Buyer-supplier currency exchange rate flexibility contracts in global supply chains

This paper analyzes a decentralized global supply chain under a newsvendor setting, where a supplier delivers a certain quantity of a single product to a buyer in accordance with the terms of a mutually agreed upon contract. This contract is signed prior to the delivery of the product and subsequent payment, thus, exposing the supply chain to the risk of currency exchange rate fluctuations. We propose two types of currency exchange rate flexibility contracts to explore the characteristics of exchange rate risk mitigation policies for the buyer and the supplier. Furthermore, we investigate the effects of the contract structures on the optimal order quantity, as well as the expected profits of both supply chain members. Our results show that the optimal order quantity of the buyer decreases when the wholesale price is uncertain due to exchange rate volatility. Also, both our proposed contracts tend to improve the expected profits of both the buyer and the supplier, when the payment is made in the supplier’s currency, indicating the desirability of adopting such contractual agreements from the perspective of both parties. On the other hand, when the payment is made in the buyer’s currency, our suggested contracts do not yield such win-win scenarios. Finally, we examine the effectiveness of availing the services of a local vendor, which is capable of satisfying any demand in excess of the quantity ordered from the foreign source with short notice, in order to mitigate the risks associated with an overseas order.     

基于现货市场的供应链博弈模型

构建了现货市场价格及市场需求均不确定的供应链博弈模型,分析了风险中性供应商的批发价决策、风险厌恶制造商的采购决策,证明博弈均衡存在且唯一。通过解析分析及数值实验探讨了风险态度、现货价格和需求波动及其相关性对供应链博弈的影响。结果表明:1)制造商因规避风险会减小采购,这降低了供应链总效用;2)现货市场存在时制造商会减小向供应商采购的数量,这降低了供应商的利润,但提高了供应链总效用;3)现货价格与市场需求的相关关系让供应商掌握主动,但会降低制造商及整个供应链的绩效。     

基于M-CVaR和生产资金约束的供应链协调研究

本文针对供应商面临生产资金约束的情况,在需求随机条件下研究了由一个风险中性零售商和一个具有风险偏好的供应商组成的二级供应链的协调问题。文章在零售商享有批发价折扣的提前支付和供应商银行信贷两种融资方式下,分别建立了零售商的最优决策模型以及基于M-CVaR测度工具的供应链整体订购决策模型,并给出了采用两种不同融资模式时零售商和供应链整体的最优订购量以及供应链的协调条件,分析了供应商的风险偏好对供应链整体最优决策及协调条件的影响。最后通过算例验证了文章的主要结论。研究表明,当提前支付价格折扣大于临界值时,零售商会选择提前支付货款;提前支付模式下供应链整体的最优订购量大于银行信贷模式;随着供应商的风险偏好由风险规避向风险喜好转变,供应链整体的最优订购量逐渐增大。     

Joint pricing and inventory replenishment decisions with returns and expediting

We study a single-item periodic-review model for the joint pricing and inventory replenishment problem with returns and expediting. Demand in consecutive periods are independent random variables and their distributions are price sensitive. At the end of each period, after the demand is realized, a buyer can return excess stocks to a supplier. Or, if there are stockouts, the buyer can place an expediting order at the supplier to reduce the amount of shortage. Unfilled demands are fully backlogged. We characterize the optimal dynamic policy that determines the pricing, inventory replenishment, and adjustment decisions in each period so that the total expected discounted profit is maximized. For a very general stochastic demand function, we can show that the optimal replenishment policy is a modified base-stock policy, the optimal pricing policy is a modified base-stock-list-price policy, and the optimal policy for inventory adjustment follows a dual-threshold policy. We further study the operational effect of returns and expediting. Analytical and numerical results demonstrate that returns and expediting lead to a significant profit increase in a number of situations, including limited supply capacity, sufficient flexibility of the expediting order, high demand uncertainty, and a price-sensitive market.     

