一种电子商务环境下耐用品的动态定价模型与策略

针对电子商务环境下消费者对价格歧视的抗拒问题,以及耐用品生命周期长、产品需求依赖于时间、价格等特点,提出了一种动态定价模型与策略。该模型通过构造转移概率矩阵,推导出在线消费者浏览到耐用品的不同价格状态下的概率,接着根据消费者多阶段效用函数分析消费者的购买决策行为,进而给出零售商利润达到最大化时的最优定价策略集合。为了验证模型与策略的有效性,通过数值模拟实验,分析模型主要参数变化对最优定价策略的影响。研究发现当效用折扣因子越高,零售商应该降低促销频率和高价格并且提高低价格,从而诱导高端消费者在高价格购买产品。折扣效用因子大小还决定了网上零售商是否要隐藏自己的促销概率。     

Time-dependent and independent control rules for coordinated production and pricing under demand uncertainty and finite planning horizons

We address the effect of uncertainty on a manufacturer’s dynamic production and pricing decisions over a finite planning horizon. The demand for products, which depends on their price, is characterized by two stochastic processes: potential demand and customer price sensitivity. An optimal policy for coordinating production and pricing is a time-dependent feedback rule with respect to the state of the manufacturer’s inventories. We show that when the volatility of customer sensitivity to the product price is negligible, the optimal policy can be obtained analytically. Moreover, our simulations demonstrate that the volatility of stochastic customer price sensitivity does not have a strong effect on the manufacturer’s expected profit. Therefore, the solution derived for the case of customer price sensitivity with zero volatility can serve as a good approximation heuristic for the optimal policy if the true volatility of customer price sensitivity is within 40 % of its mean and the volatility of potential demand is within 25 % of its mean. Moreover, under these conditions, a simplified, time-independent control rule deteriorates expected profits by only 1.5 %.     

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.     

免费更换策略下耐用品垄断厂商的定价研究

耐用品厂商向消费者提供一定时间期限的免费更换服务已成为一种市场销售策略.免费更换服务期限和所需的更换成本又影响着耐用品的销售价格和销售量.针对耐用品厂商提供免费更换服务的情况,通过建立动态决策模型利用最优控制理论研究垄断厂商有关耐用品最优定价和免费更换服务期限等问题.研究得到:免费更换服务期越长,耐用品最优销售价格越高,而耐用品最优销售量越低;在以最优价格销售耐用品时,免费更换服务期和更换成本均与产品耐用度成正比例关系.     

二手市场对耐用品垄断厂商再制造决策的影响分析

考虑耐用品可多周期使用的特点,从消费者效用角度建立了无限周期中存在二手市场时耐用品垄断厂商再制造决策模型。运用稳态均衡分析方法得到,二手市场会降低耐用品垄断厂商选择再制造策略的成本临界值;提高再制造耐用品的最优定价、降低新耐用品的最优定价;新耐用品价值越高、再制造成本越低,二手市场对耐用品垄断厂商的最优决策影响越大。最后,通过数值分析验证了理论分析的结论。     

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.     

Two-phase pricing and inventory management for deteriorating and fashion goods under trade credit

This study models a finite horizon inventory problem for deteriorating and fashion goods under trade credit and partial backlogging conditions. Demand may vary with price or time. The supplier can extend credit to the retailer. As a result, the retailer does not have to pay for goods immediately upon acquiring them, and can instead earn interest on the retail price of the goods between the time they are sold and the end of the credit period. The proposed model considers two-phase pricing and inventory decisions. In other words, it determines both the optimal prices and the lengths of the in-stock and stock-out period. This paper is the first to consider different price decisions for in-stock and stock-out periods under trade credit. We develop an algorithm to determine the optimal pricing and replenishment strategy while still maximizing the total profit. Further, this study shows that the proposed two-phase pricing strategy is superior to a one-phase pricing strategy in terms of profit maximization. Computational analysis illustrates the solution procedures and the impacts of the related parameters on decisions and profits. The results of this study can serve as references for business managers or administrators.     

