免费商品对互补产品扩散的影响

本文基于互补产品扩散模型,在考虑价格策略以及重复购买与批量购买的消费者行为下,建立了免费商品赠送对互补产品扩散影响的优化模型群。通过模拟计算,分析结果表明免费商品的赠送对互补产品的扩散有促进作用,同时赠送互补产品优于仅赠送其中一种产品。在产品引入前进行免费商品赠送的边际效应要高于在其他时期赠送,形成"首期赠送效应"。当消费者有批量购买行为时,企业值得赠送更多的免费商品来提高消费者对产品的了解程度,以获得更高的利润。在对首期赠送水平的参数灵敏度分析后,给出了扩散过程中各个参数选取对于赠样水平的影响趋势与范围。在此基础上,为企业在实际促销决策中给出了具体的应用步骤。     

基于收益共享契约的网络零售联合促销策略研究

网络零售业造节促销已成常态,优化网络零售平台(简称平台商)和销售商联合促销策略是一项值得深入研究的课题。本文基于收益共享契约,利用不同的博弈模型刻画入驻销售商和平台商之间三种不同的促销模式,包括由其中一方率先发起促销的模式和二者同时发起促销的模式,研究不同模式下销售商和平台商的最优促销策略。研究结论表明,在三种促销模式下,二者的最优促销策略均随着商品佣金费率的增长依次呈现三种不同的形式:从仅由销售商提供促销到联合促销再到仅由平台商提供促销。当且仅当佣金费率和商品的日常售价高于一定阈值时,销售商和平台商才会有动机开展联合促销。研究还发现,销售商和平台商在各自率先发起的联合促销模式下具备先动优势。销售商(平台商)率先发起的联合促销将更有利于对佣金费率较低(高)的商品实施。当销售商和平台商同时独立发起促销时,供应链整体促销力度最大,供应链的整体利润也最高。     

消费者异质性下供应链互补产品销售策略选择及其定价研究

基于消费者对互补品消费习性存在的异质性,对互补品消费市场进行细分,并在上游两个制造商分别提供具有互补特性的产品,下游一个销售商同时销售这两种产品的供应链环境下研究定价均衡。根据不同目标市场选择,识别出全市场覆盖以及聚焦细分市场两种销售策略,分别对两种营销策略下的供应链产品定价进行讨论,并通过模型求解分别得到两种策略下的均衡,讨论了两个均衡解存在的条件,讨论了均衡定价随产品互补程度以及互补品相对效用比的变化情况,以及销售商在不同情形下选择的定价策略。结果表明,当互补品相对效用差异不大,且互补程度不大的时候,渠道内形成第一个定价均衡;当产品间相对效用差异大,且互补程度足够大的时候,渠道内形成第二个定价均衡。     

产品组合竞争下远视互补品供应商联盟的稳定结构

考虑由4个远视供应商与1个零售商所组成的两层供应链系统,基于最大一致集的概念,探讨部分供应商可替代时互补品联合销售联盟的远视稳定结构。研究发现:当供应商的成本相差较小时,如果两类产品组合的零售竞争强度较小,则远视供应商会偏好各自独立销售给下游零售商;如果两类产品组合的零售竞争强度较大,则远视供应商会偏好形成一个由3个供应商联合销售的大联盟。当供应商的成本相差较大时,远视供应商会偏好形成联合销售的大联盟,或者偏好各自独立销售给下游零售商。但是,两个供应商形成的联合销售联盟不是远视稳定的。     

Product Portfolio Strategies: The Case of Multifunction Products

Motivated by the proliferation of multifunction products, we investigate product portfolio decisions of a single firm by analyzing the impact of three major factors. First, because multifunction products provide complete or partial functionalities of single‐function products, we incorporate substitution or cannibalization effects between the potential products. Second, we explicitly model the variable costs of manufacturing the single‐function and multifunction products. Third, we examine the firm's pricing decisions because of their impact on the degree of cannibalization between the multifunction product and one or more single‐function products. Using an economic model, we first characterize the firm's optimal product portfolio (through a quantity‐based decision), which in turn determines the market equilibrium prices for each product in its portfolio. Some of the unique insights stemming from our analysis are: (a) the optimal product portfolio choice is driven primarily by maximum profit margins for the single‐function products weighted by the demand substitution effects; and (b) from a product design perspective, the complete functionality of the base single‐function product is always included in the optimal product offering, but this is not necessarily the case with the complete functionality of the nonbase single‐function product.     

