Responsive Pricing Newsvendor Networks with Discretionary Commonality

Discretionary commonality is a form of operational flexibility used in multi‐product manufacturing environments. Consider a case where a firm produces and sells two products. Without discretionary commonality, each product is made through a unique combination of input and production capacity. With discretionary commonality, one of the inputs could be used for producing both products, and one of the production capacities could be used to process different inputs for producing one of the products. In the latter case, the manager can decide, upon the realization of uncertainty, not only the quantities for different products (outputs) but also the means of transforming inputs into outputs. The objective of this study is to understand how the firm's value, its inventory levels for inputs and capacity levels for resources are affected by the demand characteristics and market conditions. In pursuing this research, we extend Van Mieghem and Rudi ( 2002 )'s newsvendor network model to allow for the modeling of product interdependence, demand functions, random shocks, and firm's ex post pricing decision. Applying the general framework to the network with discretionary commonality, we discover that inventory and capacity management can be quite different compared to a network where commonality is non‐discretionary. Among other results, we find that as the degree of product substitution increases, the relative need for discretionary commonality increases; as the market correlation increases, while the firm's value may increase for complementary products, the discretionary common input decreases but the dedicated input increases. Numerical study shows that discretionary flexibility and responsive pricing are strategic substitutes.     

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.     

Markdown Budgets for Retail Buyers: Help or Hindrance?

For many retailers, markdown decisions are taken by retail buyers whose compensation is based on sales revenue so their objective is to maximize it through the season. This implies that the buyers' objectives are not perfectly aligned with the overall profitability the firm. Many retailers set markdown budgets prior to the season to control margin erosion and increase profitability. Markdown budget constrains the buyers on the amount of discounts that they can apply on a given inventory of merchandise and sets a limit on the dollar value of markdowns for the season. While markdown budgets may be useful in preventing excessive discounts, they can have a detrimental effect on the buyers' ability to respond to poor market and remove distressed inventory. We investigate the effectiveness of this practice in aligning the incentives of buyers with that of the firm, and provide guidance on how these budgets should be established ahead of time. We consider a firm with a fixed inventory of a seasonable item, and a single chance to mark the price down. The retailer knows only the demand distribution at the beginning of the season, but the market information is revealed during the season to the buyer. We first characterize the buyer's markdown policy and understand the circumstances under which this can be different from the retailer's markdown policy. We use our model to determine the optimal markdown budget and quantify its effectiveness considering different factors such as the level of demand uncertainty, initial markup, and market's responsiveness to markdowns.     

The Dynamics of Domestic Gray Markets and Its Impact on Supply Chains

Gray markets are created by unauthorized retailers selling manufacturer's branded products. Similar to international gray markets, domestic gray markets are a growing phenomenon whose impact on supply chains is not clear. We consider a supply chain with one manufacturer and several authorized retailers who face a newsvendor problem and a domestic gray market. While a gray market provides an opportunity for retailers to clear their excess inventory (inventory‐correction effect), it also can be a threat to their demand (demand‐cannibalization effect). We first characterize the emerging equilibrium by assuming an MSRP environment. Comparing a decentralized and centralized system, we show that a wholesale pricing contract is quite efficient in a gray market environment; we explain the underlying mechanism and note some of the operational decisions that could hurt that efficiency. We show that the gray market price determines the degree of both the negative effects of demand‐cannibalization and the positive effects of inventory correction, which in turn determines the net impact of gray markets on the retailer's stocking choice and, ultimately, the manufacturer's profit. We then study the authorized retailers' problem as a price‐setting newsvendor. We observe that the gray market creates price competition between the authorized and unauthorized retailers, causing a drop in the primary market price. However, this price competition can be counteracted by the authorized retailers' stocking decision. Finally, we extend our model to consider the cases where the demand can be correlated across retailers.     

