The Impact of Revenue‐Maximizing Priority Pricing on Customer Delay Costs

Speed is an increasingly important determinant of which suppliers will be given customers' business and is defined as the time between when an order is placed by the customer and when the product is delivered, or as the amount of time customers must wait before they receive their desired service. In either case, the speed a customer experiences can be enhanced by giving priority to that particular customer. Such a prioritization scheme will necessarily reduce the speed experienced by lower‐priority customers, but this can lead to a better outcome when different customers place different values on speed. We model a single resource (e.g., a manufacturer) that processes jobs from customers who have heterogeneous waiting costs. We analyze the price that maximizes priority revenue for the resource owner (i.e., supplier, manufacturer) under different assumptions regarding customer behavior. We discover that a revenue‐maximizing supplier facing self‐interested customers (i.e., those that independently minimize their own expected costs) charges a price that also minimizes the expected total delay costs across all customers and that this outcome does not result when customers coordinate to submit priority orders at a level that seeks to minimize their aggregate costs of priority fees and delays. Thus, the customers are better off collectively (as is the supplier) when the supplier and customers act independently in their own best interests. Finally, as the number of priority classes increases, both the priority revenues and the overall customer delay costs improve, but at a decreasing rate.     

Will More Purchasing Options Benefit Customers?

This paper considers the sale of a seasonal product in the face of strategic customers. At the beginning of the selling season, the retailer announces both the price p_h at which the product will be sold during the selling season and the post‐season clearance price p<p_h for unsold items. We analyze two operating regimes: The “no reservation regime” allows a buyer either to purchase the product at price p_h when he arrives or to enter a lottery to purchase at price p if the product remains unsold. The “reservation regime” offers each buyer one extra option than the no reservation regime: reserve the product for purchase at the clearance price p. If the buyer reserves the product under the reservation regime and if it remains unsold at the end of the selling season, then he is obligated to purchase it at price p. We consider a situation in which heterogeneous customers with probabilistic valuation arrive in accord with a Poisson process. We characterize the rational purchasing behavior wherein each arriving customer is strategic; each customer takes other customers' purchasing behavior into consideration. By considering the Nash equilibrium of this game, we show that strategic customer behavior can render the customer to be worse off and the retailer to be better off under the reservation regime, despite the fact that this regime offers one extra option (reservation) to a customer. Hence, more purchasing options do not necessarily benefit customers.     

考虑消费者预期后悔的价格歧视策略研究

基于行为的价格歧视（BPD）受到越来越多的关注,企业为了更好地服务于各细分市场,需要更细致的考虑消费者事前估值的不确定性,以及因此出现的消费者预期后悔。本文在双寡头垄断市场中建立模型,探讨消费者预期后悔对企业动态价格竞争和利润的影响。研究结果表明,消费者预期后悔会对自身购买决策产生显著影响;当高值实现概率相对较低,高低值差异大且切换后悔的厌恶较小或者重复后悔的厌恶较大时,企业奖励重复购买的客户,否则奖励切换者;预期后悔对企业的利润既可以有正面的影响也可以有负面的影响。     

Managing High‐Tech Capacity Expansion via Reservation Contracts

We study capacity reservation contracts between a high‐tech manufacturer (supplier) and her OEM customer (buyer). The supplier and the buyer are partners who enter a ‘design‐win” agreement to develop the product, and who share the stochastic demand information. To encourage the supplier for more aggressive capacity expansion, the buyer reserves capacity upfront by paying a deductible fee. As capacity expansion demonstrates diseconomy of scale in this context, we assume convex capacity costs. We show that as the buyer's revenue margin decreases, the supplier faces a sequence of four profit scenarios with decreasing desirability. We examine the effects of market size and demand variability to the contract conditions. We propose two channel coordination contracts, and discuss how such contracts can be tailored for situations where the supplier has the option of not complying with the contract, and when the buyer's demand information is only partially updated during the supplier's capacity lead‐time.     