Pricing Decisions During Inter‐Generational Product Transition

How should companies price products during an inter‐generational transition? High uncertainty in a new product introduction often leads to extreme cases of demand and supply mismatches. Pricing is an effective tool to either prevent or alleviate these problems. We study the optimal pricing decisions in the context of a product transition in which a new‐generation product replaces an old one. We formulate the dynamic pricing problem and derive the optimal prices for both the old and new products. Our analysis sheds light on the pattern of the optimal prices for the two products during the transition and on how product replacement, along with several other dynamics including substitution, external competition, scarcity, and inventory, affect the optimal prices. We also determine the optimal initial inventory for each product and discuss a heuristic method.     

A Model for Partial Product Complementarity and Strategic Production Decisions under Demand Uncertainty

This paper considers a general industrial setting where multiple manufacturers each produce a different product and sell it to the markets. These products are partially complementary in the sense that there is a common demand stream that requests all these products as complementary sets and there are streams of individual demands each requesting only one of the products. All demands are uncertain and may follow any general, joint distributions. Facing demand uncertainties, the manufacturers each choose a production quantity for its product with an objective to maximize its own expected profit. We formulate the problem as a non‐cooperative game to study the strategic interactions of such firms and their implications to supply chain performance. We show that such a game may have numerous equilibria. Among all the possible equilibria, however, we prove that there always exists a unique one that maximizes each and every manufacturer's profit, and we derive an explicit solution for this Pareto‐optimal equilibrium point. We further study the optimal solution for a centralized system and compare it with the decentralized solution. Managerial insights are drawn as to how system parameters and control mechanisms affect firms' decisions and performance.     

An ALARA Approach to the Radiological Control of Foodstuffs Following an Accidental Release

This article presents a methodology based on two complementary approaches, thus allowing a selection of maximal concentration in foodstuffs for determining appropriate countermeasures. The first approach is based on a minimal and maximal per capita intervention level and takes into account the annual intake of each product. The second one is based on a cost-benefit analysis, comparing the advantages of a countermeasure concerning those products presenting a contamination higher than a given maximal concentration (in terms of reduction of cost of the detriment associated with the risk), with its drawbacks (in terms of cost of the products) in order to select the "ALARA" maximal concentration. This second approach is used as a complement to the first one. The results obtained through these two approaches are given for four products (milk, meat, fresh vegetables, and corn) and two nuclides (Cs-137 and I-131). These are presented for various scenarios: one or various products contaminated by one or various radionuclides. It is concluded that these two approaches are complementary, the first one being related to individual risk and the second to collective risk. Therefore, these approaches are both of interest in the context of the elaboration of modalities for the radiological control of foodstuffs following an accidental release and both methods may be useful for determining appropriate countermeasures.     

The Effects of Sharing Upstream Information on Product Rollover

The process of introducing new and phasing out old products is called product rollover. This paper considers a periodic‐review inventory system consisting of a manufacturer and a retailer, where the manufacturer introduces new and improved products over an infinite planning horizon using the solo‐roll strategy. We consider two scenarios: (1) the manufacturer does not share the upstream information about new‐product introduction with the retailer and (2) the manufacturer shares the information. For each scenario, we first derive the decentralized ordering policy and the system‐optimal ordering policy with given cost parameters. We then devise an optimal supply chain contract that coordinates the inventory system. We demonstrate that when the inventory system is coordinated, information sharing improves the performance of both supply chain entities. However, this may not be true if the inventory system is not coordinated. We also show that under the optimal contract, the manufacturer has no incentive to mislead the retailer about new‐product information in the information‐sharing model. When demand variability increases, information sharing adds more benefits to the coordinated supply chain. Our research provides insights about coordinating product, financial, and information flows in supply chains with product rollover.     

随机需求和联合促销下双渠道供应链的竞争与协调

针对制造商同时拥有零售渠道和网上直销渠道的双渠道供应链系统,在随机需求和联合促销情况下,对制造商和零售商之间的价格竞争和协调问题进行研究.研究表明价格的纳什均衡解存在,网上渠道的最优价格随零售商促销努力程度的增大而降低.当制造商分担促销成本的比例上升时,零售商促销的努力程度会增加.当比例值较低时,零售商的努力程度变化不大;当比例值超过一定数值时,零售商的努力程度会显著增加.回购契约能给制造商和零售商双方带来好处,但不能实现双渠道供应链的协调.     

