二层信用策略下部分延期付款的库存模型

当前二层信用期相关文献考虑的都是零售商提供给其顾客相同的信用期,但现实中零售商往往会根据物品的种类不同提供给顾客不同的信用期.为研究此问题,建立了优化供货周期使零售商平均相关成本最小的库存模型,证明了最优供货周期的存在性,并给出实例加以说明.     

二层信用支付下顾客细分的库存模型

已有的二层信用支付的库存模型忽略了顾客的个体特征[1-10].在实际销售过程中,零售商常根据顾客的需求量不同实行不同的销售策略.为研究零售商根据顾客的年需求量不同给予不同的信用期的库存问题,以零售商的平均相关成本的最小化为目标建立相应的数学模型.文中分析了最优订货周期的存在性.最后,用数值例子来说明本模型.     

消费者异质特征下的碳标签产品供应链决策模型

考虑消费者对标示碳标签产品的异质性消费偏好,建立不同消费群体支付意愿下的碳标签产品需求模型,研究供应商和零售商分别主导供应链情景下的最优决策.结果表明,在供应商或零售商主导供应链中,碳标签产品的定价相同.但供应链主导者通过身份力量影响批发价,从而在供应链总利润分享中获益.消费者群体中的普通顾客比例及普通顾客对碳标签产品的接受程度都影响供应链决策,但是普通顾客对碳标签产品的接受程度更具敏感性.     

基于价格随机化的非透明销售策略研究

本文针对电子商务环境下顾客的等待购买行为,设计了价格随机化的销售策略,将价格的转换构造成一个马尔科夫随机过程。通过研究顾客的耐心程度和忠诚度对最优定价策略的影响,本文得到了几点具有管理启发意义的结论:首先,零售商应该只在一个周期内促销,然后返回到正常价格,但正常价格可以保持多个周期。其次,客户更具耐心时,零售商应减少促销频率和两个价格水平,但促销深度应该增加。第三,相比平价策略,随机定价策略总是会增加零售商的利润,最多可以提高33.3%。最后,当客户忠诚度更低时,零售商应降低促销频率。这些结果对指导网上零售商,如何根据消费者保留价格的分布以及耐心程度和忠诚度为不同的产品选择合适的定价策略具有一定的指导作用。     

基于两级信用支付的易腐品联合采购博弈分析

延期支付作为供应链内部融资的重要渠道之一,广泛存在于商业活动中.在一个由单供应商和多个零售商组成的易腐品供应链中,供应商允许零售商延期支付货款;每个零售商有两类顾客,终端顾客,即直接的消费者,在收到货物之时立即支付货款,中级顾客,即代理商或加盟店,在一定的期限后缴纳货款,如何确定最优订货批量以使得资金实现最大的时间价值是每个零售商面临的重要问题.为此,文章首先研究了在各零售商独立采购时基于两级信用支付的库存模型;其次,研究了多零售商组成联盟实施联合采购时的订货决策问题,应用合作博弈理论,将联合采购下的费用分配问题构造成基于两级信用支付的易腐品联合采购博弈.研究表明,与各零售商独立采购相比,联合采购降低了各零售商的总费用,提高了产品的补货频率,减少了由产品变质带来的损失.     

消费者搭便车下制造商创新投入的供应链双渠道策略研究

针对顾客传统零售渠道服务搭便车现象,利用Hotelling模型建立四种供应链结构下双渠道供应链多阶段于博弈,分析顾客搭便车对制造商创新投入与传统零售渠道服务水平的影响及各方于博弈的均衡结果.研究发现,制造商和零售商偏好不同的供应链结构;随着顾客搭便车获得服务折扣的增加,传统渠道零售商零售价和利润减小,顾客服务水平降低,同时制造商创新投入减少、利润下降.当存在顾客搭便车行为时,渠道整合的零售商渠道差异定价优于为规避顾客搭便车而采取的渠道同价策略,此时制造商创新投入、传统渠道顾客服务水平及供应链双方收益都得到提高.此外利用不同渠道的差异化定位降低搭便车者获得的服务折扣将对供应链整体有利.     

外部市场存在替代产品的VMI系统研究

供应商管理用户库存(VMI)作为一种有效的补货机制,能对购买渠道的需求信息做出积极正确的反应.现在对VMI的研究往往集中于单个零售商和单个供应商组成的系统,不考虑VMI系统受市场上其他零售商或供应商的影响.假设市场上多个零售商出售相互之间可替代的产品,某个零售商与其供应商之间应用VMI系统.我们的研究主要有两方面:1)VMI系统是否有助于零售商和供应商组成的供应链在差异产品市场上获得更大的收益;2)供应商和零售商如何决策是否应用VMI系统。     

