Assortment and inventory decisions with multiple quality levels

We consider the assortment and inventory decisions of a retailer under a locational consumer choice model where products can be differentiated both horizontally (e.g., color of a product) and vertically (e.g., quality of a product). The assortment and quantity decisions affect customer choice and, hence, the demand and sales for each product. In this paper, we investigate two different environments where product availability and assortment affect consumer choice and demand in different ways: make-to-order (MTO) and make-to-stock (MTS). In the MTO environment, customers order and purchase their most preferred product; that is, stockouts do not occur. In the MTS model, customers buy their most preferred product if it is in stock or do not buy if it is out of stock. In both environments we find conditions under which it is optimal to carry assortments of only a single quality level. In the MTS case, we show that an assortment of mixed quality levels can be optimal only within a narrow range of parameters.     

基于在线评论的新产品定向市场播种最优策略研究

定向市场播种,即选择特定的消费群体对其免费发放新产品,由此获得的在线评论对其他潜在消费者的购买决策有较大的影响作用,但还没有 相关研究。以在线销售的新产品为研究对象,基于Hoteling模型,加入在线评论对消费者预期值的影响作用来构建企业最优收益模型,研究垄断厂商最优的定向播种策略。研究结果揭示了(1)最优播种目标与消费者对产品的初始预期值相关:预期值较高时,可不播种;预期值处于中等水平,可选择均匀播种;预期值较低时,应选择高匹配用户播种;(2)三种播种方式下各自的最优播种比例及其定价策略;(3)当消费者初始预期值与产品不匹配成本发生变化时,三种播种策略下最优的播种比例和定价策略的调整方案。研究结果为探究在线评论对播种策略的影响提供了新的研究方向和理论依据。     

An Itô formula for a family of stochastic integrals and related Wong–Zakai theorems

The aim of this paper is to generalize two important results known for the Stratonovich and Itô integrals to any stochastic integral obtained as limit of Riemann sums with arbitrary evaluating point: the ordinary chain rule for certain nonlinear functions of the Brownian motion and the Wong–Zakai approximation theorem. To this scope we begin by introducing a new family of products for smooth random variables which reduces for specific choices of a parameter to the pointwise and to the Wick products. We show that each product in that family is related in a natural way to a precise choice of the evaluating point in the above mentioned Riemann sums and hence to a certain notion of stochastic integral. Our chain rule relies on a new probabilistic representation for the solution of the heat equation while the Wong–Zakai type theorem follows from a reduction method for quasi-linear SDEs together with a formula of Gjessing’s type.     

质量调整的价格指数编制中hedonic插补法的应用

在数据缺失的情况下,插补法是一种常用的推断缺失数据的方法。在价格指数的编制中,在基期存在的产品可能在报告期从市面上消失,或者报告期出现了新产品。这都可以看作是数据缺失的情形。同时由于前后时期产品质量发生变化,所编制的价格指数中可能包含"质量变化偏差"。Hedonic插补法将hedonic方法与缺失数据的插补方法结合起来,既处理了缺失数据,又克服了价格指数中的质量变化偏差。本文讨论了hedonic插补法的多种可能形式,并比较了各种方法的特点。本文还利用中国笔记本电脑的数据编制了hedonic插补价格指数,进行了相关的实证分析。     

价格与质量双重竞争下电商平台渠道模式决策研究

近年来传统电商正加速从经销商转变为连接消费者与供应商的在线市场中间商,电商平台与供应商形成三种渠道结构：经销商模式、混合模式和在线市场模式。本文通过构建Stackelberg博弈模型讨论产品质量与价格双重竞争情境下电商平台与供应商销售合作模式最新选择问题。研究表明,当价格竞争强度适中而佣金比例较大时,混合模式是电商平台最优选择,此时产品质量差异最大;当价格竞争强度较小而佣金比例较大时,在线市场模式则是最优选择;在其他条件下,经销商模式是其最优选择。本文结论对电商平台与供应商合作模式选择、产品质量与定价决策具有参考价值。     