策略型消费者创新感知与产品定价换代策略研究

科学技术迅猛发展促使厂商频繁推出创新型产品以抢占市场份额,产品定价和换代策略成为厂商经营成败的重要因素。本文在产品技术创新视角下构建双寡头厂商三阶段产品最优定价与换代决策模型,结合效用函数和博弈分析方法从同质产品市场拓展为异质产品市场,求解出单品换代策略及共生换代策略下新品上市时点和旧产品退出市场时点的显示解,并通过仿真模拟探讨产品技术创新水平、消费者创新感知度对最优产品定价和换代策略的影响。研究表明产品技术创新水平和消费者创新感知度对厂商产品定价和换代策略有重要影响。同质产品市场下,市场潜在需求越大,产品初始定价越高。厂商面临内外部产品竞争时,市场潜在需求较小且两代产品处于共生状态下,为减弱内部竞争新旧产品最优定价差距不大;当市场潜在需求较大,厂商新品定价由技术创新水平决定,消费者技术创新感知值越高,新品定价越高,反之越低。当厂商技术创新水平处于劣势时,两厂商技术创新水平差距越大,劣势厂商越应提早退出市场。     

两种订货模式下订购和促销联合优化策略

本文基于CVaR决策准则,通过构建需求依赖于促销的一般需求模型,其中包括加法和乘法需求模型作为特例,考察了一次订货和允许紧急订货两种模式下风险厌恶零售商关于促销和库存的联合优化问题。讨论了紧急订购成本、风险厌恶以及市场需求变动对最优策略的影响,并对两种模式下零售商的最优策略和收益进行了比较分析,结果表明:在两种订货模式下,零售商的最优订购量和促销努力均随风险厌恶程度的增大而降低;紧急订货模式下的促销努力和实现的收益大于一次订货模式,且在加法需求模型下,紧急订货模式下的初次订购量小于一次订货模式的最优订购量。运用随机变量一阶和二阶交替随机占优的概念刻画了市场需求变动下零售商如何调整最优策略的充分条件。最后实施数值实验验证了理论分析结果。     

伴随销售商促销努力的供应链契约设计

在大多数供应链契约文献中,市场需求被假设为了一个独立的外生随机变量.但实际情况中,市场需求往往受到销售商各种促销活动的影响.文中首先分析了在市场需求受促销活动影响情况下的集中控制模式及不合作模式的销售商最优促销努力水平和最优订购数量的决策问题;然后设计了基于回购契约的促销成本分担契约协调机制;最后通过一个算例比较了在不采取任何促销活动、不合作情况下销售商单方进行促销活动以及协调机制下销售商进行促销活动三种策略下的供应链绩效水平.     

The allocation of promotion budget to maximize customer equity

Since the early 1980s, the concept of relationship marketing has gained increased acceptance in the field of general marketing, and particularly that of direct and interactive marketing. One of the major benefits of relationship marketing is the ability to make decisions based on their impact on customer equity. In this paper, we offer a general approach to the organization of promotion budget allocation, where the objective function is to maximize customer equity. A cornerstone in our study is the use of decision calculus in which managers’ judgments and/or estimates serve as some of the inputs to formal modeling. A series of applications of our approach to promotion budget allocation are offered under different market conditions. These applications focus on promotional expenditure allocation decisions between acquisition and retention, as well as among different promotional options for each category of expenditure. The paper also treats potential cases of synergy, or interaction, between promotional vehicles when applied to the same market segment.     

Flexible Capacity Investments and Product Mix: Optimal Decisions and Value of Postponement Options

In this article, we study a firm's interdependent decisions in investing in flexible capacity, capacity allocation to individual products, and eventual production quantities and pricing in meeting uncertain demand. We propose a three‐stage sequential decision model to analyze the firm's decisions, with the firm being a value maximizer owned by risk‐averse investors. At the beginning of the time horizon, the firm sets the flexible capacity level using an aggregate demand forecast on the envelope of products its flexible resources can accommodate. The aggregate demand forecast evolves as a Geometric Brownian Motion process. The potential market share of each product is determined by the Multinomial Logit model. At a later time and before the end of the time horizon, the firm makes a capacity commitment decision on the allocation of the flexible capacity to each product. Finally, at the end of the time horizon, the firm observes the demand and makes the production quantity and pricing decisions for end products. We obtain the optimal solutions at each decision stage and investigate their optimal properties. Our numerical study investigates the value of the postponed capacity commitment option in supplying uncertain operation environments.     