A Stochastic Inventory Model With Fast‐Ship Commitments

We present a multiperiod model of a retail supply chain, consisting of a single supplier and a single retailer, in which regular replenishment occurs periodically but players have the option to support fast delivery when customers experience a stockout during a replenishment period. Because expedited shipments increase the supplier's transportation cost, and possibly production/inventory costs, the supplier typically charges a markup over and above the prevailing wholesale price for fast‐shipped items. When fast shipping is not supported, items are backordered if customers are willing to wait until the start of the next replenishment period. We characterize the retailers and the supplier's optimal stocking and production policies and then utilize our analytical framework to study how the two players respond to changes in supply chain parameters. We identify a sufficient condition such that the centralized supply chain is better off with the fast‐ship option. We find a range of markups for fast‐ship orders such that the fast‐ship option is preferred by both the supplier and the retailer in a decentralized chain. However, a markup that is a win–win for both players may not exist even when offering fast‐ship option is better for the centralized chain. Our analysis also shows that depending on how the markup is determined, greater customer participation in fast‐ship orders does not necessarily imply more profits for the two players. For some predetermined markups, the retailer's profit with the fast‐ship option is higher when more customers are willing to wait. However, the retailer may not be able to benefit from the fast‐ship option because the supplier may choose not to support the fast‐ship option when fast‐ship participation increases due to the fact that the fast‐ship participation rate adversely affects the initial order size.     

虚拟第三方控制下供应链对突发事件的协调研究

为了提高供应链内部激励的效率,文章引入虚拟第三方对供应链进行集中控制,对供应商以及销售商进行激励。并且深入分析了虚拟第三方控制下供应链的需求突变情况,对第三方的产品定价以及分配份额的影响。研究发现需求突变不会影响分配份额,但定价却随需求突变程度不同而有所增加或降低。     

Inventory Management for Customers with Alternative Lead Times

It is common for suppliers operating in batch‐production mode to deal with patient and impatient customers. This paper considers inventory models in which a supplier provides alternative lead times to its customers: a short or a long lead time. Orders from patient customers can be taken by the supplier and included in the next production cycle, while orders from impatient customers have to be satisfied from the on‐hand inventory. We denote the action to commit one unit of on‐hand inventory to patient or impatient customers as the inventory‐commitment decision, and the initial inventory stocking as the inventory‐replenishment decision. We first characterize the optimal inventory‐commitment policy as a threshold type, and then prove that the optimal inventory‐replenishment policy is a base‐stock type. Then, we extend our analysis to models to consider cases of a multi‐cycle setting, a supply‐capacity constraint, and the on‐line charged inventory‐holding cost. We also evaluate and compare the performances of the optimal inventory‐commitment policy and the inventory‐rationing policy. Finally, to further investigate the benefits and pitfalls of introducing an alternative lead‐time choice, we use the customer‐choice model to study the demand gains and losses, known as demand‐induction and demand‐cannibalization effects, respectively.     

Optimal responses to stockouts: Lateral transshipment versus emergency order policies

In the retail industry, stockouts have a significant effect on a firm׳s profitability. When a stockout takes place, retailers often apply one of two strategies to resolve the issue – placing an emergency order with their supplier or arranging a lateral transshipment with a nearby partner store. Choosing the optimal response to a stockout is complicated by customers׳ spontaneous reactions. Customers who find that a product is out of stock may choose to give up on the purchase, to wait for delivery (through emergency order or lateral transshipment), or go to a partner store to search for the product on their own. In this study, under a single-period setting with two retail stores, we investigate the optimal inventory decisions under each strategy, and conduct a comparison between lateral transshipment and emergency order options. We also analyze the effects of the customer requesting rate and switching rate on the optimal inventory decision. Through numerical analysis, the two strategies are compared in terms of inventory levels and profitability. The results suggest that in addition to the cost associated with each of these strategies, the customers׳ behavior in response to a stockout has a significant effect on the optimal decision. The emergency order strategy is a better option when more customers request deliveries or when more customers switch to another store. Extending this analysis, we also examine the combined strategy when an emergency order is placed after a transshipment fails to fulfill unmet demands, and explore the circumstances under which this strategy provides the highest additional profit for the stores. Finally, we also find that a higher requesting rate does not necessarily increase profits, particularly when there is a high customer switching rate, because requesting emergency order or transshipment reduces switching demand.     

