考虑消费者公平偏好的竞争供应链歧视定价研究

考虑消费者存在公平偏好且两个制造商分别通过各自的零售商销售相似产品的竞争供应链，并构建三种情形下的博弈论模型，研究了不同的供应链成员采用基于消费者历史购买行为的歧视定价(BBP)策略对制造商和零售商利润、消费者剩余和社会福利的影响。研究发现：与不采用BBP策略相比，1)仅零售商采用BBP策略会降低制造商利润，但是当消费者公平偏好较大时，仅零售商采用BBP策略会增加零售商利润；2)当制造商和零售商均采用BBP策略会同时增加制造商和零售商的利润；3)仅零售商使用BBP策略会减小消费者剩余，然而制造商和零售商均使用BBP策略会增加消费者剩余；4)仅零售商采用BBP策略会降低社会福利，当制造商也采用BBP策略会进一步降低社会福利。     

Strategic implications of consumer food safety preferences

This study examines the tradeoffs consumers are willing to make relative to food safety attributes and other product attributes, such as quality and price, and develops implications for both the government and private sector firms. Conjoint analysis was used to elicit consumers’ preferences for fresh Red Delicious apples. The attributes studied include price, product quality as depicted by the level of defects, a variable representing the level of pesticide usage and the associated cancer risk, and a variable representing different levels of government inspection.The results indicated that most consumers have a strong preference for increased food safety. Government policy options that are explored include stricter production standards, improved regulatory monitoring, and government-defined labels. Private industry options that are examined include grower labels, retailer labels, and third party labels.     

Does umbrella branding really work? Investigating cross-category brand loyalty

Numerous studies on the drivers of brand extension success found evidence that parent-brand characteristics and the fit between parent brand and transfer product are the main and most influential factors driving brand extension success. However, the ability of a brand to transfer its brand loyal customers from the parent to the extension category has been widely neglected. Brand loyalty can be regarded as a consequence of the underlying assumption of customers transferring their quality perceptions, their brand knowledge, and their experience with the brand from one category to the other. We find empirical evidence that consumers who are loyal to the brand in the leading (parent) product category show a higher probability to be loyal to that same brand in another (extension) category compared to those consumers who are not loyal in the leading category. Moreover, as the overall success of the extension includes positive retroactive effects of the extension product on the parent product or brand, the arising question is whether there are differences between extension product categories regarding their attachment to the parent category and their ability to stimulate brand loyal purchases in the parent category, i.e., speaking of ‘leader’ and ‘follower’ categories in terms of brand loyal purchase behavior. This might even hold true for the relationship of any two categories the brand competes.     

厂商动态竞争性差别定价和竞争优势实现——基于消费者寻求多样化购买行为的分析

随着信息技术的发展,厂商可以根据消费者的历史购买信息实施差别定价.该文主要研究相互竞争的厂商基于消费者的购买历史实行差别定价的本质特征和形成机制,以及实施这种定价策略能否在竞争中获取竞争优势.分析结果显示,在竞争性差别定价均衡中,消费者寻求多样化购买是厂商实施差别定价的内在原因,厂商在第2期通过给予价格优惠吸引消费者重复购买,对忠诚的消费者给予奖励,并在第1期弱化竞争,导致两期竞争存在"默契合谋",消费者寻求多样化购买成为竞争厂商利润的源泉;如果厂商能够比竞争对手率先实施差别定价的营销策略,那么就能在竞争中获取优势.另外,清晰地刻画了竞争性差别定价均衡存在且唯一的充分条件.该文的研究结果可以很好地解释现实经济中许多厂商的定价竞争策略行为,对于厂商的产品营销战略具有重要的指导意义.     

