Inventory competition in a dual-channel supply chain with delivery lead time consideration

Aimed at the inventory competition of perishable products in a dual-channel supply chain with consideration of the delivery lead time in the online direct channel, we extend the Newsvendor model considering stock-out-based consumer switching behavior to include the delivery lead time. We examine the retailer's optimal order quantity decision in the retail channel and the manufacturer's optimal inventory level decision in the online direct channel, explore the manufacturer's optimal delivery lead time decision in the online direct channel, discuss the impact of the product price and consumer switching behavior on the optimal decisions of supply chain members, and compare the optimal decisions between decentralized and centralized scenarios. The results show that, compared with the centralized scenario, at least one of the supply chain members will overstock in the decentralized scenario and that consumers in the online direct channel enjoy a shorter delivery lead time and hence better service in the decentralized scenario. Finally, we present numerical examples to analyze the impact of relevant parameters on the supply chain members’ profits and the supply chain efficiency.     

Price and lead time decisions in dual-channel supply chains

Manufacturers today are increasingly adopting a dual channel to sell their products, i.e., the traditional retail channel and an online direct channel. Empirical studies have shown that service quality (we focus on the delivery lead time of the direct channel) even goes beyond product price as one of the major factors influencing consumer acceptance of the direct channel. Delivery lead time has significant effects on demand, profit, and pricing strategy. However, there is scant literature addressing the decision on the promised delivery lead time of a direct channel and its impact on the manufacturer’s and retailer’s pricing decisions. To fill this gap, we examine the optimal decisions of delivery lead time and prices in a centralized and a decentralized dual-channel supply chain using the two-stage optimization technique and Stackelberg game, and analyze the impacts of delivery lead time and customer acceptance of a direct channel on the manufacturer’s and retailer’s pricing behaviours. We analytically show that delivery lead time strongly influences the manufacturer’s and the retailer’s pricing strategies and profits. Our numerical studies reveal that the difference between the demand transfer ratios in the two channels with respect to delivery lead time and direct sale price, customer acceptance of the direct channel, and product type have great effects on the lead time and pricing decisions.     

考虑专利保护和渠道偏好的再制造双渠道闭环供应链决策与协调

本文在电子商务环境下考虑消费者对零售渠道和直销渠道具有不同的渠道偏好,研究了专利许可零售商实施再制造的双渠道闭环供应链定价决策和协调问题。运用博弈论方法求得了集中决策和分散决策情形下的最优定价策略,并分析了消费者渠道偏好系数对节点企业最优定价策略及利润的影响。针对分散决策存在效率损失的问题,以集中决策的最优解为基准,通过联合运用一个由批发价格、直销价格和专利许可费构成的定价机制和一个利润分享机制,实现了双渠道闭环供应链的完美协调。     

随机弹性需求下供应链销售价格与提前期联合决策及协调机制

研究了市场需求随机且对销售价格及提前期敏感的条件下,供应链如何制定最优的销售价格、提前期以及库存因子使得利润最大化。首先,分析了集中决策与分散决策供应链的最优决策,发现集中决策与分散决策模式下的提前期与库存因子是相同的,但分散决策下的销售价格更高、期望利润更低,且分散决策与集中决策供应链的利润之比随着需求对价格的敏感程度的增大而增大。然后建立了收入共享与成本分担的协调机制,并分析了其最优决策。研究发现,协调决策机制可以有效地压缩提前期,并能同时使供应链达到帕累托改进,但不能达到完美协调,而且还发现协调决策下制定的最优销售价格比分散决策要低。最后通过数值计算对三种供应链决策模式下的绩效进行了比较分析,结果表明供应链利润随着需求方差增大而减小,提前期压缩程度随着材料成本承担比例增大而增大。上述结论可以为企业制定销售价格与提前期决策以及企业间的协调提供有益的指导。     

The coordinating contracts for a fuzzy supply chain with effort and price dependent demand

This paper investigates the coordination of a two-echelon supply chain with fuzzy demand that is dependent on both retail price and sales effort. In contrast with the centralized and decentralized decision models, two coordinating models based on symmetric information and asymmetric information about retailer’s scale parameter are developed by game theory, and the corresponding analytical solutions are obtained. Theoretical analysis and numerical examples yield the maximal supply chain profits in two coordination situations are equal to that in the centralized situation and greater than that in the decentralized situation. Furthermore, under asymmetric information contract, the maximal expected profit obtained by the low-scale-level retailer is higher than that under symmetric information contract.     