基于产品生命周期的闭环供应链定价和协调策略研究

研究产品生命周期条件下一个制造商、一个零售商组成的闭环供应链的定价和协调策略:制造商第一周期只生产新品,从第二周期开始生产再制造品,并负责回收。建立了两周期、多周期和无限周期下的分散决策模型和多周期下的集中决策模型,得到最优定价和生产策略。结果表明:两周期中,制造商和零售商应根据不同的成本节约额制定不同的批发价、零售价和生产量。多周期中,当成本节约额比较小时,除第一和最后一个周期外,制造商和零售商应采取相同的定价和生产策略;当成本节约额比较大时,除第一和最后两个周期外,制造商和零售商应采取相同的定价和生产策略。无限周期中,除第一周期以外,制造商和零售商都应该采取相同的定价和生产策略。在有限周期情况下,制造商和零售商应通过在前期制定比较低的批发价和零售价,以提高生产量和销售量,使得后期的回收量增大,达到降低成本的目的。通过引入收益共享契约制定合适的批发价和销售收入及再制造收益共享比率可以协调整个闭环供应链。算例验证了上述结论。     

基于战略顾客行为的最优定价与容量选择模型

研究了当市场中同时存在战略顾客和短视顾客时零售商的最优定价与容量选择问题。零售商在正常销售阶段和出清销售阶段制定不同的销售价格,同时通过容量选择影响战略顾客的购买行为,而战略顾客则根据零售商的定价和容量选择确定最优购买时机。分别分析了零售商在无限容量时的定价决策、固定价格时的容量选择、固定容量时的定价决策以及有限容量下的定价与容量选择四种情形。研究结果表明,零售商在无容量限制时的最优定价决策是制定两阶段定价策略,在固定价格时的最优容量选择依赖于模型的参数,而当零售商的容量固定时,部分满足出清销售阶段的顾客需求始终优于完全满足出清销售阶段的顾客需求。     

基于学习效应的供应链信息共享研究

供应链中存在着广泛的信息共享,既包括上下游企业间的纵向性共享,也包括同层企业间的横向信息共享.以一个具有学习效应的供应链为研究对象,为研究信息共享对分散型供应链中零售商决策的影响,提出了一个具有横向信息共享的供应链模型.以Cournot博弈为研究手段,求解了零售商的均衡订货决策和信息共享策略.在此模型中,生产商为多个零售商提供类似的产品,每个零售商具有自己独立的终端市场.零售商面对单周期需求,该需求可以在本周期内满足或者在第二阶段延迟交货.由于学习效应的存在,第二阶段生产商的批发价格是第一阶段总订货量的减函数.零售商在观察到自身的需求之前,达成信息共享的协议.研究结果表明,当第一阶段的均衡订货数量低于需求时,零售商间无共享私有信息的动机,该结果和寡头模型信息共享的相关结果相反.除此之外,在一个总体需求稳定的市场中,信息共享的影响随着零售商数量的增加而递减.此结果对企业在不同市场情况下选择信息共享策略具有重要价值.     

Two substitutable perishable product disaster inventory systems

A disaster inventory system is considered in which two substitutable items are stored for disaster management. In the event of disaster management, a particular product may become stock-out and the situation warrants that a demand for the particular product during its stock-out period may be substituted with another available similar product in the inventory. From the utility point of view, continuous review inventory models are quite appropriate in disaster inventory management. In this paper, a continuous review two substitutable perishable product disaster inventory model is proposed and analyzed. Since the inventory is maintained for disaster management, an adjustable joint reordering policy for replenishment is adopted. There is no lead time and the replenishment is instantaneous. For this model, some measures of system performance are obtained. The stationary behavior of the model is also considered. Numerical examples are also provided to illustrate the results obtained.     

Two-period dynamic versus fixed-ratio pricing in a capacity constrained duopoly

This paper analyzes the impact of dynamic and fixed-ratio pricing policies on firm profits and equilibrium prices under competition. Firms that have equal inventories of perfectly substitutable and perishable products compete for customer segments that demand the product at different times. In each period, customers first purchase from the low price firm and then from the high price firm up to their inventories, provided the prices are lower than the maximum they are willing to pay. The main conclusions of this paper are as follows: although dynamic pricing is a more sophisticated policy than fixed-ratio pricing, it may lead to decreased equilibrium profits; under both pricing policies, one firm assumes the role of a low-cost high-output firm while the other assumes the role of a high-cost low-output firm; and, the supply demand ratio has more impact on the outcome of the competition than the heterogeneity in consumer reservation prices.     

A simulation of the impacts of dynamic price management for perishable foods on retailer performance in the presence of need-driven purchasing consumers

Numerous studies have investigated dynamic pricing for perishable products. The models have been designed to determine an optimal pricing structure and improve retailer performance. Previous studies on pricing models for perishable products have considered various assumptions of consumer demand and purchasing behaviour from deterministic and stochastic price-dependent demands to myopic and strategic consumer purchasing behaviour. They have not, however, considered consumer demand in reaction to a situation where the display stock of a particular product has different qualities (such as shelf-life) and prices available at the same time. This is particularly applicable in the analysis of dynamic pricing models for perishable foods. In this paper, we investigate the impact of frequency of discount during a product’s selling period on retailer performance, by considering changes in consumer purchasing behaviour in response to the display stock of a particular food product having different remaining shelf-life and prices. On the basis of a literature review and data obtained from interviews with food retailers, a simulation study is performed to compare the performance of different pricing policies. The results demonstrate the benefits gained by adopting more dynamic price policies.     