炫耀性产品品牌策略：品牌延伸或新品牌？

企业在推出炫耀性产品时，可以采用两种品牌策略：品牌延伸或新品牌。为分析企业的炫耀性产品品牌策略，通过博弈论本文建立了无新产品、品牌延伸和新品牌三种模型，并得到了垄断情形与竞争情形下企业在不同品牌策略下的最优定价和利润。研究发现：在垄断情形下，企业总是采用品牌延伸策略。而在面临企业竞争时，如果消费者对地位身份不敏感，则企业选择不推出新产品；如果消费者对身份地位敏感，则当创建新品牌成本较小时，企业采用新品牌策略，否则企业选择放弃推出新产品。此外，一定条件下，企业推出新品牌会增加竞争对手的利润。     

基于好评返现和差评偏好的体验型产品两阶段定价决策研究

假定产品存在发布试销期与正式销售期,在销售商不采取好评返现与采取好评返现两种情形下分别建立考虑消费者差评偏好的两阶段定价决策模型,用KT方法得到相应的最优决策和利润,给出了销售商实施好评返现的条件。基于导函数分析方法与数值仿真技术,分析了好评返现与差评偏好对产品定价、销售商利润和消费者效用的影响,证实了好评返现下消费者重视差评信息的合理性,并针对消费者、平台和销售商提出了对策。研究表明:只有产品质量中等的销售商才会采取好评返现策略,其利润随产品质量的提升而先递增后递减;好评返现提高了销售商第二阶段的市场份额和售价,导致消费者效用损失;消费者越重视差评信息,实施好评返现的高(低)质量产品销售商越多(少),且销售商利润将下降;好评返现扭曲了评价信息的真实性,降低了消费者对在线评价系统的信任度。     

Pricing of flexible products

The pricing of flexible products is a new price discrimination practice that can enable firms to increase revenues under capacity considerations. A flexible product is defined as a good or service with at least one product attribute not fully specified at the time of the purchase, leaving the seller with at least two alternatives for the final product design and the ability to assign consumers to one of these alternatives at a later date. Flexible products enable sellers to better utilized capacity, as well as, to segment consumers and price discriminate according to different levels of flexibility. We empirically analyze consumer purchase behavior for flexible products based on a large field study of a low-cost airline. At this low-cost airline, consumers can select the level of flexibility of the flexible product. We identify the drivers of purchase behavior by analyzing the impact of consumers?? flexibility and search behavior and the price discount of the flexible ticket. Further, we estimate the revenue and profit effects of flexible products.     

基于战略顾客行为的进入威慑策略研究

通过对先进入者的原始产品进行模仿创新,后进入者推出了模仿创新产品,这吸引了跨期选择购买时机以及产品类型的战略顾客,从而威胁了先进入者的领导地位。面对这种威胁,文中研究了先进入者采用产品升级策略的有效性,其中,对于整体化升级策略,先进入者能以等性价比、递增性价比、递减性价比等三种路径推出升级产品;而对于模块化升级策略,先进入者只能以递增性价比路径推出显性升级产品。结论表明:对于整体化升级策略,递减性价比升级路径更有助于先进入者在市场份额与利润方面保持持续领导地位;对于模块化升级策略,较高的模块化程度更能维护先进入者在市场份额方面的竞争优势,但对维护利润方面的竞争优势的潜在价值较低。     

绿色购买行为演化路径与影响机理分析

绿色消费理念转化为绿色购买行动,消费者需要承担一定的溢价支出。将环保因素引入消费者购买动机函数,考虑消费者的微观异质性、有限理性和环境复杂性,运用计算实验方法,基于情景建模构建消费者绿色购买行为计算实验模型,动态模拟不同情境下消费者参与绿色购买的过程,从宏观方面探索消费者绿色购买行为的演化路径,并从微观方面剖析其影响机理。实验结果显示,虽然价格敏感程度和环保意识水平是消费者绿色购买决策的关键因素,但绿色商品信息占优情境下,"朋友影响"可以显著提高绿色商品市场份额。绿色消费者在自身践行绿色购买的同时,应积极宣传绿色商品信息,这对于促使更多消费者将绿色消费理念转化为绿色购买行动,推动绿色消费市场的健康发展具有重要的现实意义。     

