Quality investment and price decision in a risk-averse supply chain

In this paper, we investigate quality investment and price decision of a make-to-order (MTO) supply chain with uncertain demand in international trade. Due to volatility of orders from buyers, the supplier and the manufacturer in the supply chain are subject to financial risk. In contrast to the general assumption that players in a supply chain are risk neutral in quality investment and price decision, we consider the risk-averse behavior of the players in three different supply chain strategies: Vertical Integration (VI), Manufacturer’s Stackelberg (MS) and Supplier’s Stackelberg (SS). The study shows that both supply chain strategy and risk-averse behavior have significant impacts on quality investment and pricing. Compared to a risk-neutral supply chain, a risk-averse supply chain has lower, same and higher quality of products in VI, MS and SS, respectively. Also, we derive the conditions under which the supply chain strategy is implemented in a decentralized setting. A numerical study is used to illustrate some related issues.     

Trade credit for supply chain coordination

Trade-credit is a seller’s short-term loan to the buyer, allowing the buyer to delay payment of an invoice. It has been the largest source of working capital for a majority of business-to-business firms in the United States. Numerous theories have been proposed to explain trade-credit, mainly from finance perspectives. It has also been an important issue in supply chain management. Surprisingly, most literature in supply chain management has examined the retailer’s stocking policies given a supplier’s trade-credit. This paper attempts to shed light on trade-credit from a supplier’s perspective, and presents it as a tool for supply chain coordination. Specifically, we explicitly assume firms’ financial needs for inventory. Following a Newsvendor framework, we assume that the supplier grants trade-credit and markdown allowance. Given the supplier’s offer, the retailer determines order quantity and the financing option for the inventory, either trade-credit or direct financing from a financial institution. Our result shows that the supplier’s markdown allowance alone cannot fully coordinate the supply chain if the retailer employs direct financing. Positive financing costs call for trade-credit in order to subsidize the retailer’s costs of inventory financing. Using trade-credit in addition to markdown allowance, the supplier fully coordinates the retailer’s decisions for the largest joint profit, and extracts a greater portion of the maximized joint profit.     

Strategic response to pollution taxes in supply chain networks: Dynamic,spatial, and organizational dimensions

This paper presents a model of the strategic behavior of firms operating in a spatial supply chain network. The manufacturing and retailing firms engage in an oligopolistic, noncooperative game by sharing customer demand such that a firm’s decisions impact the product prices, which in turn result in changes in all other firms’ decisions. Each firm’s payoff is to maximize its own profit and we show that, in response to such changes in prices and to exogenous environmental taxes, the manufacturing firms may strategically alter a variety of choices such as ’make-buy’ decisions with respect to intermediate inputs, spatial distribution of production, product shipment patterns and inventory management, environmental tax payment vs recycling decisions, and timing of all such choices to sustainably manage the profit and the environmental regulations. An important implication is that effects of a tax depends on the oligopolistic game structure. With respect to methods, we show that this dynamic game can be represented as a set of differential variational inequalities (DVIs) that motivate a computationally efficient nonlinear complementarity (NCP) approach that enables the full exploitation of above-mentioned salient features. We also provide a numerical example that confirms the utility of our proposed framework and shows substantial strategic reaction can be expected to a tax on pollution stocks.     

Mature or emerging markets: Competitive duopoly investment decisions

We develop a competitive investment model wherein two competing firms consider investing into two projects targeting, separately, a mature and an emerging market. The returns firms obtain from investments into these markets are assumed to follow an S-shaped curve and depend on both firms’ actions. Considering symmetric environments (in terms of investment opportunities), we find that different forms of interactions may arise (e.g., Prisoner’s Dilemma and Game of Chicken) and outline corresponding strategies that offer higher returns by exploiting first-mover advantages, cooperation opportunities and aggressive choices. We also discuss the market conditions that can lead to these outcomes. Finally, considering non-symmetric environments, we show that a firm may be better off when its competitor’s budget increases.     

Introducing regulation in the measurement of efficiency,with an application to the Canadian air carriers industry

This paper proposes a method to measure efficiency in highly regulated capital-intensive industries in the presence of state-owned enterprises. We generalize the data envelopment analysis method to include regulation in the model, as well as the quasi-fixed nature of capital and its links with the firms’ investment decisions. The framework is then applied to the Canadian air carriers industry to study the impact of regulation changes on the efficiency of the various carriers, between 1960 and 1999. Our results show that deregulation explains a large part of the measured inefficiency.     

