Bilateral information sharing in two supply chains with complementary products

•Bilateral information sharing in two complementary supply chains are investigated.•Four pricing models based on different information sharing patterns are formulated.•The effects of parameters on the performance of information sharing are studied.•Bilateral information sharing benefits the whole supply chain under some conditions.•Information sharing in a supply chain has benefits for the other supply chain. Information sharing has been regarded as a major way to promote collaboration or to optimize overall supply chain performance. Most of the literature has focused on unilateral information sharing in a supply chain with single or substitutable products. This paper investigates bilateral information sharing in two supply chains with complementary products, and formulates four decision models based on different information sharing patterns. Our results show that (i) information sharing always benefits the manufacturer, and benefits the retailer and the whole supply chain under certain conditions; (ii) information sharing increases/decreases the positive effect of the retailer’s/manufacturer’s forecast on the optimal pricing strategies in its own supply chain; however, its impact depends on the parameter conditions in the other complementary supply chain.