Using Distribution Alliance to Signal the Seller’s Service Quality in Online Retailing Platforms

Table 1

Notations used in the paper.

Variables	Description
	The seller’s service quality,
	The seller’s extra cost for providing high service quality,
	The amount of sellers applying for distribution alliance with high service quality
	The certification accuracy of the distribution alliance
	The application fee for joining distribution alliance
	The consumer’s belief about the proportion of sellers with high service quality in distribution alliance
	The consumer’s demand for distribution alliance
	The fraction of sellers with low service quality who apply for distribution alliance
	The seller’s demand for distribution alliance
	The total market demand for distribution alliance
	The platform’s expected profit of operating distribution alliance