Supply Contract Design for Competing Heterogeneous Suppliers under Asymmetric Information

This study considers a supply chain with two heterogeneous suppliers and a common retailer whose type is either low‐volume or high‐volume. The retailer's type is unknown to the suppliers. The flexible supplier has a high variable cost and a low fixed cost, while the efficient supplier has a low variable cost and a high fixed cost. Each supplier offers the retailer a menu of contracts. The retailer chooses the contract that maximizes its expected profit. For this setting, we characterize the equilibrium contract menus offered by the suppliers to the retailer. We find that the equilibrium contract menus depend on which supplier–retailer match can generate the highest supply chain profit and on how much information rent the supplier may need to pay. An important feature of the equilibrium contract menus is that the contract assigned to the more profitable retailer will coordinate the supply chain, while the contract assigned to the less profitable retailer may not. In addition, in some circumstances, the flexible supplier may choose not to serve the high‐volume retailer, in order to avoid excessive information rent.     

An investigation into E-business service in the UK telecommunication manufacturing industry

Nowadays, suppliers’ product and service quality has risen in importance with a manufacturer’s push to develop core competencies and capitalise on global operations and markets. However, due to the complex features of business service, suppliers are facing significant challenges in providing service effectively and developing business collaboration. This is further complicated by the development of information and communication technologies (ICTs). This paper thus attempts to investigate the factors influencing buyers’ e-service (EBS) requirements and the impact of these requirements on business collaboration. Based on a questionnaire survey with 500 UK telecommunication manufacturers, this research identifies buyers’ different EBS requirements for different types of suppliers and the impact of ICTs on EBS requirements. While for suppliers our findings provide insights into buyers’ EBS requirements, they can help buyers to develop appropriate supplier selection criteria. The findings also contribute to a better understanding of the development of buyer and supplier business collaboration.     

The Impact of Contracts and Competition on Upstream Innovation in a Supply Chain

We consider a supply chain with an upstream supplier who invests in innovation and a downstream manufacturer who sells to consumers. We study the impact of supply chain contracts with endogenous upstream innovation, focusing on three different contract scenarios: (i) a wholesale price contract, (ii) a quality‐dependent wholesale price contract, and (iii) a revenue‐sharing contract. We confirm that the revenue‐sharing contract can coordinate supply chain decisions including the innovation investment, whereas the other two contracts may result in underinvestment in innovation. However, the downstream manufacturer does not always prefer the revenue‐sharing contract; the manufacturer's profit can be higher with a quality‐dependent wholesale price contract than with a revenue‐sharing contract, specifically when the upstream supplier's innovation cost is low. We then extend our model to incorporate upstream competition between suppliers. By inviting upstream competition, with the wholesale price contract, the manufacturer can increase his profit substantially. Furthermore, under upstream competition, the revenue‐sharing contract coordinates the supply chain, and results in an optimal contract form for the manufacturer when suppliers are symmetric. We also analyze the case of complementary components suppliers, and show that most of our results are robust.     

Supplier integration and firm performance: the moderating effects of internal integration and trust

This study proposes and empirically tests a model of the moderating effects of internal integration and trust on the impacts of information, process and strategic integration with suppliers on firm performance using structural equation modelling and data collected from 261 manufacturing firms in Vietnam. The results show that all three types of supplier integration positively associate with firm performance. Internal integration enhances the impact of process integration with suppliers on firm performance, but does not moderate the impacts of information and strategic integration with suppliers. Internal trust has insignificant, positive and negative influences on the effects of information, process and strategic integration with suppliers on firm performance. The findings show that internal integration and trust play different roles in moderating the positive effects of information, process and strategic integration with suppliers on firm performance, which elucidates a possible reason for previous mixed findings on the relationship between supplier integration and firm performance.     

Complexity as a Contract Design Factor: A Human‐to‐Human Experimental Study

Despite being theoretically suboptimal, simpler contracts (such as price‐only contracts and quantity discount contracts with limited number of price blocks) are commonly preferred in practice. Thus, exploring the tension between theory and practice regarding complexity and performance in contract design is especially relevant. Using human subject experiments, Kalkancı et al. (2011) showed that such simpler contracts perform effectively for a supplier interacting with a computerized buyer under asymmetric demand information. We use a similar set of experiments with the modification that a human supplier interacts with a human buyer. We show that human interactions strengthen the supplier's preference for simpler contracts. We find that suppliers have fairness concerns even when they interact with computerized buyers. These fairness concerns tend to be even stronger when suppliers interact with human buyers, particularly when the complexity of the contract is low. We also find that suppliers are more prone to random decision errors (i.e., bounded rationality) when interacting with human buyers. In the absence of social preferences, Kalkancı et al. identified reinforcement and bounded rationality as key biases that impact suppliers' decisions. In human‐to‐human experiments, we find evidence for social preference effects. However, these effects may be secondary to bounded rationality.     