Sourcing decisions with capacity reservation contracts

By committing to long-term supply contracts, buyers seek to lower their purchasing costs, and have products delivered without interruption. When a long-term contract is available, suppliers are less pressured to find new customers, and can afford to charge a price lower than the prevailing spot market price. We examine sourcing decisions of a firm in the presence of a capacity reservation contract that this firm makes with its long-term supplier in addition to the spot market alternative. This contract entails delivery of any desired portion of a reserved fixed capacity in exchange for a guaranteed payment by the buyer. We investigate rational actions of the two parties under two different types of periodic review inventory control policies used by the buyer: the two-number policy, and the base stock policy. When typical demand probability distributions are considered, inclusion of the spot market source in the buyer’s procurement plan significantly reduces the capacity commitments from the long-term supplier.     

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.     

风险时收益共享-贸易信贷契约下多个竞争零售商的供应链协调

在供应商向多个零售商提供贸易信贷的环境下,本文考虑了零售商存在违约风险和他们之间存在竞争时的供应链协调问题。研究表明,在比例分配市场需求下,多个竞争的零售商之间存在唯一的纳什均衡订购量,以及零售商违约风险的提高和他们之间竞争增强都会增加均衡订购量。当零售商之间的竞争较弱时,贸易信贷将无法协调供应链。为此,本文使用了收益分享与贸易信贷相结合的机制以协调供应链,且分析了零售商的违约风险和他们之间的竞争对协调契约参数的影响。当零售商的竞争强度一定时,批发价和风险溢价都随着零售商违约风险的提高而增大,而收益分享比例随着违约风险的提高而减小;当零售商的违约风险一定时,批发价和风险溢价都随着零售商之间竞争强度的提高而增大,而收益分享比例随着竞争强度的增强而减小。进一步的研究发现,零售商的违约风险越高以及他们之间竞争越激烈对零售商越不利,而对供应商越有利。最后,结合数值实验验证了收益共享-贸易信贷契约的有效性。     

Call,put and bidirectional option contracts in agricultural supply chains with sales effort

This paper develops option contracts in a supplier-retailer agricultural supply chain where the market demand depends on sales effort. First, we examine a benchmark case of integrated supply chain with the loss rate. Second, we introduce three coordinating option contracts led by the supplier to reduce the retailer's risk, where the call option contract can reduce the shortage risk, the put option contract can reduce the inventory risk and the bidirectional option contract can reduce the bilateral risk. We find that both the optimal initial order quantity and the optimal option quantity increase with the sales effort and the option price will balance the influence of the loss rate on supply chain coordination. Furthermore, the bidirectional option price is the highest while its option quantity is the least, and the put option initial order quantity is the highest. Third, we also consider an option contract led by the retailer to reduce the supplier's wholesale risk. Among the above four option contracts, we find that the option quantity led by the retailer is the highest. Finally, the numerical examples present the impact of the parameters on the optimal decisions, and provide practical managerial insights to reduce the different risk in the agricultural supply chain.     

A bargaining model with asymmetric information for a single supplier–single buyer problem

Banerjee’s joint economic lot size (JELS) model represents one approach to minimizing the joint total relevant cost of a buyer and a supplier by using a joint optimal order and production policy. The implementation of a jointly optimal policy requires coordination and cooperation. Should the buyer have the market power to implement his own optimal policy as that one to be used in the exchange process no incentive exists for him to choose a joint optimal policy. A joint policy can therefore only be the result of a bargaining process between the parties involved. The supplier may make some sort of concession such as a price discount or a side payment in order to influence the buyer’s order policy. A critical assumption made throughout in supply chain literature is that the supplier has complete knowledge about the buyer’s cost structure. Clearly, this assumption will seldom be fulfilled in practice. The research presented in this paper provides a bargaining model with asymmetric information about the buyer’s cost structure assuming that the buyer has the power to impose its individual optimal policy.     

