Analytical and managerial implications of integrating product substitutability in the joint pricing and procurement problem

This paper studies the analytical and managerial implications of product substitutability on the joint pricing and procurement decisions. We consider a single-period model with two products: an existing product and an improved new product that can substitute the demand for the existing product in case of a shortage. Demand for each product follows a general distribution with an expected value that is a linear function of the price of the new product. While the price of the existing product is determined by the market, it is necessary to determine the new product’s price and the procurement quantities of both products so as to maximize the profits. We analytically show that the expected profit function is unimodal and in the existence of substitution: the expected total profit is higher; the optimal price and the safety stock of the new product are higher; and the optimal safety stock of the existing product is less. Using these properties an efficient algorithm is developed. We also provide a numerical analysis to demonstrate that considering substitution in advance could increase the profitability by 58% and the new product price by 5% while decreasing the total procurement quantity by 15%.     

Optimal pricing in a diffusion model with concave price-dependent market potential

Using optimal control theory, a diffusion model of new product acceptance is studied. We consider a profit-maximizing firm faced with the problem of determining its optimal pricing policy under the assumption that the total market potential is a concave decreasing function of price. For an infinite planning horizon it is shown by phase portrait analysis that the optimal price is steadily increasing and converging to a saddle point equilibrium.     

Optimal Pricing of a Product Diffusing in Rich and Poor Populations

We consider a market consisting of two populations, termed rich and poor for convenience. If a product is priced such that it is very expensive for the poor, but affordable to the rich, then it becomes a status symbol for the poor and this makes it more desirable for the poor. At a lower price, the product is affordable by both populations. However, as more of the poor buy the product, it ceases to be a status symbol and becomes less appealing to the rich. We present a two-state nonlinear optimal control problem that aims to obtain profit-maximizing prices over time in this environment. We find that there are three categories of optimal price paths. One is status-symbol pricing with high initial price, declining over time. The other two are mass-market pricing, with price declining in one, and price increasing and then decreasing in the other.     

Dual role of price and myopia in a marketing channel

In this paper we study a dynamic two-player channel where the manufacturer controls the wholesale price and the investment in quality and the retailer chooses the retail price. We consider that the retail price affects both the demand and the perceived quality of the brand and that its variations contribute to the building of an internal reference price. One of the model’s distinctive features is that it accounts for the two meanings of price, i.e., its classical objective measure of the cost of acquiring a particular quantity of the product, and its subjective roles as an assessment of the quality of the product and an evaluation of gains or losses (deal vs. sacrifice) resulting from buying a “cheap” or an “expensive” product. This dual computation is done with respect to the internal reference price.     

Optimal pricing and inventory policies: Centralized and decentralized decision making

The paper studies an optimal control problem of pricing and inventory replenishment in a system with serial inventories. Consumer demand for a specific product at a retail outlet depends on price as well as the in-store stock of the product. The hypothesis is that for certain consumer products, a large volume of displayed goods leads consumers to buy more than if the stock is small. In addition to the stock that is on display in the store, there is an inventory of the product in a central warehouse. First we consider a setup in which management of the two stocks is decentralized such that pricing decisions are made by the store manager who also decides on the level of in-store inventory. The warehouse manager makes the replenishment decisions concerning the stock in the warehouse. Next we study the problem where stock management and pricing decisions are centralized. Optimal trajectories for inventories, replenishment rates, and retail price are derived by using phase diagrams and a formal synthesizing procedure.     

基于微分对策的第三方回收再制造闭环供应链回收策略研究

动态环境下,研究了第三方回收的再制造闭环供应链最优控制策略。建立产品回收率为状态变量的微分方程,分别构建了集中式决策和第三方回收下的闭环供应链模型,利用最优控制和微分对策理论求解并得到供应链各方的最优控制策略。对最优策略进行分析发现:(1)系统的产品回收率随时间的推移而增加;(2)产品的零售价格和批发价格随时间减小,最优回收努力投入随时间增加;(3)相对于集中式决策,第三方回收下闭环供应链系统的产品回收率较低,产品市场价格较高,而市场需求较小。     

Profit maximization from the sales of products which have limited lifetimes in a fixed price market

The optimization of profit resulting from the sales of products which have limited lifetimes is discussed. The factors considered in the analysis are selling price, cost price, disposal price and loss of goodwill. Demand which is considered to be stochastic is represented by an exponential distribution function. It is found that the factors most influential in the determination of expected profit are the cost price to produce the product and the administrative cost involved in the disposal of the product after its useful lifetime has been exceeded.     

