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.     

Consignment contracts with retail competition

Consignment contracts have been widely employed in many industries. Under such contracts, items are sold at a retailer’s but the supplier retains the full ownership of the inventory until purchased by consumers; the supplier collects payment from the retailer based on actual units sold. We investigate how competition among retailers influences the supply chain decisions and profits under different consignment arrangements, namely a consignment price contract and a consignment contract with revenue share. First, we investigate how these two consignment contracts and a price only contract compare from the perspective of each supply chain partner. We find that the retailers benefit more from a consignment price contract than from a consignment contract with revenue share or a price only contract, regardless of the level of retailer differentiation. The supplier’s most beneficial contact, however, critically depends upon the level of retailer differentiation: a consignment contract with revenue share is preferable for the supplier if retailer differentiation is strong; otherwise a consignment price contract is preferable. Second, we study how retailer differentiation affects the profits of all supply chain partners. We find that less retailer differentiation improves the supplier’s profit for both types of consignment contract. Moreover, less retailer differentiation improves profits of the retailers in a consignment price contract, but not necessarily in a consignment contract with revenue share.     

销售商出售看跌期权的供应链优化研究

在由一个供应商和一个销售商组成的单期两级供应链中,处于主导地位的销售商以其卖场所具有的销售能力参与供应链合作,并从销售的每一个产品中获取既定收益。同时,销售商还向供应商出售建立在产品销售量保障基础上的看跌期权,以激励供应商参与供应链合作。论文对上述情形的销售商出售看跌期权的供应链合作问题进行了研究,通过建模与优化分析,证明了在销售商提供看跌期权的供应链合作中,供应商存在唯一的最优生产批量和看跌期权采购量,以及销售商存在最优的从每一单位产品销售中获取的既定收益。论文还揭示了销售商提供看跌期权,虽然无法实现供应链协调,但可以实现供应链参与企业所获得的收益与其所承担的风险相匹配。最后,论文论证了在销售商出售看跌期权机制下,供应链存在收益损失较小的理想合作区域。     

公平偏好下基于批发价契约的供应链 协调研究

文中基于Nash讨价还价博弈思想建立公平偏好框架,构建公平偏好效用体系,以此为基础对采用批发价契约的报童模型展开行为研究,采用数理模型和数值分析方法分析了零售商和供应商的公平偏好行为对零售商和供应链系统最优订货量的影响,即零售商和供应商同时关注公平时,零售商和供应链系统的最优订货量趋于保守;并发现零售商和供应链系统的最优订货量随零售商的公平偏好程度增加而递减,但随着供应商公平偏好程度增加而递增,且供应链系统最优订货量变化趋势比零售商明显．然后,在此基础上分析比较得到,无论供应商和零售商是否偏好公平,批发价契约都不能实现供应链协调．最后,对批发价、零售价、供应商生产成本、零售商缺货成本和供应商缺货成本进行敏感度分析．     

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.     

供应链中的生产能力投资风险分配

在供应链中,每个管理者都会面临各种各样的供应和需求不确定性.这些不确定性会造成生产能力的过剩或不足,从而导致很大的利益损失,但是未必每个公司都会面临生产能力投资风险.针对一个单生产商单零售商系统,本文分析了三种不同的合同设计（推进式批发价合同,拉动式批发价合同和期权合同）对生产商和零售商的利润和生产能力投资风险的影响,推进式批发价合同和拉动式批发价均不能协调供应链,故我们找到其帕累托集;而对于期权合同,它能够协调整个供应链并且整合推进式和拉动式两种批发价合同使得生产商和零售商共同承担生产能力投资风险.在分析的过程中,我们将结果与已有的结果进行了比较,指出了其异同之处.     

Channel coordination under fairness concerns and nonlinear demand

The supply chain literature analyzing supplier–retailer contracts and channel coordination has typically focused on profit or revenue maximization as the members’ sole objective. In such settings, it is well known that a simple wholesale price contract is not effective in coordinating the channel due to double marginalization. Recently, Cui et al. [Cui, T.H., Raju, J.S., Zhang, Z.J., 2007. Fairness and channel coordination. Management Science 53 (8) 1303–1314] introduced the members’ fairness concerns into channel coordination. Assuming a linear demand function, the authors show that a coordinating wholesale price contract can be designed when only the retailer or both parties are concerned about fairness. In this paper, we extend the authors’ results to other nonlinear demand functions that are commonly used in the literature. Our analysis reveals that, compared to the linear demand, the exponential demand function requires less stringent conditions to achieve coordination when only the retailer is fairness-concerned.     

Pareto-optimal contracts for a supply chain with satisficing objectives

We analyse a decentralized supply chain consisting of a supplier and a retailer, each with a satisficing objective, that is, to maximize the probability of achieving a predetermined target profit. The supply chain is examined under two types of commonly used contracts: linear tariff contracts (including wholesale price contracts as special cases) and buy-back contracts. First, we identify the Pareto-optimal contract(s) for each contractual form. In particular, it is shown that there is a unique wholesale price that is Pareto optimal for both contractual types. Second, we evaluate the performance of the Pareto-optimal contracts. In contrast to the well-known results for a supply chain with the traditional expected profit objectives, we show that wholesale price contracts can coordinate the supply chain whereas buy-back contracts cannot. This provides an additional justification for the popularity of wholesale price contracts besides their simplicities and lower administration costs.     

风险厌恶下的供应链收益共享契约协调模型研究

收益共享契约是实现供应链系统绩效改善或完美协调的一种机制.考虑了零售商与供应商分别具有风险厌恶决策偏好情况下,在随机市场需求下建立了由单供应商和单零售商组成的二级供应链的收益共享契约模型,并对模型进行了分析,揭示了供应商和零售商的风险厌恶决策偏好对收益共享契约参数的影响.研究结果表明:当销售商(供应商)的风险厌恶控制在...     

Study on the coordination contract in supply chain under trade credit based on risk compensation

Trade credit changes the inventory risk between supplier and retailer. This leads to failure in the coordination of the supply chain. Considering that the supplier bears the retailer’s inventory risk under the credit condition, in this paper, the contract is constructed by combining the risk compensation and quantity discount contract to re-coordinate the supply chain and analyze the contract. The results show that the contract can achieve voluntary supply chain coordination; and when the seller’s funds is within a certain range, the coordinate contract can perform in the form of the wholesale price contract, and the wholesale price is influenced by its own funds and product value. In the end, a numerical example is given to verify this conclusion.