基于电商平台的混合销售渠道对供应链决策的影响研究

考虑到电商平台对消费者强大的吸引力,本文建立了由供应商和平台商构成的基于电商平台混合销售的供应链模型。混合销售渠道包含直销和分销,其中平台商拥有电商平台,供应商通过电商平台进行直销,平台商分享一定的收益;而分销是指平台商从供应商处批发产品进行销售。分别建立了集中式和分散式决策模型,研究发现:随着消费者对分销渠道接受程度的提高,两种情形下直销渠道的零售价不变,分销渠道的零售价提高;分散式情形下的批发价、供应商和平台商的利润均提高;随着供应商分享收益比例的提高,两种渠道的零售价都降低,但批发价提高,供应商的利润提高,而平台商的利润下降,但供应链的总利润提高;研究得到了保证博弈双方都能从直销渠道中获利的收益分享比例范围。     

Who benefit from agency model: A strategic analysis of pricing models in distribution channels of physical books and e-books

We model a supply chain consisting of an author, a publisher, a physical bookstore (p-bookstore), and an electronic bookstore (e-bookstore). We employ game theory to examine and compare two types of pricing models of electronic books (e-books): wholesale model and agency model. Furthermore, we consider decentralized and horizontally centralized channels. The p-bookstore and e-bookstore are independent in the former but centralized in the latter. We adopt a simplified linear demand model to study when the publisher and the e-bookstore both benefit from the agency model. We find that a Pareto zone where both the publisher and e-bookstore benefit from the agency model always exists in the decentralized channels. In the agency model, the benefit from e-book sales may be more than the loss in physical book (p-book) sales. By contrast, a Pareto zone exists in the horizontally centralized channels if the wholesale price of p-books is not excessively low and the price elasticity is not extremely large. To check the robustness of our results, we relax model assumptions and conduct numerical studies in the Pareto zone to investigate how various parameters, such as authors royalty rate, affect profit improvement and readers welfare. We show that the publisher and bookstore have great potentials for profit improvement in the Pareto zone. Significant improvement is also observed in readers welfare.     

基于市场需求增加的双渠道闭环供应链定价机制研究

针对制造商开辟在线销售渠道现象的普及,考虑混合双渠道销售会增加产品的潜在需求,构建制造商与零售商分散、集中定价两种决策模型,利用博弈理论对模型进行求解分析,研究表明在双方分散、集中两种定价策略模型中,随着双渠道开通导致的市场需求率的增加,制造商的批发价、零售商的销售价格上调,零售商的回收价格下降,闭环供应链系统总利润则呈现先下降后上升的变化。最后,运用数值算例进一步验证和讨论双渠道销售导致的市场需求增加对闭环供应链系统定价策略、双方利润及系统渠道效率的影响。     

需求中断下具零售商激励的双渠道供应链价格与生产决策

研究了由一个制造商和一个零售商所组成的两周期双渠道供应链.在第一周期需求实现之前,建立了生产量;在第二周期,基于第一周期的生产量和需求的实现确定了最优销售价格,进而确定了最优的生产量,实现了生产量的优化.通过需求中断下制造商和零售商的垂直整合,讨论了中断情形下价格和生产量对利润的影响.实证结果证实,集中式供应链的最优价格决策受零售渠道顾客偏好和市场规模变化的影响较为显著.     

