易腐性产品运输设施选择博弈

易腐性产品的价值会随着时间的流逝而逐渐损失,多个客户可以联合使用某种运输设施时,如何对费用进行公平且稳定的分摊是合作能否进行的基础.把易腐性产品的损失价值和运输费用之和作为总费用,进而将易腐性产品的运输设施选择的费用分配问题构造成运输设施选择合作博弈,证明了在易腐性产品负指数价值损失的情况下,运输设施选择博弈的核心非空,且为凹博弈,并讨论了解的特征.论文还证明具有附加运输费用的运输设施选择博弈的核心非空,分析了核心与线性规划松弛的对偶最优解之间的关系.论文对有约束设施选择博弈进行了分析,并提出了进一步研究的方向.     

A Framework for Estimating Benefits of Using Auctions in Revenue Management*

We develop a stochastic model to explore the benefits of incorporating auctions in revenue management. To the best of our knowledge the extant literature on modeling in revenue management has not considered auctions. We consider three models, namely, a traditional fixed price (non‐auction) model, a pure auction model, and a hybrid auction model and evaluate their revenue performance under a variety of conditions. The hybrid approach outperforms the other two in all 24 scenarios and yields an average revenue increase of 16.1% over the next best. A surprise finding is that there is no significant difference between the performance of the fixed price and pure auction approaches. A sensitivity analysis reveals that the relative superiority of the hybrid revenue management strategy is reasonably robust.     

需求信息更新条件下易逝品的批量订货策略

为了获得价格折扣或运输方便,制造商常常要求零售商采取批量订货的策略.文章研究考虑顾客需求信息更新的易逝品的批量订货策略.制造商通过为零售商提供两次订货机会,来实现制造商和零售商的共赢.通过对开始时刻和顾客需求信息更新后的系统进行建模和讨论,得到了在两次订货条件下零售商应该采取的优化的订货与调整策略.     

A stochastic programming model for production planning of perishable products with postponement

This study addresses the production planning problem for perishable products, in which the cost and shortage of products are minimised subject to a set of constraints such as warehouse space, labour working time and machine time. Using the concept of postponement, the production process for perishable products is differentiated into two phases to better utilise the resources. A two-stage stochastic programming with recourse model is developed to determine the production loading plan with uncertain demand and parameters. A set of data from a toy company shows the benefits of the postponement strategy: these include lower total cost and higher utilisation of resources. The impact of unit shortage cost under different probability distribution of economic scenarios on the total cost is analyzed. Comparative analysis of solutions with and without postponement strategies is also performed.     

努力水平影响损耗的低值易逝品TPL协调合同

对于一类低值易逝品,损耗与物流服务价格是影响这类产品订购与销售价格决策的重要影响因素。主要研究了第3方物流服务提供商的努力水平会影响到客户企业产品的数量和质量损耗情形下的物流外包渠道优化与协调问题。通过建立动态博弈模型,分析了传统交易价格合同下双方的决策行为,结果表明双方的决策冲突会导致产品订购量和销售价格的扭曲,但不存在努力水平的扭曲,进而会导致次优渠道绩效。为了解决这一问题,设计了收入共享与努力成本共担合同,并论证了在一定条件下这一合同可以实现渠道协调、双方共赢。最后,相应的算例表明努力水平影响产品质量和数量损耗的程度会对双方、集中式系统的决策行为和绩效产生重要的影响。     

Optimal pricing and production decisions in the presence of symmetrical and asymmetrical substitution

Firms may produce a variety of generally similar products or may practice “scientific pricing” or revenue management where the firm will offer similar or somewhat differentiated products in multiple market segments at different prices. Whenever generally similar products are available, the demand for the products is linked through the ability of the customer to substitute one product for another. One widely known type of demand substitution is referred to as inventory-driven substitution where a customer will substitute for a product that is out of stock by buying a similar product. A second type of substitution occurs as a response to price-differences when a customer substitutes a less expensive product for a similar higher priced product.     

季节性易逝品预售与回购联合决策研究

基于季节性易逝品短销售期和短保质期的“双短”特性,其高额利润通常伴随着较大需求不确定性,而且一旦错过销售季节,其极低的残值将导致巨大经济损失与资源浪费.折价预售策略将鼓励消费者提前购买,经销商也可通过预售产品数量的获知来提升市场需求预测的准确性.但消费者在享受预购折价优惠的同时,也可能承担未见到实物产品即进行购买的期望价值损失.此时,经销商若采取回购,则是对消费者利益的直接保障,而在产生回购成本的同时,也可以通过提高预售价格与降低实物订货量等方式带来新增利润.考虑策略型消费者行为,对预售与回购联合策略和单一预售策略进行对比,构建两种策略下的经销商收益模型,并得出相应的最优预售价格与最优订购量.研究发现,当商品单位成本较大或回购价格较低时,预售与回购联合策略的实施能够使经销商获得更优收益,且最优预售价格高于单一预售策略,最优订货量则低于单一预售策略,从而为经销商营销策略选择进行决策支持.     