考虑额外营销和惩罚成本的垄断企业虚假质量信息研究

由于消费者认知水平的差异，在仅以价格作为产品质量信号的市场中，企业与消费者之间存在着信息鸿沟，这为企业使用虚假质量信息提供了空间。因此本文在企业和消费者拥有不对称质量信息的背景下，对企业使用虚假质量信息的问题进行研究。通过差异化产品的消费者效用模型和不同质量信息策略下企业利润模型的构建，探讨企业虚假质量信息的使用策略。随后，引入虚假质量信息的额外营销成本和被发现后的惩罚成本，考虑额外营销成本和惩罚力度对企业虚假质量信息策略的影响。研究发现企业是否使用虚假质量取决于额外营销成本和使用虚假信息后被发现的惩罚成本。对于高、低质量的产品企业倾向于单独使用虚假质量信息，而不会对差异化质量的产品同时使用虚假质量信息。     

The Impact of Geographic Proximity on What to Buy,How to Buy,and Where to Buy: Evidence from High‐Tech Durable Goods Market*

Social contagion effects due to geographical proximity refer to the social effects wherein the behavior of an individual varies with the behavior of other individuals who are geographically close. Although the influence of such effects on consumer choices has been established in several contexts, much of the extant studies have focused on its effect on consumers’ decision of whether to buy a new product or adopt a new innovation. There has been no systematic examination of the influence of geographic proximity on other aspects of consumers’ product buying process such as what to buy (i.e., brand choice), how to buy (i.e., the channel), and where to buy (i.e., retailers). Such effects can matter significantly in high‐technology and durable goods markets and therefore, it is critical to understand the scope of these on consumers’ choice of retailers and channel as well. Drawing on literatures from word of mouth effects, ecommerce, and consumers’ perception of risk in their purchase process, we develop a set of hypotheses on the effect of geographic proximity on consumers’ choices of what to buy, how to buy, and where to buy. Leveraging a microlevel dataset of purchases of personal computers, we develop brand‐, retailer‐, and channel‐related measures of proximity effects at the individual consumer level and estimate a joint disaggregate model of the three choices that make up a product purchase process to test these hypotheses. Our results indicate a significant contagion effect on each of the three choices. Furthermore, we find evidence of a greater effect of geographic proximity on inexperienced consumers—those who are new to the product category. Our results thus help develop a holistic understanding of the influence of social contagion effects on consumers’ decision making.     

Trade-offs in Online Purchase Decisions:: Two Empirical Studies in Europe

The Internet offers firms a new way to market their products and services and to interact with their end-consumers. While many firms have developed websites, very little is known about the trade-offs consumers are willing to make when making online purchases. With millions of websites competing for attention, online firms need to know in what way consumers make purchase decisions online. Consumers mainly evaluate websites on the basis of choice and convenience. In this paper, we present the results of two European studies that examine what consumers actually value in an online environment. In study 1, we assess choice-related trade-offs in terms of number of product categories, variety of products within a given category and product-related information. Conjoint analysis revealed that product-related information represents an important decision-making variable. In study 2, we assess convenience-related trade-offs in terms of logistics, fulfilment and security. Conjoint analysis revealed that fulfilment is the most important variable related to online handling. Finally, our study clearly indicates that firms have to distinguish different consumer segments on the basis of their preferences. This knowledge enables online firms to use their resources more effectively.     