Lost demand in a competitive environment

In most analyses performed on consumer behaviour in a competitive environment, it is assumed that discretionary buying power devoted to a certain product category exists in a trade area. The goal is to estimate how this buying power is distributed among competing retail facilities in the area. In this paper, we assume that in many competitive situations not all the buying power is spent at the competing facilities because there are other facilities that offer substitute products. These substitute products are not as desirable as the product in question, but customers will purchase the less desirable substitutes if they are more conveniently available. We construct a model that considers a decline in demand as a function of the distance to competing facilities. If the competing facilities are close to the customers, a larger portion of the buying power will be spent at these facilities. Two objectives are considered. One is the maximization of the buying power spent at all competing facilities, and the second is the maximization of the buying power captured by one's chain of retail facilities. Solution methods for the location of one facility are proposed and computational experiments with these methods are reported.     

基于在线评论的多个竞争制造商和零售商的产品定价策略

在线评论作为一种产品信息传播载体,越来越受到网上电商及消费者的重视,并在很大程度上影响消费者的购买决策。本文在多个竞争性制造商为在线零售商提供可替代性产品并通过零售商销售给网络消费者的电子商务环境下,研究在线评论信息如何影响网络消费者购买决策及在线零售商和制造商的定价策略。以neo-Hoteling模型为基础,构建了依赖零售渠道在线评论的消费者选择模型,并通过模型求解定量分析了二级供应链结构分散系统下在线评论对多个竞争性制造商及零售商最优决策的影响。得到当制造商基于评论制定最优定价策略时,在线评论对市场竞争强度没有影响,但决定潜在市场大小;各产品的均衡批发价及销售价按一定的比例随评论揭示的该产品与其他产品质量均值之差(正或负)增加或减少,评论信息通常会使制造商因好评而获利,由于评论增加了不同产品需求的不对称性,零售商因而具有更大的调价空间,往往通过提高(降低)占据有利(不利)评论的产品价格获得更高的利润。     

A heuristic approach for multiple item and location ordering problem with quantity discount and capacity constraint

This paper addresses a geographically distributed vending machine inventory control problem where the multiple product choices in every vending machine and the varied demand for each product in every location's vending machine exist. The ordering quantity for each product and the desirable number of each product type in a vending machine must be simultaneously decided to maximize the total expected profit. Considering that the ordering costs are in piece-wise function and only one type of product is allocated in a slot of a vending machine, the proposed problem correlates to the piece-wise constrained nonlinear integer-programming problem. There is difficulty in deriving the exact optimal solutions to this problem since its computational complexity appears to be a nondeterministic polynomial problem. This paper presents a novel heuristic approach in finding (1) the ordering quantity for each product, (2) the product types, and (3) the corresponding quantity allocated in each vending machine. The numerical results show the effectiveness of the proposed methodology in solving the aforementioned problem. In this paper, the solutions found by this study's approach are as well as those found by the brute-force method, and if not equivalent, perform better than those by the Lingo software.     

Signaling advertising by multiproduct firms

We consider the use of advertising expenses as quality signals in multiproduct firms, extending previous results on single product firms. In our model, a firm introduces sequentially two products whose qualities are positively correlated. We investigate whether there exist information spillovers from the first to the second market. We show that, when correlation is high, the equilibrium in market 2 depends on the quality reputation the firm has gained in market 1. Moreover, if a firm with a high-quality product 1 wants to separate from its low-quality counterpart, it needs to advertise more in this market than if the qualities of the two products are unrelated. This advertising level signals not only high quality in the first market, but also the likely quality of the second product. Thus, advertising in the first market has information spillovers in the second market.     