Electricity Time‐of‐Use Tariff with Stochastic Demand

In this article, we study the electricity time‐of‐use (TOU) tariff for an electricity company with stochastic demand. The electricity company offers the flat rate (FR) and TOU tariffs to customers. Under the FR tariff, the customer pays a flat price for electricity consumption in both the peak and non‐peak periods. Under the TOU tariff, the customer pays a high price for electricity consumption in the peak period and a low price for electricity consumption in the non‐peak period. The electricity company uses two technologies, namely the base‐load and peak‐load technologies, to generate electricity. We derive the optimal capacity investment and pricing decisions for the electricity company. Furthermore, we use real data from a case study to validate the results and derive insights for implementing the TOU tariff. We show that in almost all the cases, the electricity company needs less capacity for both technologies under the TOU tariff than under the FR tariff, even though the expected demand in the non‐peak period increases. In addition, except for some extreme cases, there is essentially no signicant reduction in the total demand of the two periods, although the TOU tariff can reduce the demand in the peak period. Under the price‐cap regulation, the customer may pay a lower price on average under the TOU tariff than under the FR tariff. We conduct an extensive numerical study to assess the impacts of the model parameters on the optimal solutions and the robustness of the analytical results, and generate managerial implications of the research findings.     

考虑渠道权利结构的产品服务能力竞争机制研究——制造商服务视角

本文针对两个制造商和一个零售商构成的产品服务供应链,以制造商提供服务为视角,研究了产品服务能力竞争问题。运用Stackelberg动态博弈,分别从制造商Stackelberg、零售商Stackelberg和垂直纳什三种不同权利结构情形,求解了供应链成员企业的均衡策略。通过分析服务成本与不同渠道权利结构下均衡结果之间的变化关系,提出能够满足不同客户需求特征的产品服务能力竞争策略。结果表明,当价格与服务能力水平都比较低时,RS价格领先型策略能够满足实惠型客户需求;当服务能力水平比较高时,VN服务领先型策略能够满足经济型客户需求;当价格比较高时,MS产品领先型策略能够满足专业型客户需求;当价格与服务能力水平都比较高时,产品服务融合策略能够满足品质型客户需求。最后,结合批发价格、服务能力水平、零售价格与服务成本之间的数值变化关系,分析了产品服务能力竞争策略的有效性。     

考虑初创企业的供应链融资与期权交易策略

考虑单供应商、单零售商组成的二级供应链,零售商作为初创企业面临资金短缺,但可以通过供应商贷款获得资金。除了提供资金支持,供应商还为零售商提供期权合约供其采购产品。通过对供应商期权价格和贷款利率,以及零售商的采购和融资策略进行分析,结论显示当产品生产成本较高时,供应商会设置较高的期权价格和贷款利率,获取整个供应链的利润。零售商期望利润为0并且面临较高的破产风险,而此时的博弈均衡是不稳定的。为了获得稳定博弈均衡,供应商需要稍微降低期权价格或贷款利率,以使零售商获得正的期望利润,此时零售商采购量会趋近于一个固定值。当生产成本较低时,供应商和零售商之间能够达到稳定的均衡解,且双方均有正的期望利润。     

Supplier competition and its impact on firm׳s sourcing strategy

Most research on firms׳ sourcing strategies assumes that wholesale prices and reliability of suppliers are exogenous. It is of our interest to study suppliers׳ competition on both wholesale price and reliability and firms׳ corresponding optimal sourcing strategy under complete information. In particular, we study a problem in which a firm procures a single product from two suppliers, taking into account suppliers׳ price and reliability differences. This motivates the suppliers to compete on these two factors. We investigate the equilibria of this supplier game and the firm׳s corresponding sourcing decisions. Our study shows that suppliers׳ reliability often plays a more important role than wholesale price in supplier competition and that maintaining high reliability and a high wholesale price is the ideal strategy for suppliers if multiple options exist. The conventional wisdom implies that low supply reliability and high demand uncertainty motivate dual-sourcing. We notice that when the suppliers׳ shared market/transportation network is often disrupted and demand uncertainty is high, suppliers׳ competition on both price and reliability may render the sole-sourcing strategy to be optimal in some cases that depend on the format of suppliers׳ cost functions. Moreover, numerical study shows that when the cost or vulnerability (to market disruptions) of one supplier increases, its profit and that of the firm may not necessarily decrease under supplier competition.     