三级供应链企业间交叉持股时均衡定价及市场绩效研究

本文构建三级供应链企业间纵向交叉持股时的Stackelberg定价博弈模型,采用逆推归纳法推演出供应链各厂商交叉持股时的均衡定价及其利润公式,分析了交叉持股对三级供应链均衡市场价格、厂商利润、消费者剩余和经济福利的影响。研究结果表明,较之无交叉持股,仅下游厂商对上游厂商单向持股,对供应链的绩效没有影响;而适当增大上游厂商对下游厂商持股,限制下游厂商对上游厂商持股,能有效降低市场价格,提高供应链及各厂商的利润,增加消费者剩余,改善经济福利,实现供应链各厂商与消费者的共赢。     

Pricing and advertisement in a manufacturer–retailer supply chain

We use a game theoretical approach to study pricing and advertisement decisions in a manufacturer–retailer supply chain when price discounts are offered by both the manufacturer and retailer. When the manufacturer is the leader of the game, we obtained Stackelberg equilibrium with manufacturer’s local allowance, national brand name investment, manufacturer’s preferred price discount, retailer’s price discount, and local advertising expense. For the special case of two-stage equilibrium when the manufacturer’s price discount is exogenous, we found that the retailer is willing to increase local advertising expense if the manufacturer increases local advertising allowance and provides deeper price discount, or if the manufacturer decreases its brand name investment. When both the manufacturer and retailer have power, Nash equilibrium in a competition game is obtained. The comparison between the Nash equilibrium and Stackelberg equilibrium shows that the manufacturer always prefers Stackelberg equilibrium, but there is no definitive conclusion for the retailer. The bargaining power can be used to determine the profit sharing between the manufacturer and the retailer. Once the profit sharing is determined, we suggest a simple contract to help the manufacturer and retailer obtain their desired profit sharing.     

A note on price and quality competition between asymmetric firms

This paper analyzes the impact of asymmetry between firms on the outcome of price and quality competition from a microeconomic viewpoint. Consumers purchase a product based on not only its price but also its quality level; therefore, two firms compete in determining their prices and quality levels to maximize their profits. The asymmetry arises from the difference in consumers’ loyalty to each firm; that asymmetry then determines a character of differentiation between firms. Our purpose is to show how asymmetry influences competition under varying consumers’ price- and quality-sensitivity. In doing so, we extend earlier work in the area of price and quality competition. We show that in both the moderately quality-sensitive and price-sensitive markets, higher consumers’ sensitivity as well as lower consumers’ loyalty to any firm leads to intense competition, resulting in a decrease of both firms’ equilibrium profits. On the other hand, in highly quality-sensitive market, asymmetry compels the smaller firm to change its competitive strategy. In general, this is more beneficial to the larger firm, as the smaller firm’s profit tends to decline. In the worst case, the smaller firm is driven out of business under equilibrium.     

Real options in strategic investment games between two asymmetric firms

This paper examines strategic investment games between two firms that compete for optimal entry in a project that generates uncertain revenue flows. Under asymmetry on both the sunk cost of investment and revenue flows of the two competing firms, we investigate the value of real investment options and strategic interaction of investment decisions. Compared to earlier models that only allow for asymmetry on sunk cost, our model demonstrates a richer set of strategic interactions of entry decisions. We provide a complete characterization of pre-emptive, dominant and simultaneous equilibriums by analyzing the relative value of leader’s and follower’s optimal investment thresholds. In a duopoly market with negative externalities, a firm may reduce loss of real options value by selecting appropriate pre-emptive entry. When one firm has a dominant advantage over its competitor, both the dominant firm and dominated firm enter at their respective leader’s and follower’s optimal thresholds. When the pre-emptive thresholds of both firms happen to coincide, the two firms enter simultaneously. Under positive externalities, firms do not compete to lead.     

