Context matters: The impact of product type,emotional attachment and information overload on choice quality

We show that contextual variables in a Multiple Criteria Decision Making task influence choice quality. Based on an experiment we investigate the effects of product type, emotional attachment, and the amount and structure of information provided. We measured choice quality with nondominance, which is a desirable property of good choices. Regarding the product type effect, we distinguish between hedonic products that primarily are desirable due to affect, and utilitarian products, which are desirable because they are useful. When subjects with high emotional attachment make choices with hedonic products, they make fewer dominated choices than with utilitarian products. Further, we show that information overload is a relevant phenomenon in MCDM experiments. However, what matters is the quality of information, not just the quantity. When we add information that does not change the dominance relations between products, choice quality is not degraded.     

Heterogeneity and increasing returns may drive socio-economic transitions

There are clear benefits associated with a particular consumer choice for many current markets. For example, as we consider here, some products might carry environmental or ‘green’ benefits. Some consumers might value these benefits while others do not. However, as evidenced by myriad failed attempts of environmental products to maintain even a niche market, such benefits do not necessarily outweigh the extra purchasing cost. The question we pose is, how can such an initially economically-disadvantaged green product evolve to hold the greater share of the market? We present a simple mathematical model for the dynamics of product competition in a heterogeneous consumer population. Our model preassigns a hierarchy to the products, which designates the consumer choice when prices are comparable, while prices are dynamically rescaled to reflect increasing returns to scale. Our approach allows us to model many scenarios of technology substitution and provides a method for generalizing market forces. With this model, we begin to forecast irreversible trends associated with consumer dynamics as well as policies that could be made to influence transitions.     

基于Logit离散选择模型的品类优化问题综述

品类优化问题(Assortment Optimization Problem)是收益管理的经典问题.它研究零售商在满足运营约束的前提下,应如何从给定产品集合中选择一个子集提供给消费者,以最大化预期收益.该问题的核心在于如何准确地刻画消费者在面对细分产品时的选择行为、建立相应的优化模型并设计高效率的求解算法.基于Logit离散选择模型的品类优化问题:首先,介绍了基于Multinomial Logit模型的品类优化问题.然后介绍了两个更复杂的变种:第一个是基于两层以及多层Nested Logit模型的品类优化问题,这类问题可合理刻画细分产品之间的"替代效应";第二个是基于Mixtures of Multinomial Logits模型的品类优化问题,这类问题可充分考虑消费者群体的异质性.随后,介绍了数据驱动的品类优化问题的相关进展.最后,指出该问题未来可能的若干研究方向.     

Reverse channel decisions for a fuzzy closed-loop supply chain

This article reports the results of a study that explores the decisions of reverse channel choice in a fuzzy closed-loop supply chain. Specifically, a manufacturer produces new products by using original components or by remanufacturing used products and wholesales the new products to the retailer who then sells them to the consumers. The used products are collected by the manufacturer or the retailer or a third party. The primary goal of this paper is to investigate the implications of three different used-product collection modes on the decisions of the manufacturer, the retailer, and the third party, and on their own profits in the expected value model. By using game theory and fuzzy theory, the firms optimal strategies are obtained.     

In–Out Algorithm for assortment planning under a ranking-based consumer choice model

We consider a retailer’s assortment planning problem under a ranking-based consumer choice model. The retailer incurs a fixed carrying cost per product offered, a substitution penalty cost for each customer who does not purchase his first choice, and a penalty cost on lost sales. We develop an effective In–Out Algorithm to identify the optimal solution. The extensive numerical study shows that the algorithm performs well, and is more than 10,000 times faster than enumeration on problems with 20 products.     

