a preemptive strategy designed to neutralize aggressive procurement, perturbing the field to a more profitable equilibrium. It worked. Not only did preemption improve DEEP MAIZEu0027S profitability, it improved profitability for the whole field. Whereas it is perhaps counterintuitive that action designed to prevent others from achieving their goals actually helps them, strategic analysis employing an empirical gametheoretic methodology verifies and provides insight into the reasons of this outcome.

Collaboration in demanddriven supply chain: Based on a perspective of governance and ITbusiness strategic alignment Abstract   In todayxe2x80x99s marketplace, firms participating in a supply chain are required to work collaboratively to quickly respond to market and consumer demands. To understand how firms may effectively achieve supply chain collaboration, this paper presents an empirical study using a moderated mediation model that explores the effects of formal contract, ebusiness strategic alignment (including intellectual and operational alignment) and the degree of competition on collaboration in demanddriven supply chain. Using data from a survey of IT and business executives in 209 firms, we discover that formal contract has a positive effect on supply chain collaboration through intellectual and operational alignment. In addition, the positive mediating effect of operational alignment is stronger under a higher degree of competition. Although there is no moderated mediation effect in the path of formal contractintellectual alignmentsupply chain collaboration, the degree of competition shows a negative moderated effect on the relationship between formal contract and intellectual alignment, and a positive moderated effect on the relationship between intellectual alignment and supply chain collaboration. Learnings from this study contribute to supply chain management literature, and provide a comprehensive view of the governance and strategic antecedents of supply chain collaboration under various environmental circumstances.