Individual and group stability in neutral restrictions of hedonic games

We consider a class of coalition formation games called hedonic games, i.e., games in which the utility of a player is completely determined by the coalition that the player belongs to. We first define the class of subset-additive hedonic games and show that they have the same representation power as the class of hedonic games. We then define a restriction of subset-additive hedonic games that we call subset-neutral hedonic games and generalize a result by Bogomolnaia and Jackson (2002) by showing the existence of a Nash stable partition and an individually stable partition in such games. We also consider neutrally anonymous hedonic games and show that they form a subclass of the subset-additive hedonic games. Finally, we show the existence of a core stable partition that is also individually stable in neutrally anonymous hedonic games by exhibiting an algorithm to compute such a partition.     

Observable graphs

An edge-colored directed graph is observable if an agent that moves along its edges from node to node is able to determine his position in the graph after a sufficiently long observation of the edge colors, and without accessing any information about the traversed nodes. When the agent is able to determine his position only from time to time, the graph is said to be partly observable. Observability in graphs is desirable in situations where autonomous agents are moving on a network and they want to localize themselves with limited information. In this paper, we completely characterize observable and partly observable graphs and show how these concepts relate to other concepts in the literature. Based on these characterizations, we provide polynomial time algorithms to decide observability, to decide partial observability, and to compute the minimal number of observations necessary for finding the position of an agent. In particular we prove that in the worst case this minimal number of observations increases quadratically with the number of nodes in the graph. We then consider the more difficult question of assigning colors to a graph so as to make it observable and we prove that two different versions of this problem are NP-complete.     

An experimental study of the effect of uncertainty representation on decision making

This paper presents the results of an experiment investigating the effects of using different formats for representing uncertain attribute evaluations on decision making. Study participants make a series of hypothetical choices using six uncertainty formats - probability distributions, expected values, standard deviations, three-point (minimum-median-maximum) approximations, quantiles, and scenarios - and effects on decision making are tracked in terms of the quality of the final choice, the specific characteristics of the selected alternatives, and the difficulty experienced in making a decision. The results provide insights into how subjects make single- and multi-criteria choices in the presence of uncertainty (and some format for representing uncertainty) but in the absence of any real facilitation. The use of probability distributions appeared to overload subjects with information, leading to poorer and more difficult choices than if some intermediate level of summary was used - in particular three-point approximations or quantiles.     

The optimal sequential information acquisition structure: A rational utility-maximizing perspective

We consider a rational utility maximizer decision maker (DM) who must gather two pieces of information from a set of multidimensional products before making a choice. We analyze the resulting sequential information acquisition process where the DM tries to find the best possible product subject to his information acquisition constraint. In addition, we introduce publicly observable signals that allow the DM to update his expected utility functions following a standard Bayesian learning rule. Even though it seems intuitively plausible to assume that the transmission of positive and credible information may lead DMs to accept any product signaled more eagerly, this paper illustrates how transmitting credible positive information is not sufficient to decrease the rejection probability faced by the information sender on its set of products. A significant difference in product rejection probabilities arises depending on the characteristic on which signals are issued, as will be illustrated numerically for both risk-neutral and risk-averse DMs.     

退款保证对竞争供应链的影响:基于顾客退货行为视角

为研究退款保证对竞争供应链的影响,从顾客退货行为视角构建消费者效用函数,建立竞争制造商与在线零售商之间的博弈模型,分析退款保证对供应链均衡的影响。研究发现:高质量产品的批发价格和零售价格总是更高,但高质量产品制造商可能并不能获得更多利润;退款保证会影响消费者的产品购买选择,对低质量产品需求有利。然而,从利润最大化的角度,在线零售商只有在退货损失足够低时,才会有动机提供退款保证,而退款保证对制造商利润的影响取决于退货产品残值。     

Analysis of the effectiveness of manufacturer-sponsored retailer gift cards in supply chains