Joint pricing and procurement of substitutable products with random demands – A technical note

Single-period joint pricing and procurement of substitutable products entails one time procurement and pricing decisions for substitutable products that face price dependent stochastic demands. Recently, Karakul and Chan [Karakul, M., Chan, L., 2008. Analytical and managerial implications of integrating product substitutability in the joint pricing and procurement problem. European Journal of Operational Research 190, 179–204] considered this problem for two one-way substitutable products. Authors model the demands for each product in the well known additive form, where the mean demands are linear functions of the price of the high grade new product plus an additive stochastic noise term. By assuming that the noise term for the low grade existing product follows a general discrete distribution and the noise term for the high grade product follows a general continuous distribution, authors are able to show the unimodality of the expected profit function with respect to the procurement quantities and the price of the new product. In this paper, we extend this result to the case where the noise term in the demand of the low grade product follows a general continuous distribution as well.     

Pricing decisions for substitutable products with a common retailer in fuzzy environments

The pricing problem of substitutable products in a fuzzy supply chain is analyzed by using game theory in this paper. There are two substitutable products produced by two competitive manufacturers respectively and then sold by one common retailer to the consumers. Both the manufacturing cost and the customer demand for each product are characterized as fuzzy variables. How the two manufacturers and the common retailer make their own pricing decisions about wholesale prices and retail prices are explored under four different scenarios, and the corresponding expected value models are developed in this paper. Finally, a numerical example is given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed supply chain models.     

Inventory and coordination issues with two substitutable products

This study considers a two level supply chain in a newsboy setting with two substitutable products. Demands for the two products are assumed independent as long as both are available. If, however, a product stocks out, some of its demand is transferred to the available one with a known probability which ultimately creates a dependence on the amount of purchased items. The retailer is allowed to return some or all of the unsold products to the manufacturer with some credit. The expected chain profit, the retailer’s and the manufacturer’s profit expressions are derived under general conditions. Special cases are inspected to investigate the conditions under which channel coordination is achieved. It is demonstrated that channel coordination can not be achieved if unlimited returns are allowed with full credit, a result that agrees with the findings of Pasternak [B.A. Pasternack, Optimal pricing and return policies for perishable commodities, Market. Sci. 4 (1985) 166–176] for the single item case. For the cases of unlimited returns with partial credit, the conditions for coordination are derived for one way full substitutions. For exponential demand explicit expressions for the channel and retailer’s expected profit functions are provided.     

The implications of costs, capacity, and competition on product line selection

We consider a situation in which a manufacturer has to select the product(s) to sell as well as the selling price and production quantity of each selected product. There are two substitutable products in the consideration set, where product 2 has a higher quality and reservation price than that of product 1. By considering the cannibalization effect that depends on the selling price of each product, the manufacturer needs to evaluate the profit function associated with three different product line options: sell both products or only one of the 2 products. In order to examine the impact of costs, capacity, and competition on the optimal product line selection, optimal price, and optimal production quantity analytically, we present a stylized model in this paper so that we can determine the conditions under which a particular option is optimal.     

Inventory decisions for a finite horizon problem with product substitution options and time varying demand

The inventory control of substitutable products has been recognized as a problem worthy of study in the operations management literature. Product substitution provides flexibility in supply chain management and enhances response time in production control. This paper proposes a finite horizon inventory control problem for two substitutable products, which are ordered jointly in each replenishment epoch. Demand for the products are assumed to be time–varying. In case of a stock–out for one of the products, its demand is satisfied by using the stock of the other product. The optimal ordering schedule, for both products, that minimizes the total cost over a finite planning horizon is derived. Numerical examples along with sensitivity analyses are also presented.     

Got organic milk? Joint inventory model with supply uncertainties and partial substitution

We study the joint inventory problem for two partially substitutable (organic and regular) products with different levels of supply reliability. Increasing substitution rate results in a decreased organic order but an increased regular order, as the regular product becomes an effective substitute during the organic product's stock-out. Higher disruption risk increases the order size of both products, but higher yield uncertainty only increases the organic order size whereas the regular order size decreases or remains unchanged.     

A Model of the Perishable Inventory System With Reference to Consumer-Realized Product Expiration

A new model of the perishable inventory system is presented, which recognizes and incorporates the effects of consumer-realized product expiration. Such expiration has not been explicitly treated within the perishable inventory literature, and occurs when units are expired at the time of sale or expire within some short period of time subsequent to purchase. The model treats the age at which the vendor outdates units as a decision variable, and allows for analysis of the interaction between inventory ordering and outdate policy for a perishable item with random lifetime. As such, the model represents a synthesis of the fixed versus random lifetime perishable inventory literatures. Sensitivity analysis conducted with respect to the new model provides insight into the trade-offs between the costs of carrying, shortage, outdating, and consumer-realized product expiration.