Procurement with Reverse Auction and Flexible Noncompetitive Contracts

This article investigates a hybrid procurement mechanism that combines a reverse auction with flexible noncompetitive contracts. A buyer adopts such mechanism to procure multiple units of a product from a group of potential suppliers. Specifically, the buyer first offers contracts to some suppliers who, if accepting the contract, do not participate in the auction while committing to selling a unit to the buyer at the price of the subsequent auction. For the suppliers rejecting the offers, they can join the subsequent auction with the other suppliers to compete on the remaining units. When the buyer offers only one flexible noncompetitive contract, we find that the selected supplier may accept the offer regardless of whether he knows his exact cost information. Meanwhile, the buyer can benefit from offering such a contract, as opposed to solely conducting a regular reverse auction or offering a noncompetitive contract that does not allow suppliers declining offers to join the subsequent auction. Moreover, we find that the suppliers' information about their own costs has a significant impact on the buyer's decision. When the buyer makes multiple offers, we analyze the resulting game behavior of the selected suppliers and demonstrate that the buyer can benefit more than just offering one such contract. Therefore, the hybrid procurement mechanism can be mutually beneficial for both the buyer and the selected suppliers.     

Designing Service Level Contracts for Supply Chain Coordination

Supply contracts are used to coordinate the activities of the supply chain partners. In many industries, service level‐based supply contracts are commonly used. Under such a contract, a company agrees to achieve a certain service level and to pay a financial penalty if it misses it. The service level used in our study refers to the fraction of a manufacturer's demand filled by the supplier. We analyze two types of service level‐based supply contracts that are designed by a manufacturer and offered to a supplier. The first type of contract is a flat penalty contract, under which the supplier pays a fixed penalty to the manufacturer in each period in which the contract service level is not achieved. The second type of contract is a unit penalty contract, under which a penalty is due for each unit delivered fewer than specified by the parameters of the contract. We show how the supplier responds to the contracts and how the contract parameters can be chosen, such that the supply chain is coordinated. We also derive structural results about optimal values of the contract parameters, provide numerical results, and connect our service level measures to traditional service level measures. The results of our analyses can be used by decision makers to design optimal service level contracts and to provide them with a solid foundation for contract negotiations.     

不同权力结构下供应链企业社会责任激励

本文以单个供应商和单个零售商组成的两级供应链为对象，假设仅考虑供应商对产品安全方面的社会责任，研究了在供应商主导和零售商主导两种权力配置模式下，供应商履行社会责任程度的差异，以及如何在供应商和零售商间建立合理的契约以激励供应商社会责任的履行。研究发现，相对供应商主导，在零售商主导下供应商会更多地履行社会责任。引入收入共享的事后契约和成本共担的事前契约后，在供应商主导下，两种契约在一定条件下均能有效地激励供应商更好地履行社会责任，但在留存比例与分担比例相等的条件下，成本共担契约的激励效应更强。在零售商主导下，收入共享契约虽能激励供应商的社会责任履行，但因导致零售商的利润下降，故无法达成，而成本共担契约只有在分担足够大时才有激励效应。     

逆向选择下供应链业务外包中的最优合约配置

研究了委托人(业务购买方)对于承包人(业务供应方)生产成本具有非对称信息时的最优合约设计问题.基于委托人视角,给出了委托人如何诱导代理人报告自己真实成本信息的逆向选择模型,并刻画了最优合约的特征.结果表明:给出的合约能够达到诱导代理人讲真话的目的;在信息非对称条件下,委托人由于信息缺乏受到了损失,而低成本类型的代理人获得了额外的信息租金;在非对称信息条件下,最优合约的参数配置受到委托人事前信念的影响.     

E-business services and business performance: a study of the telecommunications manufacturing industry

The development of information and communication technologies has significantly changed the business interactions as well as created new approaches for improving business performances. While the benefits from this development have been well documented in the literature, it also poses a significant challenge for companies in tracking or further improving e-business services. This article contributes to this body of knowledge by investigating the impact of e-business service dimensions on business performance in the telecommunications manufacturing industry. Based on 121 usable responses from a questionnaire survey of the UK telecommunication manufacturers, structural equation modelling is employed to identify the main e-business service dimensions which affect business performance significantly. The data analysis reveals that two e-business service dimensions significantly influence suppliers’ performance from the buyer's perspective. It also indicates the significant relationships between suppliers’ performance, buyer-perceived buyer–supplier relationship maintenance and the buyer's competitive advantage. The findings in this research not only help the supplier to understand which practices significantly improve its overall performance (as perceived by the buyer), but also assist the buyer in its supplier development efforts to improve its own business performance.     