A supply chain model with direct and retail channels

We study a dual channel supply chain in which a manufacturer sells to a retailer as well as to consumers directly. Consumers choose the purchase channel based on price and service qualities. The manufacturer decides the price of the direct channel and the retailer decides both price and order quantity. We develop conditions under which the manufacturer and the retailer share the market in equilibrium. We show that the difference in marginal costs of the two channels plays an important role in determining the existence of dual channels in equilibrium. We also show that demand variability has a major influence on the equilibrium prices and on the manufacturer’s motivation for opening a direct channel. In the case that the manufacturer and the retailer coordinate and follow a centralized decision maker, we show that adding a direct channel will increase the overall profit. Our numerical results show that an increase in retailer’s service quality may increase the manufacturer’s profit in dual channel and a larger range of consumer service sensitivity may benefit both parties in the dual channel. Our results suggest that the manufacturer is likely to be better off in the dual channel than in the single channel when the retailer’s marginal cost is high and the wholesale price, consumer valuation and the demand variability are low.     

供需不确定条件下考虑双边努力的供应链组合契约设计

本文研究供需同时不确定条件下考虑双边努力的供应链契约设计问题,在一个供应商和一个零售商组成的二级供应链系统中,供应商的努力影响产量的不确定性,零售商的努力影响市场需求的不确定性。首先,利用Stackerberg主从博弈模型计算了分散决策时零售商、供应商的最优期望利润,并将计算结果与集中决策时供应链整体的最优期望利润进行对比。由于双重边际效应的存在,分散决策时供应链的最优期望利润小于集中决策时供应链的最优期望利润。基于此,本文设计了回购和成本分担组合契约来协调该供应链,计算了回购价格和成本分担系数的表达式,得到了回购和成本分担契约下供应商和零售商的最优期望利润。结果表明,在特定条件下,该组合契约不仅可以协调供应链,还可以实现供应链利润的任意分配。最后,通过数值计算,分析了供需双方的决策变量和期望利润随契约参数的变化情况。     

Coordinating a three-echelon fresh agricultural products supply chain considering freshness-keeping effort with asymmetric information

This paper studies the coordination problem of a three-echelon supply chain system consisting of one supplier, third-party logistics service providers (TPLSP) and one retailer that provides seasonal fresh agricultural products to customers. The market demand for the retailer is assumed to be influenced by the retail price, the product's freshness and other random variables. Both quantity and quality losses are viewed as endogenous variables of the freshness-keeping effort, which is decided by the TPLSP. Dynamic game models for both the decentralized decision mode and the centralized decision mode are developed, and asymmetric demand information is considered in the decentralized decision mode. The analysis shows that decentralized decision making could result in the distortion of the order quantity and selling price and could ultimately result in a loss of supply chain profit. The TPLSP is motivated to exaggerate the demand, which could seriously damage the supplier's interests. Based on an analysis of the major influencing factors in the supply chain system, a coordination contract based on cost and revenue sharing (RS) is designed for the two transaction processes in the three-echelon supply chain system. We illustrate the proposed models with a numerical study and conduct a sensitivity analysis of some of the key parameters in the models. It is proven that with the designed contract, the sales volume can be significantly expanded, all the supply chain members can benefit from Pareto improvement, and both the retailer and the TPLSP have no incentive to exaggerate the market demand.     

信用支付下基于收益共享契约的网购供应链协调策略研究

信用支付在网购交易中成为了日益重要的支付方式,考虑网络零售商能否在规定的免息期内支付货款两种情形,针对实际延迟支付时间影响网络零售商订货量问题,建立当网络零售商面临不确定的市场需求时的网购供应链决策模型,运用逆向归纳法分析供应商、网络零售商对相关参数的决策并设计收益共享契约实现网购供应链的协调。结果表明:网络零售商的订购量不会随着网络零售商实际支付时间的无限延长而持续增加,只有在供应商规定的免息期内,信用支付策略才会对订购量具有激励作用;两种情形下只要收益共享系数满足一定条件都能够实现网购供应链的协调。最后利用数值算例对上述结论进行了验证。     