顾客参与研发过程的价值共创机理与策略研究

顾客参与企业研发是产品价值创造的最初始过程,不仅提高产品接受度、满足顾客需求,而且为企业增加收入,但同时也产生相应成本。文章探究顾客参与研发的系统中,顾客、企业和产品的价值共创行为以及企业决策如何影响三者价值;立足多目标视角,充分考虑企业与顾客的收益、成本,采用系统动力学方法建立顾客参与研发过程的动态价值共创模型,全面探究系统内部共创机理。在模型基础上,重点就企业产品价格、交互次数以及激励资金比例等策略进行仿真,使企业、顾客及产品实现价值共创。结论如下:(1)随着顾客、企业交互次数的增多,顾客参与研发过程同样具备一般产品生命周期导入期、成长期、成熟期以及衰退期的特点。(2)系统存在最优交互次数;且最优交互次数随着研发投入比例减少而增加。(3)在不考虑参与顾客获取激励资金的情况下,企业针对不同顾客群(参与研发顾客与普通购买顾客)进行定价,在最优交互次数状态下,统一定价模式优于差别定价模式,将为企业带来更大的收益。     

产品服务能力与定价联合优化策略机制研究——基于动态性和非线性视角

为了快速响应客户需求的动态变化和提高产品服务能力的管理效率,运用状态相关需求率函数和成本收益率函数,建立用以解决产品服务需求动态性和非线性难题的排队优化模型。通过考虑产品服务化过程中客户需求变化特征,从服务能力和价格两个维度将客户划分为实惠型、经济型、专业型和品质型四个不同类别。依据客户产品服务需求动态演变阶段,针对服务能力与价格的内在关联性,运用排队优化模型分别构建了成本领先策略、服务能力领先策略、价格领先策略和产品服务能力定价联合策略。最后,借助南阳泵业企业运营实例,验证了产品服务能力定价联合策略的优越性,并给出产品服务能力定价联合策略演化路径及其实施对策。     

Dynamic Slotting and Pricing Decisions in a Durable Product Supply Chain

We consider a supply chain in which a manufacturer sells an innovative durable product to an independent retailer over its life cycle. We assume that the product demand follows a Bass-type diffusion process and that it is determined by the market influences, retail price of the product, and shelf space allocated to it. We consider the following retailer profit optimization strategies: (i) the myopic strategy of maximizing the current-period profit and (ii) the far-sighted strategy of maximizing the life-cycle profit. We characterize the optimal dynamic shelf-space allocation and retail pricing policies for the retailer and wholesale pricing policies for the manufacturer. We compute also these policies numerically. Surprisingly, we find that the manufacturer, and sometimes even the retailer, is better off with a myopic retailer strategy in some cases.     

Periodic pricing and replenishment policy for continuously decaying inventory with multivariate demand

This paper deals with the joint decisions on pricing and replenishment schedule for a periodic review inventory system in which a replenishment order may be placed at the beginning of some or all of the periods. We consider a single product which is subject to continuous decay and a demand which is a function of price and time, without backlogging over a finite planning horizon. The proposed scheme may adjust periodically the selling price upward or downward that makes the pricing policy more responsive to structure changes in supply or demand. The problem is formulated as a dynamic programming model and solved by numerical search techniques. An extensive numerical study is conducted to attend qualitative insights into the structures of the proposed policy and its sensitivity with respect to major parameters. The numerical result shows that the solution generated by the periodic policy outperforms that by the fixed pricing policy in maximizing discount profit.     

Integration of pricing and capacity allocation for perishable products

For years pricing and capacity allocation decisions in most revenue management models have been carried out independently. This article presents a comprehensive model to integrate these two decisions for perishable products. We assume that the supplier sells the same products to different micro-markets at distinct prices. Throughout the sales season, the supplier faces decisions as to which micro-markets or customer classes should be served and at what prices. We show that (i) at any time, a customer class is active (being served) if and only if the price offered is over a threshold level, but the optimal price may not be the highest one of the supplier’s choice; (ii) when the price decision is made in conjunction with inventory, it is similar to the procedure shown in pure pricing models, i.e., the optimal price comes from a subset of prices that forms a maximum increasing concave envelope; (iii) because of dynamic changes in the optimal prices, the nested-price structure does not necessarily hold in general and needs to be redefined; and (iv) the optimal pricing and capacity control policy is based on a sequence of threshold points that incorporate inventory, price and demand intensity. Numerical examples are provided.     