Some manufacturers sponsor “free” retailer gift cards to be given to consumers who purchase their products. These gift cards are paid for by the manufacturer and are redeemable on all products at the retailer. We develop a model of such a supply chain. We analyze cases in which the gift cards’ redemption rate is constant or increasing in gift card value. The results indicate that in addition to the redemption rate and consumers’ valuation for gift card dollars, the profitability of manufacturer-sponsored gift cards depends on the average gross margin of the retailer and the type of purchases consumers make with gift cards. Furthermore, we show that under certain conditions, free gift cards will increase the expected profits of the retailer and manufacturer as well as decrease the retail price of the product. These conditions include a retailer with large average gross margin and consumers using gift cards to purchase products they would not buy with cash otherwise. Furthermore, all consumers, including those who do not redeem the gift card, are more likely to benefit from a reduced retail price when their probability of redeeming the gift card after purchase is equal to their estimated redemption probability at purchase time. We show the conditions under which gift cards are more profitable than cash mail-in rebates. We develop an incentive scheme to improve the performance of supply chains with gift cards.     

Skew-product extensions of Markov operators and products of dependent random variables

In this paper we generalize the notion of skew products as known in ergodic theory to skew product extensions of Markov operators. We prove that Markov operators are of such a type iff they have relative discrete spectrum (in a slightly generalized sense) thus generalizing a theorem of Parry. In addition we show that skew product extensions of Markov operators play an important role in the theory of products of dependent random variables and we develop this interdependence between the two theories thus generalizing results of Koutsky, Schmetterer and Wolff.     

Lookahead scorecards for new fixed term credit products

Standard approaches to scorecard construction require that a body of data has already been collected for which the customers have known good/bad outcomes, so that scorecards can be built using this information. This requirement is not satisfied by new financial products. To overcome this lack, we describe a class of models based on using information about the length of time customers have been using the product, as well as any available information which does exist about true good/bad outcome classes. These models not only predict the probability that a new customer will go bad at some time during the product's term, but also evolve as new information becomes available. Particular choices of functional form in such models can lead to scorecards with very simple structures. The models are illustrated on a data set relating to loans.     

Tractability through increasing smoothness

We prove that some multivariate linear tensor product problems are tractable in the worst case setting if they are defined as tensor products of univariate problems with logarithmically increasing smoothness. This is demonstrated for the approximation problem defined over Korobov spaces and for the approximation problem of certain diagonal operators. For these two problems we show necessary and sufficient conditions on the smoothness parameters of the univariate problems to obtain strong polynomial tractability. We prove that polynomial tractability is equivalent to strong polynomial tractability, and that weak tractability always holds for these problems. Under a mild assumption, the Korobov space consists of periodic functions. Periodicity is crucial since the approximation problem defined over Sobolev spaces of non-periodic functions with a special choice of the norm is not polynomially tractable for all smoothness parameters no matter how fast they go to infinity. Furthermore, depending on the choice of the norm we can even lose weak tractability.     

Toric fiber products versus Segre products

The toric fiber product is an operation that combines two ideals that are homogeneous with respect to a grading by an affine monoid. The Segre product is a related construction that combines two multigraded rings. The quotient ring by a toric fiber product of two ideals is a subring of the Segre product, but in general this inclusion is strict. We contrast the two constructions and show that any Segre product can be presented as a toric fiber product without changing the involved quotient rings. This allows to apply previous results about toric fiber products to the study of Segre products. We give criteria for the Segre product of two affine toric varieties to be dense in their toric fiber product, and for the map from the Segre product to the toric fiber product to be finite. We give an example that shows that the quotient ring of a toric fiber product of normal ideals need not be normal. In rings with Veronese type gradings, we find examples of toric fiber products that are always Segre products, and we show that iterated toric fiber products of Veronese ideals over Veronese rings are normal.     

Recall in extensive form games

This paper considers characterizations of perfect recall in extensive form games. It is shown that perfect recall can be expressed in terms of choices without any reference to infomation sets. When information sets are taken into account, it is decomposable into an ordering of information sets and that players do not forget what they knew nor what they did. Thus, if information sets are partially ordered, then perfect recall is implied by the player's inability to refine her information from the memory. Received: August 1997/final version: September 1998