考虑即时采购价格的物流服务供应链优化

物流服务市场的不确定性会影响物流服务供应链的服务水平和收益。在考虑随机即时采购价格以及基础物流提供商在正常情况和应急情况下具有不同物流能力投资成本的情形下,引入期权机制研究不确定市场环境下物流服务供应链的优化决策,以提高物流服务供应链柔性和降低市场不确定性带来的风险。构建物流服务供应链的期权契约模型,采用Stackelberg博弈理论和优化算法分析和求得物流服务集成商的最优期权采购和即时采购策略,以及基础物流提供商的最优物流能力投资策略。结果表明即时采购价格将影响基础物流提供商和物流服务集成商的决策。最后通过数值分析研究即时采购价格的不确定程度对物流服务集成商和提供商的优化策略和利润的影响。     

确定性需求连续生产模型下的最优保理融资策略

保理是融资机构基于供应链上下游企业之间实际发生交易而给予供应链卖方企业的一种短期融资。基于连续生产模型研究了资金约束制造商的最优保理融资策略。考虑保理时间决策对融资成本和需求损失的影响,比较了固定期保理和即时保理两种策略下制造商的利润。研究发现,固定期保理策略下的最优保理时间随着其边际利润的增加而提前,而随着保理费率上升、应收款账期延长、自有资金增加而延迟。数值研究结果发现,保理商最优保理费率随着应收账款账期延长而降低。     

Developing real option game models

By mixing concepts from both game theoretic analysis and real options theory, an investment decision in a competitive market can be seen as a “game” between firms, as firms implicitly take into account other firms’ reactions to their own investment actions. We review two decades of real option game models, suggesting which critical problems have been “solved” by considering game theory, and which significant problems have not been yet adequately addressed. We provide some insights on the plausible empirical applications, or shortfalls in applications to date, and suggest some promising avenues for future research.     

Bargaining in competing supply chains with uncertainty

Substantial literature has been devoted to supply chain coordination. The majority of this literature ignores competition between supply chains. Moreover, a significant part of this literature focuses on coordination that induce the supply chain members to follow strategies that produce the equilibria chosen by a vertically integrated supply chain. This paper investigates the equilibrium behavior of two competing supply chains in the presence of demand uncertainty. We consider joint pricing and quantity decisions and competition under three possible supply chain strategies: Vertical Integration (VI), Manufacturer’s Stackelberg (MS), and Bargaining on the Wholesale price (BW(α), α is the bargaining parameter) over a single or infinitely many periods. We show that, in contrast to earlier literature, using VIVI (VI in both chains) is the unique Nash Equilibrium over one period decision, while using MSMS or BW(α)BW(α) may be Nash Equilibrium over infinitely many periods.     

Single-supplier/multiple-buyer supply chain coordination: Incorporating buyers’ expectations under vertical information sharing

We address the coordination problem in a single-supplier/multiple-buyer supply chain. The supplier wishes to coordinate the supply chain by offering quantity discounts. To obtain their complete cost information, the supplier exchanges his own cost parameters with buyers leading to vertical information sharing. The supplier thinks that the buyers, as they have access to supplier’s setup and holding cost information, may demand a portion of the anticipated coordination savings based on the partial information they hold about the cost structure of the entire supply chain. We model each buyer’s expectations based on her limited view of the entire supply chain which consists of herself and the supplier only. These expectations are then incorporated into the modeling of the supply chain, which results in a generalization of the traditional Stackelberg type models. We discuss alternative efficiency sharing mechanisms, and propose methods to design the associated discount schemes that take buyers’ expectations into account. In designing the discount schemes, we consider both price discriminatory and non-price discriminatory approaches. The study adds to the existing body of work by incorporating buyers’ expectations into a constrained Stackelberg structure, and by achieving coordination without forcing buyers to explicitly comply with the supplier’s replenishment period in choosing their order quantities. The numerical analysis of the coordination efficiency and allocation of the net savings of the proposed discount schemes shows that the supplier is still able to coordinate the supply chain with high efficiency levels, and retain a significant portion of the net savings.     

Strategic capability investments and competition for supply contracts

Suppliers often make proactive investments to strategically position themselves to win contracts with a large buyer. Such investments reduce the suppliers’ variable costs of serving the buyer’s demand. We show that an auction mechanism does not always benefit the buyer, the supply chain, or the society. We identify scenarios where the buyer can implement the supply chain and socially optimal solution by committing to a bilateral relationship with fair reimbursement, and forgoing the benefits of competition altogether. We explore the role of commitment by the buyer (to a procurement mechanism) and by the suppliers (to an investment level) by analyzing different timing games under symmetric and asymmetric information about suppliers’ types. We show that it never benefits anyone for the suppliers to commit first. Equilibrium investments and cost structures depend upon the buyer’s bargaining power (opportunity cost). However, the winning supplier’s investments are almost always below the supply chain optimal level.     