供应商保鲜努力的生鲜农产品双渠道供应链协调决策研究

在互联网迅猛发展的时代,生鲜农产品双渠道营销模式是供应商的最佳选择,如何发挥双渠道优势,实现渠道共赢是目前研究的热点。以供应商主导的双渠道供应链为研究对象,考虑新鲜度衰减且扰动需求和供应商保鲜努力,对比分析集中和分散决策模型,论证构建协调模型的必要性。从渠道合作和利润最大化的角度出发,设计两部定价契约、批发价协调契约和由成本分担与补偿策略构成的混合协调契约,三种契约均能在一定范围内有效实现供应链协调,提高各成员的利润。最后,对比分析所设计协调契约以认识其本质,并通过数值分析验证其有效性。     

Stable and Coordinating Contracts for a Supply Chain with Multiple Risk‐Averse Suppliers

We analyze a decentralized supply chain with a single risk‐averse retailer and multiple risk‐averse suppliers under a Conditional Value at Risk objective. We define coordinating contracts and show that the supply chain is coordinated only when the least risk‐averse agent bears the entire risk and the lowest‐cost supplier handles all production. However, due to competition, not all coordinating contracts are stable. Thus, we introduce the notion of contract core, which reflects the agents' “bargaining power” and restricts the set of coordinating contracts to a subset which is “credible.” We also study the concept of contract equilibrium, which helps to characterize contracts that are immune to opportunistic renegotiation. We show that, the concept of contract core imposes conditions on the share of profit among different agents, while the concept of contract equilibrium provide conditions on how the payment changes with the order quantity.     

Towards contract based coordination of distributed product development processes with complete substitution

In distributed product development processes system integrators collaborate with suppliers to provide marketable products. We analyze contract structures in their ability to coordinate such processes. A converging supply chain with two suppliers and one system integrator is considered. Each supplier develops one component and faces uncertainty with regard to development results. For the system integrator the specifications of both components are substitutive in terms of the specification of the final product (e.g., recycling quotas). Depending on the resulting specification of the final product, the system integrator generates revenues under a maximum price clause. We apply a game-theoretic framework: the system integrator is the Stackelberg leader and the suppliers are Stackelberg followers. Assuming uniformly distributed development results, we analyze two typical development contracts: a wholesale price contract and a penalty contract. We present numerical illustrations of centralized and decentralized solutions to gain qualitative insights about the optimal decisions and the coordination ability of the two contracts. Accordingly, both contracts coordinate the supply chain only under forced compliance.     

Push or Pull? Auctioning Supply Contracts

Consider a buyer, facing uncertain demand, who sources from multiple suppliers via online procurement auctions (open descending price‐only auctions). The suppliers have heterogeneous production costs, which are private information, and the winning supplier has to invest in production capacity before the demand uncertainty is resolved. The buyer chooses to offer a push or pull contract, for which the single price and winning supplier are determined via the auction. We show that, with a pull contract, the buyer does not necessarily benefit from a larger number of suppliers participating in the auction, due to the negative effect of supplier competition on the incentive of supplier capacity investment. We thus propose an enhanced pull mechanism that mitigates this effect with a floor price. We then analyze and compare the outcomes of auctions for push and (enhanced) pull contracts, establishing when one form is preferred over the other based on the buyer's profits. We also compare our simple, price‐only push and pull contract auctions to the optimal mechanisms, benchmarking the performance of the simple mechanisms as well as establishing the relative importance of auction design and contract design in procurement auctions.     

需求信息扭曲条件下供应链成员运营决策研究

本文在供应商和零售商需求信息不对称的背景下，考虑了由一个供应商和两个具有不平等地位零售商组成的供应链，运用信号博弈理论和完美贝叶斯纳什均衡理论，研究批发价格合同下，供应链中存在的信息泄露和信息扭曲对供应链成员运营决策的影响。在批发价格合同下，供应商总会泄露市场地位高的零售商订单信息，两个零售商存在斯塔克伯格竞争。本文进一步研究分析，得到存在信息泄露的两种均衡策略——分离均衡和混同均衡，给出零售商在不同市场需求条件下的订购决策。本文还指出在一定条件下，供应商可能在信息泄露过程中扭曲信息，误导市场地位低的零售商做出错误决策，供应商和市场地位高的零售商获得更大利润。当供应商扭曲信息时，尽管市场地位低的零售商利润降低，但其仍将继续留在市场中，零售商之间仍然保持水平竞争。最后，通过算例分析，对研究结论进行直观验证和说明。本文研究了供应链存在的信息泄露和信息扭曲问题，为现实中供应链各个主体行为提供理论依据。     