Optimizing Customer Forecasts for Forecast‐Commitment Contracts

We study a “Forecast‐Commitment” contract motivated by a manufacturer's desire to provide good service in the form of delivery commitments in exchange for reasonable forecasts and a purchase commitment from the customer. The customer provides a forecast for a future order and a guarantee to purchase a portion of it. In return, the supplier commits to satisfy some or all of the forecast. The supplier pays penalties for shortfalls of the commitment quantity from the forecast, and for shortfalls of the delivered quantity from the customer's final order (not exceeding the commitment quantity). These penalties allow differential service among customers. In Durango‐Cohen and Yano (2006), we analyzed the supplier's problem for a given customer forecast. In this paper, we analyze the customer's problem under symmetric information, both when the customer is honest and when he strategically orders more than his demand when doing so is advantageous. We show that the customer gains little from lying, so the supplier can use his control over the contract parameters to encourage honesty. When the customer is honest, the contract achieves (near‐)coordination of the supply chain in a great majority of instances, and thus provides both excellent performance and flexibility in structuring contracts.     

基于看跌期权契约的应急物资采购储备模型

应急物资具有峰值需求量大,需求不确定性强,缺货成本高等特点,这使得政府必须在事前进行一定数量的物资储备。然而,由于应急物资需求的发生概率较低,针对食品药品等一类具有保质期限的物资,一旦在保质期限内需求未发生,则会造成大量的浪费与损失,加重政府的财政负担。虽然传统供应链中的回购契约可使政府将剩余物资回售给供应方,能够在一定程度上降低政府成本,但是供应方并没有因承担多余风险而获取到额外收益。基于此,本文设计了一种基于看跌期权契约的应急物资采购储备模型,用于解决保质期风险而引发的损失问题,并分析了实现政企供应链协调的机制,探讨了双方实现共赢协调的具体条件。此外,本文进一步表明与回购契约相比,基于看跌期权契约所建立的采购储备模式能够在降低政府成本的同时,合理地补偿供应方因承担多余风险而造成的损失,更好地保障了供应方的利益,达到了政府和供应方双赢的目的。     

基于顾客策略行为和缺货损失的供应链定价与订购决策

顾客基于理性预期决定购买时机的策略行为造成供应链决策困难,影响到供应链利润。针对单生产商、单零售商组成、具有高支付意愿与低支付意愿两类顾客的供应链,利用均衡分析方法和理性预期理论建立了考虑缺货损失下高支付意愿顾客分别为策略型顾客与短视型顾客时供应链的分散式决策二层规划模型和集中式决策模型,对该四种模型进行了求解与对比分析、以及数值仿真和敏感性分析,算例表明了模型的合理性和结论的有效性。研究表明:高WTP顾客为策略型顾客时,集中式供应链与分散式供应链相比,其订货量高、但零售价低,故利润反而较低;高支付意愿顾客为策略型顾客时分散式供应链和集中式供应链的利润小于高支付意愿顾客为短视型顾客下的情形;四种供应链模式下的订货量随单位缺货损失的增加而增加,但供应链的利润降低。限量销售、回购剩余产品、提高顾客心目中的产品价值等策略可有效降低顾客策略行为对供应链的影响。本文将促进基于顾客策略行为的供应链理论研究与管理实践。     

Capacity Allocation among Multiple Suppliers in an Electronic Market

An electronic marketplace typically provides industrial suppliers an alternative option for selling their capacity in addition to the traditional open market. However, suppliers face different sets of costs and risks in open market and in electronic market. Consequently, suppliers participating in an electronic market are likely to offer their capacity at a different price compared with traditional open market. We analyze this problem and derive the price‐capacity function for the supplier. We also derive a basis for allocating buyer's requirements among multiple suppliers so as to minimize his cost. Our model shows that suppliers with large capacities would quote a lower price in the electronic market. It also predicts that the unit bid price increases with bid quantity in the electronic market. Based on the price‐capacity curve, we model a scenario where the buyer announces, a priori, the number of suppliers to be selected for award of a contract that will minimize its costs.     