Improved bid prices for choice-based network revenue management

One of the latest developments in network revenue management (RM) is the incorporation of customer purchase behavior via discrete choice models. Many authors presented control policies for the booking process that are expressed in terms of which combination of products to offer at a given point in time and given resource inventories. However, in many implemented RM systems—most notably in the hotel industry—bid price control is being used, and this entails the problem that the recommended combination of products as identified by these policies might not be representable through bid price control. If demand were independent from available product alternatives, an optimal choice of bid prices is to use the marginal value of capacity for each resource in the network. But under dependent demand, this is not necessarily the case. In fact, it seems that these bid prices are typically not restrictive enough and result in buy-down effects.We propose (1) a simple and fast heuristic that iteratively improves on an initial guess for the bid price vector; this first guess could be, for example, dynamic estimates of the marginal value of capacity. Moreover, (2) we demonstrate that using these dynamic marginal capacity values directly as bid prices can lead to significant revenue loss as compared to using our heuristic to improve them. Finally, (3) we investigate numerically how much revenue performance is lost due to the confinement to product combinations that can be represented by a bid price.The heuristic is not restricted to a particular choice model and can be combined with any method that provides us with estimates of the marginal values of capacity. In our numerical experiments, we test the heuristic on some popular networks examples taken from peer literature. We use a multinomial logit choice model which allows customers from different segments to have products in common that they consider to purchase. In most problem instances, our heuristic policy results in significant revenue gains over some currently available alternatives at low computational cost.     

Products of compact spaces and the axiom of choice II

This is a continuation of [2]. We study the Tychonoff Compactness Theorem for various definitions of compactness and for various types of spaces (first and second countable spaces, Hausdorff spaces, and subspaces of ?^K). We also study well ordered Tychonoff products and the effect that the multiple choice axiom has on such products.     

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。     

Technology choice and timing with positive network effects

When two competing and incompatible products coexist in a market, potential users face a choice between the two products and the alternative of deferring the decision. This paper examines the choice between the two substitutes, where each one is subject to a positive network effect. That is, a user of one of the products experiences an increase in the value for each additional person using the same product. We examine this buy or wait problem, either for an individual or a manager making the investment on behalf of a firm, by formulating and analyzing a decision-theoretic model. To model the stochastic evolution of market share, we build on the generalized Polya urn of Arthur et al. [Arthur, W.B., Ermoliev, Y.M., Kaniovski, Y.M., 1987. Path-dependent processes and the emergence of macro-structure. European Journal Of Operational Research 30 (3), 294–303], allowing for composition of the market to affect not just the relative market shares but also the absolute growth rate of the market. We show that the optimal strategy is defined by a pair of market penetration thresholds that depend on the market composition. Looking at the effect of the network effects on the optimal strategy, we find that more pronounced network effects can either raise or lower the penetration thresholds.     

一类客户预订商品的最优契约设计模型

在假设厂商不会违约的前提下,建立了预订商品最优契约设计模型,讨论了定金优化选择问题.模型指出最优的定金ω-恰是厂商所售产品的利润,而主合同中规定客户购买该产品续交的资金ω恰为产品的成本c.最后指出,厂商向客户提供预订服务能够增加交易的总剩余,提高市场交易的福利.     

MACBETHSort: a multiple criteria decision aid procedure for sorting strategic products

Efficient companies need to know which their strategic products are. For this purpose, the ABC classification based on the item’s value was developed and was used for a long time. Later, it was recognised that several other criteria need to be considered and multi-criteria ranking methods were applied. However, the classes have always been defined based only on a relative proportion. Therefore, the number of products in a class is independent of the actual importance of the products. In this paper, a new sorting procedure MACBETHSort is introduced, which is an evolution of the choice, ranking and rating technique MACBETH. The procedure has been validated in a real case study for assigning access and entrance solutions in ABC classes.     

Assortment planning in fashion retailing: methodology,application and analysis

Assortment planning is the process conducted by the retailer to determine the number and types of products in a line. Key questions that arise in this process include choosing the inventory depth and variety breadth, and the mix between basic and fashion merchandise of the assortment to maximize expected profits. We describe a method for resolving these questions. Using demand forecasts derived from historical sales patterns, we use a nonlinear integer programming model to make the assortment choice. Efficient heuristics are developed to solve this problem. We applied our method at a large catalog retailer specializing in women’s apparel. We compared our method to the existing rules used by this retailer and found that it could choose the assortment in a manner that reduces markdowns due to excessive inventory and lost margins due to stockouts by enough to increase profits by at least 40%. Insights are developed to better understand why products are included in an assortment and the implications of this choice on the realized profit. We extend our model to include shelf space constraints and the effect of assortment choice on product demand.     