碳限额与交易机制下受资金约束的供应链优化

在碳限额与交易机制下,研究零售商受资金约束的供应链优化问题。构建了制造商占优的两级供应链Stackelberg博弈模型,通过引入减排成本分担机制,分别给出了分散决策和集中决策的最优解。通过收益共享契约,实现了供应链协调和供应链成员利润的帕累托改善。通过算例分析了不同减排成本分担系数、碳交易价格对供应链利润和订购量、碳减排决策的影响,为供应链各成员开展减排合作提供了理论依据。研究结果表明,供应链成员的合作不仅可以提高供应链总绩效,而且有利于为消费者提供更多、更绿色的产品;碳价格的提高,促使供应链更加努力减排,从而提高了供应链总利润。     

Impact of product pricing and timing of investment decisions on supply chain co-opetition

In supply chain co-opetition, firms simultaneously compete and co-operate in order to maximize their profits. We consider the nature of co-opetition between two firms: The product supplier invests in the technology to improve quality, and the purchasing firm (buyer) invests in selling effort to develop the market for the product before uncertainty in demand is resolved. We consider three different decision making structures and discuss the optimal configuration from each firm’s perspective. In case 1, the supplier invests in product quality and sets the wholesale price for the product. The buyer then exerts selling effort to develop the market and following demand potential realization, sets the resale price. In case 2, the supplier invests in product quality followed by the buyer’s investment in selling effort. Then, after demand potential is observed, the supplier sets the wholesale price and the buyer sets the resale price. Finally, in case 3, both firms simultaneously invest in product quality and selling effort, respectively. Subsequently, observing the demand potential, the supplier sets the wholesale price and the buyer sets the resale price. We compare all configuration options from both the perspective of the supplier and the buyer, and show that the level of investment by the firms depends on the nature of competition between them and the level of uncertainty in demand. Our analysis reveals that although configuration 1 results in the highest profits for the integrated channel, there is no clear dominating preference on system configuration from the perspective of both parties. The incentives of the co-opetition partners and the investment levels are mainly governed by the cost structure and the level of uncertainty in demand. We examine and discuss the relation between system parameters and the incentives in desiging the supply contract structure.     

Price and quality competition: The effect of differentiation and vertical integration

This paper studies an instance of price and quality competition between firms as seen in the recent Internet market. Consumers purchase a product based on not only its price but also its quality level; therefore, two firms compete in determining their prices and quality levels to maximize their profits. Characterizing this competition from a microeconomic viewpoint, we consider two possible business strategies that firms can utilize to overcome the competition—the differentiation and the vertical integration with another complementary firm. We show an interesting result not seen in the well-known Bertrand price competition: not only does the differentiation always increase the firms’ profits, but also it can increase the consumer’s welfare in a quality-sensitive market. We further derive that under some mild conditions the monopolistic vertical integration that excludes the combination-purchase with a competitor’s product is beneficial for both the integrated firm and its consumers.     

Optimum excess-loss reinsurance: a dynamic framework

The purpose of this article is to consider a two firms excess-loss reinsurance problem. The first firm is defined as the direct underwriter while the second firm is the reinsurer. As in the classical model of collective risk theory it is assumed that premium payments are received deterministically from policyholders at a constant rate, while the claim process is determined by a compound Poisson process. The objective of the underwriter is to maximize the expected present value of the long run terminal wealth (investments plus cash) of the firm by selecting an appropriate excess-loss coverage strategy, while the reinsurer seeks to maximize its total expected discounted profit by selecting an optimal loading factor. Since both firms' policies are interdependent we define an insurance game, solved by employing a Stackelberg solution concept. A diffusion approximation is used in order to obtain tractable results for a general claim size distribution. Finally, an example is presented illustrating computational procedures.     

随机需求下有产能约束的技术创新策略研究

在随机需求和技术变革的环境下,基于有产能约束的单供应商-单零售商的供应链结构,研究供应商分销价格决策和技术创新策略以及零售商订货决策。建立了三阶段Stackelberg博弈模型,通过逆推方法求得了供应商最优分销价格和技术创新策略以及零售商最优订货量,深入探讨了供应商产能、新技术出现概率以及市场需求期望与波动分别对供应商、零售商和供应链整体利润的影响。结果表明当供应商产能不足时进行技术创新会提高供应商和供应链的利润,但零售商因间接承担供应商技术创新的投资成本而利润下降;当供应商产能过剩时进行技术创新则会降低供应商及供应链的利润,而零售商的利润增加。新技术出现概率增加会提高供应链各成员的利润;提高市场需求期望并减小市场波动对供应商及供应链有利,但可能会降低零售商的利润。