Firms’ introduction of internet-based installment: Incremental demand vs. cash opportunity cost

•We formulate tradeoffs among incremental demand, cash opportunity cost, and chain-to-chain competition.•An asymmetric equilibrium exists when incremental demand is in a moderate range.•Reselling platform has more incentives to provide installment services than agent selling.•Reselling platform’s supplier may share the loss from cash opportunity cost with the platform.•Tariff mitigates firms’ incentives to provide installment services.