最优投影策略下解病态积分方程的快速迭代算法

基于最优的投影方法,构造了求解病态积分方程的截断快速Tikhonov迭代算法,与传统投影方法相比得到了相同的最优收敛率,但内积的计算个数少于传统投影方法.同时,给出了后验参数选择办法.算例证实了算法的有效性.     

Selecting optimal selling format of a product in B2C online auctions with boundedly rational customers

The advancement of Internet technology has enabled new formats for selling products in the B2C online auctions. At present, on the major online auction sites, there exist three popular selling formats, namely, the posted price, pure auction and buy-price auction formats. It is an important decision problem for a firm to select the most profitable format to sell its products through the Internet. The customer behavior is of course a crucial element of the decision process. To the best of our knowledge, most models available today assume that customers are perfectly rational. To better understand the decision process, in this paper, we incorporate the concept of bounded rationality into consideration. We first present a “behavior choice function” to characterize the behavior of the customers with bounded rationality. Then corresponding to each selling format, we construct a revenue model based on the bounded rationality for analysis. Finally, we conduct some elaborate computational experiments to investigate the performance of each revenue model for developing new managerial insights. Our computational results clearly demonstrate how the bounded rationality of customer behavior affects the choice of a preferable selling format for a B2C firm in an online auction.     

Capacity decisions for high-tech products with obsolescence

Modern high-tech products experience rapid obsolescence. Capacity investments must be recouped during the brief product lifecycle, during which prices fall continuously. We employ a multiplicative demand model that incorporates price declines due to both market heterogeneity and product obsolescence, and study a monopolistic firm’s capacity decision. We investigate profit concavity, and characterize the structure of the optimal capacity solution. Moreover, for products with negligible variable costs, we identify two distinct strategies for capacity choice demarcated by an obsolescence rate threshold that relates both to market factors and capacity costs. Finally, we empirically test the demand model by analyzing shipping and pricing data from the PC microprocessor market.     

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.     

考虑废旧品质量的闭环供应链混合回收渠道选择研究

为确定最优的回收渠道,对由单个制造商、零售商和第三方组成的闭环供应链系统进行研究。在该系统中,可能存在制造商和零售商、制造商和第三方、零售商和第三方以及制造商、零售商和第三方同时回收的四种渠道,并根据质量差异对废旧品进行翻新或再制造。在分散决策下建立了四种回收渠道模型。比较发现:站在制造商和系统收益最大化及社会效益角度,三渠道是最佳选择,此时得到的废旧品最多;制造商不进行回收时获利最低,且不利于提高废旧品的获取量。最后,通过算例剖析了废旧品再制造率对四种混合回收渠道下成员及系统利润的影响。结果表明:制造商应尽量将废旧品用于再制造。     

考虑不同融资金额需求的授权再制造融资策略研究

考虑授权再制造企业融资金额无法满足资金短缺需求的情况,构建资金约束下再制造企业的决策模型,研究初始资金及融资策略对再制造企业生产决策的影响。研究表明:资金约束下初始资金成为影响再制造企业生产决策的关键,同时授权费的增加会增大资金压力,限制其利润的增长;不论融资金额是否能满足资金短缺需求,再制造企业融资策略的选择都受初始资金限制,当其融资偏好为风险厌恶型时,可选择混合融资策略;在一定条件下再制造企业选择股权融资可提升再制造产品的社会效益。     

Integrated sales and operations planning with multiple products: Jointly optimizing the number and timing of promotions and production decisions

This paper presents a modelling framework for sales and operations planning (S&OP) that considers the integration of price promotion and production planning for multiple products. Such a modelling framework takes into account the potential competition and cannibalization between products, as well as the allocation of shared production resources. The demand model that we adopt combines purchase incidence, consumer choice and purchase quantity in a sequential framework to obtain the dynamics and heterogeneity of consumer response to promotions. Due to large problem sizes, we develop a heuristic approach for solving the resulting joint optimization problem. The results of our numerical study show interesting findings on the optimal number and timing of promotions that take into account the mutual dependence of marketing and production related factors.