A spatiotemporal Data Envelopment Analysis (S-T DEA) approach: the need to assess evolving units

We consider a two-stage supply chain with one supplier and one manufacturer. The manufacturer faces a Poisson demand process where the arrival rate depends on the selling price, the announced delivery time, and the delivery reliability defined as the probability of satisfying the announced delivery time. Such a demand model generalizes the works in the literature by simultaneously considering the above three demand sensitivity factors. The main purpose of this paper is to study the equilibrium decisions in the supply chain with an all-unit quantity discount contract. We consider four scenarios regarding whether the leadtime standard, the delivery reliability standard, and the manufacturer’s capacity are endogenous, and whether the manufacturer’s production cost is its private information. We find that an all-unit quantity discount scheme can coordinate the supply chain for most cases. Managerial insights are observed regarding the impact of the three demand sensitivity factors. For example, the breakpoint in an optimal quantity discount contract always increases with the delivery reliability sensitivity under an exogenous delivery reliability, but may decrease under an endogenous delivery reliability; with asymmetric information, a higher variance of the manufacturer’s unit production costs leads to a lower unit wholesale price for the low-cost manufacturer.     

零售商占优下的两部定价合同与通道费

本文考虑由单个占优的零售商和单个供应商组成的二级供应链模型.在价格相依的随机需求下,研究分散系统下的批发价格合同与两部定价合同.在一定的条件下得到两种合同中供应链成员的最优决策和利润以及供应链系统的利润.分析表明,当零售商占优时两部定价合同比批发价格合同更有效.这在一定程度上说明当前零售业中收取通道费的合理性.     

Impact of supply base heterogeneity in electronic markets

Internet based marketplaces have enabled industrial buyers to locate suppliers from geographically diverse locations. This has resulted in increased variations in certain supplier parameters such as capacity and cost among the participating suppliers. However, the impact of this increased heterogeneity on the procurement practices are not well understood. In this paper we consider three supplier parameters that can affect the price the buyer pays and the number of suppliers that the buyer will select for award of contract. These attributes are capacity, production cost and demand for supplier’s capacity. We show how these parameters impact the price that a supplier quotes. We also show how the buyer will determine the optimum number of suppliers using a reverse auction mechanism when he does not have perfect knowledge of the suppliers’ parameters. Our model suggests that buyers need to adjust some of the input parameters while procuring capacity from a heterogeneous supply base. For instance, buyers need to pre-qualify more suppliers if the supply base has greater heterogeneity.     

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。     

Pareto quantity flexibility contracts for a supply chain under multiple objectives

We analyse a decentralized supply chain consisting of a supplier and a retailer. The terms of trade between the two agents are specified by a quantity flexibility (QF) contract. We first identify the Pareto QF contracts for the supply chain where each agent adopts a satisficing objective, that is, to maximize the probability of achieving his/her predetermined target profit. It is shown that to coordinate such a supply chain, QF contracts have to degenerate into wholesale price (WP) contracts. This provides an additional justification for the popularity of WP contracts besides their simplicities and lower administration costs. Next, we consider the supply chain where each agent adopts multiple objectives, namely the satisficing objective and the objective of expected profit maximization (EPM). It is shown that there always exist QF contracts that coordinate the supply chain under the objective of EPM and are simultaneously Pareto optimal for the satisficing objective.     

Impact of equity and equality on stability and collusion in a decentralized network

We consider a firm that procures a product from a regular supplier whose production is subject to both supply disruption and random yield risks and a backup supplier whose production capacity requires reservation in advance. Under both deterministic and stochastic demand, we study the impact of the two types of supply risks on the firm’s optimal procurement decisions and the importance of correctly identifying the source of supply risks. We find that if the overall supply risk is unchanged but its main source shifts from random yield to supply disruption, the firm should order more from the regular supplier and reserve less capacity from the backup supplier. Ignoring the existence of supply disruption leads to under-utilization of the regular supplier and over-utilization of the backup supplier. Moreover, we examine the option value of the reserved capacity that is affected by the uncertainty of customer demand. We find that the option value increases/decreases in demand uncertainty if the reservation capacity is exercised after/before demand is realized.     