An optimal pricing policy under a Markov chain model

This paper is about an optimal pricing control under a Markov chain model. The objective is to dynamically adjust the product price over time to maximize a discounted reward function. It is shown that the optimal control policy is of threshold type. Closed-form solutions are obtained. A numerical example is also provided to illustrate our results.

     

Pricing and lot-sizing for a deteriorating item in a periodic review inventory system with shortages

We consider a single product that is, subject to continuous decay, a multivariate demand function of price and time, shortages allowed and completely backlogged in a periodic review inventory system in which the selling price is allowed to adjust upward or downward periodically. The objective of this paper is to determine the periodic selling price and lot-size over multiperiod planning horizon so that the total discount profit is maximized. The proposed model can be used as an add-in optimizer like an advanced planning system in an enterprise resource planning system that coordinates distinct functions within a firm. Particular attention is placed on investigating the effect of periodic pricing jointly with shortages on the total discount profit. The problem is formulated as a bivariate optimization model solved by dynamic programming techniques coupled with an iterative search process. An intensive numerical study shows that the periodic pricing is superior to the fixed pricing in profit maximization. It also clarifies that shortages strategy can be an effective cost control mechanism for managing deterioration inventory.     

Dual mechanism for an online retailer

While posted price and auction have typically been seen as alternatives to each other, we observe Web stores selling a product at a posted price and simultaneously running auctions for the identical product, a phenomenon that has not been studied fully. In this article, we study a dual mechanism, where an online retailer combines the two conventional mechanisms (posted price and auction) for multiple units of a product. We demonstrate that the dual mechanism can be used to achieve market segmentation when customers discount the expected utility of auctions. We characterize the customer’s decision rule and formulate a retailer’s profit function under the dual mechanism. Finally, we compare the performance of three selling mechanisms (posted price, auction, and dual) through computational experiments.     

政府补贴政策下考虑风险规避的绿色供应链定价决策研究

在政府推行补贴政策背景下,通过建立博弈模型研究了政府补贴、制造商和零售商的风险规避对绿色供应链定价策略、产品绿色度、供应链各方利润及整体利润的影响。研究表明:制造商或零售商单方面的风险规避对对方来说都是有利的,但不同的是,仅制造商风险规避时,产品绿色度、批发价格、零售价格及其自身利润都将下降,供应链整体利润则既存在上升也存在下降的情况,当仅零售商风险规避时,产品绿色度、供应链整体利润都将上升,批发价格、零售价格及其自身利润则既存在上升也存在下降的情况;政府增加补贴会在一定程度上加重制造商的风险规避对其自身利润及产品绿色度的损害作用,却会在一定程度上减弱零售商的风险规避对其自身利润的损害作用,并增强零售商的风险规避对产品绿色度的提升作用。     

Two-stage pricing for custom-made products

A commonly observed two-stage pricing strategy for a custom-made product involves a pre-purchase entry fee for a potential consumer and a purchase price if he decides to buy the product. We solve and compare two settings: In the first, the firm does not commit in advance to the second-stage price and in the second, the firm does. We show that without a commitment mechanism, the two price points are strategic complements, in that the higher pre-product fee implies a higher post-product price. With commitment, the two price points are strategic substitutes and the firm can improve profit over the no-commitment case by offering a low purchase price in the second stage and extracting the surplus through an entry fee. When the production cost is low, the commitment solution benefits both the firm and the consumer.     

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.     

Inventory control by different service levels

This paper examines the multiple period inventory control problem of a single product with multiple (two) prices, depending on service level, in which optimal pricing and ordering decisions are made in each period. Traditional inventory and pricing models consider only single products, single prices, and single service levels. However, this research paper finds that a seller can improve inventory control and revenue by offering multiple prices depending on service level. This research considers a single product with multiple (two) pricing policies corresponding to service level as follows: if the customer is willing to delay the shipment, he/she will be offered a lower regular price. Otherwise, the customer will pay the regular price plus extra charges for express service. In this paper, I show the following: (1) there is an optimal pricing and replenishment policy that can control inventory and (2) there exists a finite threshold for inventory levels such that if the inventory level at the beginning of each period is higher than the threshold, the customer will be offered the express service at the regular price, without any extra charge.     