聚类分析在品牌市场定位研究中的应用

利用统计技术对顾客感知质量和感知价格进行市场定位可以解决品牌市场定位中存在的一些问题。文章利用系统和迭代聚类分析对中国耐用消费品进行了市场定位实证研究,利用方差分析和交叉列表分析检验聚类的有效性并获得聚类的特性,利用多重对应分析进一步研究类别特征。结果显示,聚类具有有效性,中国耐用消费品品牌定位呈现十字型。最后文章提出一种市场定位研究的组合统计技术。     

On a Profit Maximizing Location Model

In this paper we discuss a locational model with a profit-maximizing objective. The model can be illustrated by the following situation. There is a set of potential customers in a given region. A firm enters the market and wants to sell a certain product to this set of customers. The location and demand of each potential customer are assumed to be known. In order to maximize its total profit, the firm has to decide: (1) where to locate its distribution warehouse to serve the customers; (2) the price for its product. Due to existence of competition, each customer holds a reservation price for the product. This reservation price is a decreasing function in the distance to the warehouse. If the actual price is higher than the reservation price, then the customer will turn to some other supplier and hence is lost from the firm's market. The problem of the firm is to find the best location for its warehouse and the best price for its product at the same time in order to maximize the total profit. We show that under certain assumptions on the complexity counts, a special case of this problem can be solved in polynomial time.     

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.     

Product line selection and pricing under a share-of-surplus choice model

Product line selection and pricing decisions are critical to the profitability of many firms, particularly in today’s competitive business environment in which providers of goods and services are offering a broad array of products to satisfy customer needs.We address the problem of selecting a set of products to offer and their prices when customers select among the offered products according to a share-of-surplus choice model. A customer’s surplus is defined as the difference between his utility (willingness to pay) and the price of the product. Under the share-of-surplus model, the fraction of a customer segment that selects a product is defined as the ratio of the segment’s surplus from this particular product to the segment’s total surplus across all offered products with positive surplus for that segment.We develop a heuristic procedure for this non-concave, mixed-integer optimization problem. The procedure utilizes simulated annealing to handle the binary product selection variables, and a steepest-ascent-style procedure that relies on certain structural properties of the objective function to handle the non-concave, continuous portion of the problem involving the prices. We also develop a variant of our procedure to handle uncertainty in customer utilities. In computational studies, our basic procedures perform extremely well, producing solutions whose objective values are within about 5% of those obtained via enumerative methods. Our procedure to handle uncertain utilities also performs well, producing solutions with expected profit values that are roughly 10% higher than the corresponding expected profits from solutions obtained under the assumption of deterministic utilities.     

两阶段再制造企业的产品定价研究

二手产品的回收再处理是众多制造商和再制造商不得不面对的问题.企业根据实际情况,考虑到顾客对再制造产品的认知差异,一般都是先翻新产品然后再升级再制造产品,因此,顾客对再制造产品的接受程度影响着再制造企业的定价决策,针对该问题构建了一个两阶段模型,其中第一阶段再制造企业将回收的产品进行简单翻新并投放市场;第二阶段,则会将产品拆卸加工再升级.以两阶段的价格作为决策变量分析再制造企业的最优生产策略.通过仿真得出结论,为再制造企业的生产决策提供一些依据.     

A dynamic pricing approach for returned products in integrated forward/reverse logistics network design

During the last decade, the stringent pressures from environmental and social requirements have spurred an interest in designing a reverse logistics network. In this paper, we address the problem of designing and planning a multi-echelon, multi-period, multi-commodity and capacitated integrated forward/reverse logistics network. Returned products are categorized with respect to their quality levels, and a different acquisition price is offered for each return type. Furthermore, the reservation incentive of customers, the expected price of customers for one unit of used product described by uniform distribution, is applied to model the customers’ return willingness. Due to the fact that the remaining worthwhile value in the used products is the corporation’s key motivation for buying them from customers, a dynamic pricing approach is developed to determine the acquisition price for these products and based on it determine the percentage of returned products collected from customer zones. The used products’ acquisition prices at each time period are determined based on the customers’ return willingness by each collection center.     

Dynamic pricing of airline tickets with competition

Competition has a huge influence on customer buying behaviour and will impact on the optimal price that companies should charge for goods or services. To date, many dynamic pricing models have not modelled competition explicitly. In this paper, we introduce pricing strategies that maximize revenue when selling an inventory of identical items by a fixed time and where there is a competing seller. The model used incorporates a probabilistic formulation of customer demand, which is influenced by the prices offered by the company and the competitor, and the time remaining until the end of the selling period. Calculus of variations is used to solve the problem and simple conditions are given that ensure the uniqueness of a solution. Illustrative examples are included. A practical implementation that uses dynamic updating is proposed and tested using simulated data, showing the effectiveness of the method.