闭环供应链竞争的博弈分析与链内协调合同设计

假定生产商委托零售商回收废旧产品以进行再制造活动,研究两条分别由单生产商和单零售商组成的闭环供应链的竞争和链内协调。对应两条闭环供应链均为分散式供应链、均为集中式供应链、一条为分散式供应链另一条为集中式供应链,运用博弈论和均衡分析方法分别建立了三种情况下刻画闭环供应链竞争的带均衡约束的均衡模型、纳什均衡模型和带均衡约束的优化模型,进行了模型求解。基于合同理论,提出供应链竞争下协调链内零售商的零售价和回收价格决策的批发价加回收补贴合同。最后的算例验证了模型的合理性和协调合同的有效性。研究表明:产品零售价、需求量与产品替代效应正相关,废旧产品供给量、供应链利润与回收价格敏感性正相关;供应链协调是供应链竞争下的占优策略,有利于提高供应链的运作效率,但两条协调供应链之间的竞争将更激烈,存在囚徒困境现象。     

A two-echelon supply chain of a returnable product with fuzzy demand

This study investigates the effects of the manufacturer’s refund on retailer’s unsold products for the two-echelon decentralized and centralized supply chains of a short life and returnable product with trapezoidal fuzzy demand, in which retailer returns the unsold and the customer’s unsatisfactory products to the manufacturer. For each returnable chain, we obtain the closed-form solution of order quantity to maximize the total expected profit of the supply chain, and confirm that demand fuzziness does indeed affect the order quantity and the members’ expected profits. We provide a number of managerial insights by comparing both chains and show that each chain is more advantageous to the members depending on certain condition. Our models are appropriate for a supply chain with a returnable product that lacks information about the demand.     

Sales effort free riding and coordination with price match and channel rebate

This paper studies sales effort coordination for a supply chain with one manufacturer and two retail channels, where an online retailer offers a lower price and free-rides a brick-and-mortar retailer’s sales effort. The free riding effect reduces brick-and-mortar retailer’s desired effort level, and thus hurts the manufacturer’s profit and the overall supply chain performance. To achieve sales effort coordination, we designed a contract with price match and selective compensation rebate. We also examined other contracts, including the target rebate contract and the wholesale price discount contract, both with price match. The numerical analysis shows that the selective rebate outperforms other contracts in coordinating the brick-and-mortar retailer’s sales effort and improving supply chain efficiency.     

时滞变质品供应链的数量折扣协调模型

在由单个批发商与单个零售商组成的两级时滞变质品供应链中,分别建立分散决策和集中决策下供应链系统的单位时间利润函数,通过比较得到集中决策优于分散决策的条件。引入数量折扣契约对时滞变质品供应链进行协调,促使整个供应链系统实现集中决策下的最优状态。设计收益共享合同来合理分配协调后的利润增量,保证批发商和零售商的单位时间利润都比协调前有所增加,从而实现供应链系统的帕累托改善。最后,通过数值算例演示了两种决策模式的单位时间利润情况,并分析了关键参数对供应链系统及各成员企业单位时间利润水平的影响。     

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.     

货架展示量与定价模型及供应链协调分析

针对单生产商和单零售商组成的供应链,假定需求依赖于货架展示量与零售价格,分别建立了集中式控制下和分散式控制下的货架展示量与定价决策模型,给出了协调供应链的批发价加货架补贴合同。针对单生产商和n个零售商组成的供应链,假定总需求是n个零售商的总货架展示量和平均零售价格的函数、每个零售商的需求与其货架展示相关的促销努力成正比,分析了相应的集中式与分散式决策,并给出了协调供应链的批发价加货架补贴加转移支付合同。     

On sequential commitment in the price-dependent newsvendor model

We investigate the effect of sequential commitment in the decentralized newsvendor model with price-dependent demand. Sequential commitment allows the self-profit maximizing parties to commit to contract parameters (e.g., wholesale price, retail price, buyback price and order quantity) sequentially and alternately, and we investigate its effect on the equilibrium profits of the channel and its members. Sequential commitment introduces more flexibility to contracting in the supply chain and our analysis can provide some insight to channel members who follow a bargaining process to determine the values of contract parameters. We show that the introduction of sequential commitment to the price-dependent (PD) newsvendor model with buybacks can significantly improve the manufacturer’s and the channel expected profits, but it can also decrease the retailer’s expected profit. Finally, we demonstrate that with sequential commitment, under some conditions, the choice of the first mover is endogenized and we identify the unique sequence of commitments by channel members that would arise in equilibrium.