国货意识、品牌特性与消费者本土品牌偏好——一个跨行业产品的实证检验

本文以在校大学生为样本,调查他们的国货意识和针对7种产品的品牌特性、品牌态度、购买情况,通过统计分析,检验了国货意识和品牌特性对于消费者本土品牌偏好的影响,以及国货意识和消费者本土品牌偏好对于购买本土品牌的影响。我们有如下结论:在其他情况相同时,本土品牌的相对知名度、相对质量和相对性价比越高,消费者越偏爱本土品牌;消费者越偏爱本土品牌,消费者就越倾向于购买本土品牌;但国货意识的强弱对于消费者购买本土品牌的直接影响和间接影响则均不明显。本文最后对研究结果进行了讨论,并指出了其理论贡献、实际应用、存在的局限性和今后继续研究的方向。     

两种激励条件下三级供应链产品质量控制策略研究

本文基于四阶段Stackelberg博弈分析,研究了在三级供应链中如何进行产品质量控制策略问题。构建了由制造商、零售商与最终顾客组成的三级供应链博弈模型,制造商进行产品质量决策,即生产高质量产品或者低质量产品,零售商进行产品采购决策和零售定价决策,最终顾客根据两种产品质量水平和零售价格的差异,决定产品的购买数量;当零售商采购高质量产品时,制造商将会向其提供价格折扣策略;当零售商采购低质量产品时,制造商将会向其提供延迟付款策略。运用最优化原理,求解了制造商的产品质量水平、价格折扣、延迟付款期限和零售商的零售价格、最终顾客的购买数量,及期望收益函数。进行了算例分析,结果表明:高质量产品零售价格关于价格折扣下降幅度更大,而低质量产品零售价格关于延迟付款期限下降幅度更大;制造商提供的价格折扣越大、延迟付款期限越长,其期望收益将会减少,此时零售商的期望收益将会增加,最终顾客产品需求量将会增加;制造商的总期望收益函数将呈现"倒U"型,求解了期望收益的最大值及各契约参数的值,结果证明所提出的产品质量控制策略是可行的。     

基于异质性顾客的随机配给策略研究

文中考虑了三类异质顾客:战略顾客、迟钝顾客与询价顾客,其中,战略顾客具有完全理性与风险中性特征;迟钝顾客由于其迟钝本性,表现出有限理性与隐性风险规避特征,这两类顾客的战略等待加剧了产品供给与需求的不匹配风险。研究了销售商采用随机配给策略以减少延迟购买期中产品可获得概率,促使战略顾客与迟钝顾客提前购买的价值。结论表明,在固定折扣价格策略中,当迟钝顾客的迟钝强度较低时,销售商最优策略是故意创造配给风险分割市场;在弹性折扣价格策略中,销售商是否运用随机配给策略不仅与迟钝强度有关,还取决于弹性价格折扣幅度。然后运用数值分析对这两种机制进行了比较,发现,销售商采用弹性折扣价格策略时,弹性折扣价格越低,随机配给的价值越大,即提供较大幅度价格折扣,反而增加其利润。     

竞争市场上保修期与价格的联合质量信号传递作用

虽然顾客重视产品的质量（可靠性），但其在做出购买决策时往往不能完全掌握产品的质量信息。不同质量的产品可能具有不同生产和保修成本，因此保修期和销售价格可以成为传递产品质量的有效信号。考虑市场上存在相互竞争的两个生产商：在位者和新进者，顾客了解在位者的产品质量信息但不了解新进者的质量状况。研究并比较了仅保修期作为单质量信号、保修期和价格同时作为质量信号时，市场实现分离均衡的条件，以及新进者的保修期设计与定价决策。研究表明：在保修期作为单质量信号时，只要高质量新进者的单位时间保修成本小于低质量新进者，即可实现分离均衡；在保修期和价格同时作为质量信号时，当满足某些条件时也可实现分离均衡。相对于保修期作单质量信号的情形，当保修期和价格同作质量信号时，高质量新进者实现分离均衡所需提供的保修期更短、价格更低（信息租金更少），且能获得更高的市场份额和利润。最后，数值分析表明保修期和价格同作质量信号时所需满足的条件是比较宽松的，比保修期单独作质量信号时更容易实现分离均衡。     