A multi-objective mathematical optimization model for process targeting using 100% inspection policy

The selection of the optimal process target is an important problem in production planning and quality control. Such process targeting problems are usually modeled in the literature using a single objective optimization model. In this paper multi-objective optimization is introduced in the process targeting area. The quality characteristic under consideration is normally distributed with unknown mean and known standard deviation, and has two market specification limits. 100% inspection is used as the mean of product quality control. Product satisfies the first specification limit is sold in a primary market at a regular price and products fails the first specification limit and satisfies the second one is sold in a secondary market at a reduced price. The product is reworked if it does not satisfy both specification limits. The developed multi-objective optimization model consists of three objective functions, which are to maximize profit, income and product uniformity using Taguchi quadratic function as a surrogate for product uniformity. An algorithm is proposed to obtain and rank the set of Pareto optimal points. The utility of the model has been demonstrated using a numerical example from the literature with some additional data the new model requires. Sensitivity analysis was conducted and showed that the results of the model are sensitive to changes in process variance. In addition the optimal objectives of the profit function and product uniformity are more sensitive to changes in model parameters than the income function.     

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.     

On the uniqueness of Bertrand equilibrium

We introduce product differentiation in the model of price competition with strictly convex costs in which firms have to supply all of the forthcoming demand. We find that although a continuum of equilibria exists in a homogeneous product market, the competitive price equilibrium is the only robust one. Specifically, as long as the equilibrium correspondence is nonempty, the equilibrium price converges to the competitive price when the degree of product differentiation shrinks to zero.     

关于投入产出模型应用研究的一点注记

本文对[1]中价值型投入产出模型在更一般的情况下,给出了由于一个或若干个部门的产品价格和固定资产折旧的变动,对其他各部门的产品价格和收入可能产生的影响的计算公式。     

Consignment contracting: Who should control inventory in the supply chain?

Consignment is a popular form of business arrangement where supplier retains ownership of the inventory and gets paid from the retailer based on actual units sold. The popularity of such an arrangement has come with some continued debates on who should control the supply chain inventory, the supplier or retailer. This paper aims at shedding light on these debated issues. We consider a single period supply chain model where a supplier contracts with a retailer. Market demand for the product is price-sensitive and uncertain. The supplier decides his consignment price charged to the retailer for each unit sold, and the retailer then chooses her retail price for selling the product. We study and compare two different consignment arrangements: The first allows the retailer to choose the supply chain inventory, together with her retail price, and is labeled as a Retailer Managed Consignment Inventory (RMCI) program; and the second calls for the supplier to decide the inventory, together with his consignment price, and is labeled as a Vendor Managed Consignment Inventory (VMCI) program. We show that with an RMCI program, the supply chain loses at least 26.4% of its first-best (expected) profit, while with VMCI, it loses just or no more than 26.4% of the first-best profit. Second, we demonstrate that both programs lead to an equal split of the corresponding channel profit between the supplier and the retailer. These results indicate that it is beneficial both to the supplier and to the retailer when delegating the inventory decision to the supplier rather than to the retailer in the channel.     

基于网络顾客行为意向的物流服务供应链定价策略

就一个运营网络购物的供应链,分析物流服务需求方和服务提供方的定价和服务水平决策等问题。在成本共担优化模型中考虑基于顾客购买行为意向的产品需求函数,进而分别给出非合作、准合作和完全合作模式下供应链企业决策间的关系,以及网购顾客重购概率对最优定价策略的影响。结论有:证明三种合作模式下双方最优策略的存在性及存在条件;给出最优产品定价策略和服务定价策略间的数量关系,并证明其与网购顾客行为意向有关。数值分析表明,最优定价策略随服务水平和网购顾客重购概率的变化趋势受成本共担系数的影响;较小的成本分摊系数使最优产品定价随着服务水平和网购顾客重购概率的变化幅度增大。