竞争性网络间的互联互通问题分析

竞争性网络的运营商基于自身利益可能拒绝互通或合谋相互征收高额接入费,这两种行为都将损害消费者福利,因而需要政府规制。本文在考虑网络外部性、运营商的市场份额、市场容量和用户的转换成本等因素影响的基础上,通过构建一个包含"防降价均衡"机制的三阶段博弈模型来分析运营商的服务定价、互通决策、政府的接入费规制决策以及社会福利变化,发现存在合理的接入费区间使得运营商有动力互通且社会福利得到改善。     

Coordinating a supply chain for deteriorating items with a revenue sharing and cooperative investment contract

In this study, a one-manufacturer–one-retailer supply chain model for deteriorating items with controllable deterioration rate and price-dependent demand is developed, in which both players cooperatively invest in preservation technology to reduce deterioration. Algorithms are designed to obtain the pricing and preservation technology investment strategies in both integrated and decentralized scenarios. It is shown that cooperative investment strategy benefits the manufacturer but damages the profits of the retailer and the whole supply chain. A revenue sharing and cooperative investment contract, which combines revenue sharing and cost sharing mechanisms, is thus designed to coordinate the supply chain. Numerical simulations and sensitivity analysis of the equilibrium strategies and coordinating results on key system parameters are given to verify the effectiveness of the contract, and meanwhile get some managerial insights. The results show that only when the revenue sharing rate lies roughly between 1/2 and 3/4 can the contract perfectly coordinate the supply chain in most cases, which has an important guiding significance for the supply chain coordination of deteriorating items when considering preservation technology investment.     

Investing in a Shared Supplier in a Competitive Market: Stochastic Capacity Case

When firms invest in a shared supplier, one key concern is whether the invested capacity will be used for a competitor. In practice, this concern is addressed by restricting the use of the capacity. We consider what happens when two competing firms invest in a shared supplier. We consider two scenarios that differ in how capacity is used: exclusive capacity and first‐priority capacity. We model firms' investment and production decisions, and analyze the equilibrium outcomes in terms of the number of investing firms and capacity levels for each scenario; realized capacity is a stochastic function of investment levels. We also identify conditions under which the spillover effect occurs, where one firm taps into the other firm's invested capacity. Although the spillover supposedly intensifies competition, it actually discourages firms' investment. We also characterize the firms' and supplier's preference about the capacity type. While the non‐investing firm always prefers spillovers from the first‐priority capacity, the investing firm does not always want to shut off the other firm's access to its leftover capacity, especially when allowing spillover induces the other firm not to invest. The supplier's preference depends on the trade‐off between over‐investment and flexibility.     

竞争环境下基于顾客策略行为的易逝品动态定价研究

在两个提供相同易逝品的零售商折线竞争下,从顾客策略行为出发,研究竞争环境下两零售商的动态定价策略。首先建立供大于求的情况下两零售商动态定价模型,给出了均衡价格满足的条件,并探讨了在一些特殊情况下均衡价格的特性。然后将这一模型扩展到供小于求的情形,探讨模型的求解方法。算例分析了在折线竞争模式下零售商在面对顾客策略行为时,如何动态的决定价格。同时发现,在供大于求的情况下,顾客策略行为导致零售商的收益降低;在供小于求的情况下,一定程度的顾客策略行为可以使零售商获得更高的期望收益。     

Coordinating pricing and production decisions for multiple products

We consider a dynamic problem of joint pricing and production decisions for a profit-maximizing firm that produces multiple products. We model the problem as a mixed integer nonlinear program, incorporating capacity constraints, setup costs, and dynamic demand. We assume demand functions to be convex, continuous, differentiable, and strictly decreasing in price. We present a solution approach which is more general than previous approaches that require the assumption of a specific demand function. Using real-world data from a manufacturer, we study problem instances for different demand scenarios and capacities and solve for optimal prices and production plans. We present analytical results that provide managerial insights on how the optimal prices change for different production plans and capacities. We extend some of the earlier works that consider single product problems to the case of multiple products and time variant production capacities. We also benchmark performance of proposed algorithm with a commercial solver and show that it outperforms the solver both in terms of solution quality and computational times.     

企业的承诺经营及其模型研究

企业间的竞争无处不在,如何选择适合自身发展的承诺经营战略直接关系着企业的存亡.本文拟以博弈论的方法,构建企业竞争中的承诺经营博弈模型,对有行动先后的Cournot寡头竞争博弈、承诺营销博弈和双重垄断博弈及其均衡分析,为企业提供相应的承诺经营理论与实践策略.     