Multi-category purchase incidences with marketing cross effects

We focus on cross effects of marketing variables and cross category dependences for multi-category decisions which households take during a shopping trip to a retail store. A cross effect is defined as the effect which a marketing variable used for a certain product category exerts on purchases of another category. Using Dirichlet process mixture models with multivariate probit components we analyze purchase incidences of 24,047 shopping visits of a random sample of 1500 households. Independent variables of these models encompass marketing variables for 25 product categories and household attributes. We discuss differences between the two best performing models, a full model which includes both cross effects and cross category dependences, and a related restricted model which ignores cross effects. We obtain several high and significant differences with respect to category constants and cross category dependences between these two models. We also present explanations for the larger (in absolute terms) cross effects of features or displays. We demonstrate that by ignoring cross effects management runs the risk to obtain in many product categories too optimistic forecasts of sales revenue changes due to promotions. In contrast to previous related work suggesting not to use promotions which are not tailored to individual households in any of the investigated categories, we obtain support for such promotions in at least 48 % of the 25 product categories. In addition, based on the full model we demonstrate that often different categories are appropriate for promotions which are targeted at household clusters.     

The influence of stimulus ambiguity on category and attitude formation

Existing research on categorical ambiguity has mostly examined how consumers assimilate new products into familiar product categories. Extending these findings, this research investigates whether and under what circumstances consumers either create new mental categories for hybrid products or integrate them into existing categories. Specifically, we propose that this effect is influenced by the degree of product ambiguity and the availability of a new category label. We find that as ambiguity increases, the probability of new category creation augments, but product evaluation deteriorates. However, we also find that a new category label can reduce the effects of ambiguity and can improve product evaluation. Thus, the results fill the existing gap in research on the cognitive integration of hybrid products and shed light on how managers may position these products successfully.     

消费者展厅行为和参考质量效应对O2O供应链动态运营策略的影响

本文研究消费者展厅行为和参考质量效应对O2O供应链动态运营策略的影响问题。分析了集中决策、分散决策和制造商分担实体店服务成本决策3种模式下的制造商产品质量策略、实体店和电商平台的服务竞争策略,以及品牌商誉变化和企业利润等问题。并进行了价格、实体店访问比例和展厅行为强度对企业绩效的影响。研究发现：展厅行为会挫伤实体店提供服务的积极性,降低品牌商誉,从而损害制造商和实体店的利润水平;而消费者的这种搭便车行为会提高电商平台利润,但由于参考质量效应的存在,其提升空间有限。综合而言,展厅行为对供应链总体绩效不利。应对展厅行为的长期战略有：1)加强上下游的纵向合作,制造商分担实体店服务成本契约,能实现供应链总体绩效的帕累托改进。2)从受展厅行为影响最大的实体店角度,保持线下产品高定价、高服务水平,提升消费者支付意愿,全面提升实体店的品牌溢价能力,获取长久生存之道。     

Optimal Pricing of Two Successive‐Generation Products with Trade‐in Options under Uncertainty

To entice consumers to purchase both current and next generation products, many manufacturers and retailers offer trade‐in programs that allow buyers of the first generation product to trade‐in the product and purchase the new generation product at a lower price. By considering the interactions between “forward‐looking” consumers and a firm when a trade‐in program is offered, we analyze a two‐period dynamic game to determine the optimal prices of two successive‐generation products in equilibrium, and examine the conditions under which trade‐in programs are beneficial to the firm. Our model incorporates market heterogeneity (valuation of the first generation product varies among the consumer population), product uncertainty (the incremental value of the new product is uncertain before its introduction), and consumers' forward‐looking behavior (consumers take future product valuation and prices into consideration when making purchasing decisions). With the trade‐in option, we show that consumers are willing to pay a price that is higher than their valuations of the current product. Furthermore, trade‐in programs are more beneficial to the firm when: (i) the durability of the current product is high; (ii) the market heterogeneity is low; or (iii) the uncertainty level (or the expected incremental value) of the new product is high. Finally, when the incremental value of the new product is more uncertain, consumers are more willing to purchase the current product because of the “option” value of the trade‐in programs and thus trade‐in programs can be more beneficial to the firm in this case.