基于产品相关性及研发创新下的销售方式偏好研究

针对零售商捆绑上游多个制造商产品的现状，考察了由两个制造商和一个零售商组成的供应链系统，制造商进行研发投资降低各自产品成本，零售商进行产品销售并选择分开销售还是捆绑销售。考虑制造商研发行为下，探究供应链成员对不同相关性产品销售方式的偏好。研究发现，（1）对于独立产品，系统成员不存在共同的偏好。（2）对于互补产品，并非"一绑就灵"，分开销售会成为系统成员的共同偏好，而非捆绑销售。（3）对于替代产品，并非不能捆绑，感知价值相差处于中间范围的低成本替代产品和感知价值相差较小的高成本替代产品均在捆绑销售下更有利可图。     

基于价格调整的长寿风险自然对冲策略

在长寿风险对冲框架下,通过引入外生的产品价格,构建了基于价格调整的自然对冲模型。首先运用最优化理论得到了模型最优产品配比的解析式,然后在实际的销售配比与模型的最优配比相等的约束下,推导出了寿险产品和年金产品的最优定价。该定价能够使得模型的最优配比真正被实现,即销售的配比刚好是使产品组合长寿风险最小化的最优配比。最后通过数值算例,阐述了基于价格调整的自然对冲策略的效果,并进一步分析了利率、承保年龄、性别等因素对自然对冲策略的影响。     

Optimal Acquisition and Sorting Policies for Remanufacturing

The condition of the used items acquired by remanufacturers is often highly variable, and sorting is an important aspect of remanufacturing operations. Sorting policies—the rules specifying which used products should be remanufactured and which should be scrapped—have received limited attention in the literature. In this paper, we examine the case of a remanufacturer who acquires unsorted used products as needed from third party brokers. As more used items are acquired for a given demand, the remanufacturer can be more selective when sorting. Thus, two related decisions are made: how many used items to acquire, and how selective to be during the sorting process. We derive optimal acquisition and sorting policies in the presence of used product condition variability for a remanufacturer facing both deterministic and uncertain demand. We show the existence of a single optimal acquisition and sorting policy with a simple structure and show that this policy is independent of production amount when acquisition costs are linear.     

企业雇佣结构、中间投入与出口产品质量变动之谜

近年来,尽管中国企业雇佣大学生的比例在增长,但出口产品质量却没有发生显著提升,形成了所谓的出口产品"质量变动之谜"。本文将企业异质"雇佣结构"引入质量异质性理论框架,探讨劳动投入与出口产品质量之间的关系,并试图结合企业劳动技能投入和中间品投入质量的互补性对"质量变动之谜"进行解释。利用经济普查、中国工业企业数据库和海关数据库匹配数据进行实证检验,发现:(1)企业雇佣结构升级对出口产品质量起到正向促进作用;(2)雇佣结构与企业中间品投入质量具有互补性,中间品质量越高,雇佣结构对出口产品质量的促进作用越强;(3)现实所观察到的出口产品"质量变动之谜"部分源于进口中间品占比的大量下降所导致的中间品投入质量的下降,雇佣结构升级对质量的提升作用受到了中间品质量下降的拖累,未能充分发挥出其应有的质量升级效应。总之,在"贸易大国迈向贸易强国"的攻坚期,虽然高学历劳动力供给的增长有助于中国产品质量的提升,但这一过程亟须匹配相应高质量的中间产品投入。因此,进一步推进中间品贸易自由化、提升国内中间品供给能力是破解质量升级难题的重要手段。     

Optimal Policies for Selling New and Remanufactured Products

Because of environmental and economic reasons, an increasing number of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) nowadays sell both new and remanufactured products. When both products are available, customers will buy the one that gives them a higher (and non‐negative) utility. Thus, if the firm does not price the products properly, then product cannibalization may arise and its revenue may be adversely impacted. In this paper, we study the pricing problem of a firm that sells both new and remanufactured products over a finite planning horizon. Customer demand processes for both new and remanufactured products are random and price‐sensitive, and product returns (also called cores) are random and remanufactured upon receipt. We characterize the optimal pricing and manufacturing policies that maximize the expected total discounted profit. If new products are made‐to‐order (MTO), we show that when the inventory level of remanufactured product increases, the optimal price of remanufactured product decreases while the price difference between new and remanufactured products increases; however, the optimal selling price of new product may increase or decrease. If new products are made to stock (MTS), then the optimal manufacturing policy is of a base‐stock policy with the base‐stock level decreasing in the remanufactured product inventory level. To understand the potential benefit in implementing an MTO system, we study the difference between the value functions of the MTO and MTS systems, and develop lower and upper bounds for it. Finally, we study several extensions of the base model and show that most of our results extend to those more general settings.