Assessing fairness of selfish revenue sharing mechanisms for airline alliances

Airline alliances offer flights including flight legs operated by different airlines. A major problem is how to share the revenue obtained through selling a flight ticket among the airlines in a fair way. Recently, Kimms and Çetiner [1] have proposed fair revenue allocations based on the solution concept nucleolus, which assumes that the decisions of the alliance are given centrally. However, in an alliance, each airline has a selfish behavior and tries to maximize its own revenue. The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, we provide a method to evaluate the fairness of revenue sharing mechanisms applied in a selfish setting. The method includes a simulation model for the booking process of the alliance and uses the nucleolus-based allocations as benchmark. Second, we develop a revenue sharing mechanism based on the transfer of dual prices. The fairness of the new mechanism and several other existing approaches is assessed through a numerical study.     

Fleet and revenue management in car rental companies: A literature review and an integrated conceptual framework

This paper aims to present, define and structure the car rental fleet management problem, which includes operational fleet management issues and problems traditionally studied under the revenue management framework. The car rental business has challenging and distinctive characteristics, which are mainly related with fleet and decision-making flexibility, and that render this problem relevant for academic research and practical applications. Three main contributions are presented: an in-depth literature review and discussion on car rental fleet and revenue management issues, a novel integrating conceptual framework for this problem, and the identification of research directions for the future development of the field.     

Multiperiod Models with Capacities in Competitive Supply Chain

This paper considers a supply chain setting where several capacitated suppliers compete for orders from a single retailer in a multiperiod environment. At each period, the retailer places orders to the suppliers in response to the prices they announce. Each supplier has a fixed capacity. We consider a make‐to‐stock setting where the retailer can carry inventory. The retailer faces exogenous, price‐dependent demand. We study the problem using ideas from fluid models. In particular, we (i) analyze when there are pure equilibrium policies in this setting and characterize the structure of these policies; (ii) consider coordination mechanisms; and (iii) present some preliminary computational results. We also consider a modified model that uses option contracts to coordinate the supply chain.     

A continuous approximation method for dynamic pricing problem under costly price modifications

This paper presents a heuristic method to solve a dynamic pricing problem under costly price modifications. This is an extremely difficult nonlinear problem that has been solved only for a few special instances. Here we provide a new approach that involves an approximate reformulation of the problem, which can subsequently be solved in closed-form using elementary calculus techniques. Numerical results show that the approach is quite accurate; approximating the optimal revenue with errors usually much less than 1%. Moreover, the accuracy rapidly improves as the optimal number of price changes increases, which are precisely the cases conventional approaches would fail.     

纵向一体化与非一体化生产方式的产业竞争博弈模型

纵向一体化与非一体化是理论界长期研究探讨的重要问题.本文在以前研究成果的基础上,建立了一个上下游产业纵向一体化与非一体化的动态博弈模型,根据上游产业竞争状况以及上下游企业纵向关系对纵向一体化和非一体化生产方式进行了博弈均衡分析,从中得出了影响下游产业非一体化程度的影响因素,并结合实际状况对近年来部分产业现象进行了解释说明.     

Consignment or wholesale: Retailer and supplier preferences and incentives for compromise

We consider two independently managed parties, a retailer and a supplier, that are considering either a wholesale or a consignment contract to produce and market a single good. Both parties have an interest in reaching an agreement, but their first choice of contract type are generally not the same. We define the strength of retailer and supplier preferences for their respective choices of contract type as the ratio of their expected profits for their first choice of contract type over that for the alternative contract type. We study how uncontrollable factors as well as controllable factors affect the strength of retailer and supplier contract preferences. We develop incentive payments that can potentially be used to increase the likelihood of success in negotiating an agreement.     

A comparison of fixed and dynamic pricing policies in revenue management

We consider the problem of selling a fixed capacity or inventory of items over a finite selling period. Earlier research has shown that using a properly set fixed price during the selling period is asymptotically optimal as the demand potential and capacity grow large and that dynamic pricing has only a secondary effect on revenues. However, additional revenue improvements through dynamic pricing can be important in practice and need to be further explored. We suggest two simple dynamic heuristics that continuously update prices based on remaining inventory and time in the selling period. The first heuristic is based on approximating the optimal expected revenue function and the second heuristic is based on the solution of the deterministic version of the problem. We show through a numerical study that the revenue impact of using these dynamic pricing heuristics rather than fixed pricing may be substantial. In particular, the first heuristic has a consistent and remarkable performance leading to at most 0.2% gap compared to optimal dynamic pricing. We also show that the benefits of these dynamic pricing heuristics persist under a periodic setting. This is especially true for the first heuristic for which the performance is monotone in the frequency of price changes. We conclude that dynamic pricing should be considered as a more favorable option in practice.