顾客体验之于新产品供应链协调的影响

新产品引入市场时,其内在价值很难判断,顾客体验能够降低其接受产品的风险.研究了外生体验与内生体验对供应链协调的影响.考虑了销售补偿合同与回购合同,其中,销售补偿合同是供应商对销售商已销售的产品给予补偿,而回购合同是对未销售的产品进行补偿.结论表明,提升外生体验,即顾客收到的噪声信号质量较高,销售商能制定更高的销售价格,...     

Strategic Capacity Management When Customers Have Boundedly Rational Expectations

In retailing industries, such as apparel, sporting goods, customer electronics, and appliances, many firms deploy sophisticated modeling and optimization software to conduct dynamic pricing in response to uncertain and fluctuating market conditions. However, the possibility of markdown pricing creates an incentive for customers to strategize over the timing of their purchases. How should a retailing firm optimally account for customer behavior when making its pricing and stocking/capacity decisions? For example, is it optimal for a firm to create rationing risk by deliberately under stocking products? In this study, we develop a stylized modeling framework to answer these questions. In our model, customers strategize over the timing of their purchases. However, customers have boundedly rational expectations in the sense of anecdotal reasoning about the firm's fill rate, i.e., they have to rely on anecdotes, past experiences, or word‐of‐mouth to infer the firm's fill rate. In our modeling framework, we distinguish two settings: (i) capacity commitment, where the firm commits to its capacity level in the long run, or (ii) the firm dynamically changes it in each season. For both settings, within the simplest form of anecdotal reasoning, we prove that strategic capacity rationing is not optimal independent of customer risk preferences. Then, using a general form of anecdotal reasoning, we provide sufficient conditions for capacity rationing to be optimal for both settings, respectively. We show that the result of strategic capacity rationing being suboptimal is fairly robust to different valuation distributions and utility functions, heterogeneous sample size, and price optimization.     

基于顾客战略行为下的供应链系统的绩效研究

供应链系统由一个供应商、一个零售商和顾客群组成,且顾客具有战略行为特征,其可以选择在一级市场上购买,也可以选择在二级市场上购买。在销售第一期,零售商向供应商提出订购,并在一级市场上销售,期末剩余产品被供应商回购;在销售第二期,供应商把回购产品通过直销渠道在二级市场上进行销售。采用参数分析和数值模拟得出,首先,顾客战略行为对供应链系统订购量、及系统总收益是否有负影响,取决于顾客对二级市场产品接受度。其次,分散管理系统中,通过提供依赖于集中管理系统下的最优订购量的回购合同,供应商能够协调分散管理系统;并且,无论是否存在顾客战略行为,分散管理系统中的最优回购价格均不受影响。最后,零售商是否接受回购合同,依赖于是否存在顾客战略行为,以及顾客对二级市场产品的接受度。     

Quality strategies in supply chain alliances of disposable items

This paper studies a single-product distribution channel where a supplier manufactures items of a given type, some of which are defective, that are sold by a retailer who only detects a subset of the defective items, passing the rest along to customers. We conjecture the structure of the demand and cost functions, assuming customers to have a decreasing marginal aversion to bad quality while both the supplier and the retailer make marginally increasing efforts to avoid bad quality. This allows us to deduce several implicit parameters of a cost model based on observable data, such as the share of the channel margin. Once the parameters of the model are available, we analyze the result of vertical integration. Although we confirm the well-known fact that vertical integration improves the quality perceived by the customer, we characterize the supplier's decision of whether or not to provide a better quality in terms of the individual channel margins. As an alternative, we derive the conditions under which the supplier and the retailer may devise a mutually beneficial transfer contract that simultaneously increases their profit and improves quality.