Demand uncertainty and supplier's returns policies for a multi-store style-good retailer

As demand uncertainty grows in the marketplace, a critical issue today in most purchase contract negotiations between an independent retailer of a style-good and its supplier is the provision of a returns policy, i.e., a commitment by the supplier to buy back unsold inventory of the good at the end of its selling season. Management science research on the strategic role and optimal design of returns policies has grown in recent years but so far offers little treatment of how exactly the retailer's optimal order quantity decisions are affected by demand uncertainty and how a supplier's returns policy can influence these decisions. Employing the traditional “newsboy problem” modeling framework, the authors investigate these issues considering a supplier who faces a retailer with two or more store outlets with normally distributed and possibly correlated demands. To facilitate their analyses, the authors employ a methodology based on special error function representations of the highly nonlinear objective functions of the retailer and supplier. Utilizing this approach, the authors are able to provide explicit insights into how: (a) the buyer's total order quantity decision is affected by the variability in demand; (b) buyback prices in combination with wholesale prices can influence the buyer's order quantity response to demand uncertainty; (c) demand uncertainty moderates the effects of the buyback and wholesale prices; (d) supplier's optimal combination of actions are affected by demand variability; (e) retailer's and supplier's expected profits behave in response to changes in the supplier's actions under different levels of demand variability.     

Channel coordination under two-level trade credits and demand uncertainty

This study considers a decentralized supply chain where a retailer has an opportunity to order a product from a supplier prior to the sales season to satisfy uncertain demand. The retailer provides trade credit to end customers and makes credit period and order quantity decisions to maximize profits. The end demand is both random and credit period-dependent. On the basis of the newsvendor model, this paper focuses on channel coordination when a retailer provides trade credit to end customers. When the supplier also provides trade credit to the retailer, we show that the traditional trade credit contract cannot coordinate the channel. Four composite contracts based on trade credit (trade credit cost sharing with buy back or quantity flexibility; modified trade credit with buy back or quantity flexibility) are provided to induce the retailer to make decisions while optimizing the channel profit. This paper shows that the retailer provides a longer credit period to its customers and orders a larger quantity from the supplier under the composite contracts. With these contracts, the profit sharing between both parties depends on the wholesale price (Pareto improvement) for the fixed retail price and the purchasing cost.     

产出不确定条件下“公司+农户”型订单农业供应链协商模型研究

在农产品产出不确定性及零售价格受农产品产出率影响的条件下,研究了一类由风险规避农户和风险中性公司组成“公司+农户”型订单农业农产品供应链协调问题。在该农产品供应链中,农户和公司通过Nash协商谈判来分别决策最优的生产量和订单价格。研究结果表明,在农产品产出不确定及零售市场价格受农产品产出率影响的条件下,风险规避型农户和公司的Nash协商合作博弈存在均衡解。Nash协商谈判所达成的最优农产品产出量和订单价格均高于分散决策情形下的最优农产品产出量和订单价格。最优农产品产出量是关于农户风险规避度的单调增函数,而最优的订单价格是关于农户风险规避度的单调减函数。最后,通过与分散决策情形相比,证明了Nash协商谈判机制能够促使风险规避型农户和风险中性型公司均达到帕累托改进。     

基于实物期权的双源供应链柔性采购协调策略

在需求不确定下,由风险规避的供应商和占主导地位的零售商组成的二级供应链中,构建了在现货市场影响下基于实物期权的双源柔性采购协调模型,给出了实现供应链协调的最优期权参数的求解算法,探讨了现货市场价格不确定性和供应商风险规避特性对零售商采购策略和双方利润的影响。研究结果表明,在考虑现货市场影响和供应商风险规避的条件下,实物期权契约可以实现供应链协调。     

基于M-CVaR的供应链收益共享契约协调研究

基于收益共享契约能有效改善供应链运作效率且实践中不仅存在风险中性、厌恶型,还存在风险喜好型供应链成员。运用均值-条件风险价值统一度量决策者的风险喜好、中性及厌恶水平,并据此研究考虑决策者风险偏好水平的供应链收益共享契约协调问题。首先建立零售商及供应链整体的均值-条件风险价值模型;然后研究考虑决策者风险偏好水平的供应链收益共享契约协调问题;最后讨论供应链成员的风险偏好水平对最优订购量及最优批发价格的影响,并通过数值算例进行验证。结果表明产品的最优批发价格随着零售商悲观系数的增大而减小,随着供应商悲观系数的增大而增大,而最优订购量随着零售商悲观系数的增大而减小,亦随着供应商悲观系数的增大而减小。因此,设计供应链收益共享契约时应考虑成员的风险偏好水平。