Risk-minimizing pricing and hedging foreign currency options under regime-switching jump-diffusion models

This article mainly investigates risk-minimizing European currency option pricing and hedging strategy when the spot foreign exchange rate is driven by a Markov-modulated jump-diffusion model. We suppose the domestic and foreign money market floating interest rates, the drift, and the volatility of the exchange rate dynamics all depend on the state of the economy, which is modeled by a continuous-time hidden Markov chain. The model considered in this article will provide market practitioners with flexibility in characterizing the dynamics of the spot foreign exchange rate. Using the minimal martingale measure, we obtain a system of coupled partial-differential-integral equations satisfied by the currency option price and find the corresponding hedging strategies and the residual risk. According to simulation of currency option prices in the special case of double exponential jump-diffusion regime-switching model, we further discuss and show the effects of the parameters on the prices.     

碳定价对中国电力行业碳达峰的影响

电力行业是中国碳排放量最大的行业,电力行业的低碳转型可以从根本上改变中国能源系统的高碳特征。利用TIMES模型构建了2010—2050年电力行业低碳路径分析模型,设计了不存在碳市场的参考情景和引入碳价格的碳定价情景,研究了两种情景下的电力行业碳排放、装机容量等关键指标的变化情况。在参考情景下,电力行业碳排放量在2027年达峰,峰值约41亿t,随后碳排放量缓慢下降到2050年的37.6亿t。在碳定价情景下,电力行业能够较早地实现碳排放峰值。碳定价过低无法发挥碳价格的减排效果,碳定价过高则给火电厂带来过高的近期成本,建议碳价格在60~125元/t之间运行。     

异质性信念与证券价格的互动效应研究——基于协整理论与Granger因果检验

基于异质信念下证券定价模型的分析,用投资者的资金流向作为异质信念的代理指标进行实证研究,发现投资者的异质性信念是造成短期证券价格波动的重要原因,并且证券价格波动作为市场信息通过强化和更新投资者信念进行反馈。但是这种反馈机制对于不同的投资者的效果是不同的,普通散户反馈的效果明显,成熟的机构投资者基本不受影响。表现在证券市场上,创业板、中小盘和大盘证券价格波动会越来越小。     

网络代购背景下制造商两市场定价策略研究

本文研究了当两个区域的市场存在价格差异情况下,网络代购商出现时两区域市场中需求结构呈现出的特征,及其对制造商定价策略的影响;分别探讨了三种消费者渠道偏好参数水平下,制造商可能提出的四种价格策略,探讨了采取不同的价格策略时,两市场消费者的需求水平及制造商的收益状况,最后,通过数值模拟和仿真对各个参数对不同的定价策略的影像进行比较分析,给出了相关结论。     

公共产品价格理论的重建

依据一个不同于传统理论的公共产品定价模型,市场竞争被分为消费者竞争和生产者竞争两种状态.当市场上商品供不应求时,竞争发生在消费者之间,产品的价格等于边际消费者所愿意支付的最高价格;当市场上商品供大于求时,竞争发生在生产者之间,价格等于边际上生产者能够获得正利润时的最低价格.由于假设所有消费者偏好不同,当市场扩大,剩余增加,市场将会分裂出新的产品,以减少消费者的效用损失.当相邻产品之间的竞争达到均衡时,两个产品市场上边际消费者效用相等.根据新的价格形成机制,全部均衡必定是由"价格-规模-种类数"三者同时决定的.这个定价工具的应用,将使公共产品同私人产品的定价没有本质差别.     

双渠道环境下基于参考价格效应的制造商动态定价研究

随着制造商日益盛行开辟网络直销渠道,双渠道环境下制造商的定价问题显得尤为重要。采用斯坦伯格博弈构建制造商在双渠道环境下基于参考价格效应的两阶段动态定价模型,并通过数值算例分析参考价格效应各参数对定价及整体收益的影响。研究结果表明：在双渠道环境中,批发价格与渠道交叉价格弹性系数、直销渠道的销售定价相关,间接受到参考价格效应影响;记忆系数和参考价格系数对制造商定价及收益的影响受到初始参考价格调节。