Supplier Selection for Framework Agreements in Humanitarian Relief

In this study, we consider the supplier selection problem of a relief organization that wants to establish framework agreements (FAs) with a number of suppliers to ensure quick and cost‐effective procurement of relief supplies in responding to sudden‐onset disasters. Motivated by the FAs in relief practice, we focus on a quantity flexibility contract in which the relief organization commits to purchase a minimum total quantity from each framework supplier over a fixed agreement horizon, and, in return, the suppliers reserve capacity for the organization and promise to deliver items according to pre‐specified agreement terms. Due to the uncertainties in demand locations and amounts, it may be challenging for relief organizations to assess candidate suppliers and the offered agreement terms. We use a scenario‐based approach to represent demand uncertainty and develop a stochastic programming model that selects framework suppliers to minimize expected procurement and agreement costs while meeting service requirements. We perform numerical experiments to understand the implications of agreement terms in different settings. The results show that supplier selection decisions and costs are generally more sensitive to the changes in agreement terms in settings with high‐impact disasters. Finally, we illustrate the applicability of our model on a case study.     

基于RFID技术的双供应链投资决策研究

本文考虑零售商主导的分别由一个供应商和一个零售商组成的两条竞争型供应链中,当两个供应商都未投资RFID技术、只有一个供应商投资RFID技术以及两个供应商同时投资RFID技术时,考虑供应商成本结构的差异,对比分析供应链的投资决策。由于模型解析解过于复杂,本文通过算例分析,着重考虑产品的替代率、RFID标签价格以及库存可获得率三个因素对供应链成员利润的影响。结果表明两条供应链对RFID技术的投资决策会因成本结构和产品替代率的不同而发生变化,其中在两个供应商生产成本差异较大且产品竞争强度较低时,生产成本较高的供应商更愿意投资RFID技术,而生产成本较低的供应商不愿意投资RFID技术,两个零售商则希望使用RFID技术,所以此时仅会有一条供应链上的成员达成一致,决定投资使用RFID技术。     

VMI供应链下考虑补货策略的的契约设计

结合(r,Q)和(s,S)两种库存补货策略,提出了货权属供应商的VMI供应链的契约设计问题。采用风险分担的思想,给出了两种可行的风险分担的契约形式。在离散需求下,通过参数试验的形式,分别研究了两种契约形式对供应链效率的影响。研究结果表明,两种契约能够使得供应链的效率达到满意,同时对于影响效率的参数有一定的鲁棒性,并且在一定情况下能协调供应链。相比收益分享契约,引入风险分享的契约形式能够使得供应链协作的效率更高。研究结论对VMI契约设计有参考意义。     

Stackelberg竞争下考虑消费者转移和平台差异的供应商运营策略

考虑消费者转移和平台差异对需求的影响,构建不同渠道结构和销售契约下的决策模型;基于水平和垂直Stackelberg博弈,获得8种情形下的最优决策。探究佣金率、平台差异和消费者转移率对均衡结果的影响,获得最优的销售契约和渠道配置策略。研究表明:代理模式可以降低产品的销售价格,提升销量;垄断市场中,平台更愿意采取转售模式,而供应商更偏好代理模式;竞争环境下,优势平台一定条件下总是更偏好转售模式,而竞争平台销售模式偏好随着佣金率逐渐变化;供应商的渠道选择与消费者转移量有关,当转移量较高时,供应商偏向双渠道结构,反之亦然。     

基于随机产出与随机需求的农产品供应链风险共担合同

本文采用单位价格补贴的风险共担机制,分析了农产品供应链中随机产出和随机需求下供应商-制造商采取不同的风险共担合同对农资投入、供应商、制造商以及整个供应链的利润的影响。文中的风险共担合同包括风险无共担合同、需求风险共担合同、产出风险共担合同、产出-需求风险共担合同,结合算例,结论得出:需求风险分担可以使供应链利润增加;产出风险分担可以增加供应商的利润收益,而赋予制造商控制供应商农资投入积极性的权利;产出-需求共担合同既能增加供应链及各成员的利润收益,同时还使得双方相互制约、相互协调,促使供应链良好发展。最后,结合非线性补贴的风险分担形式对上述合同的有效性进行了验证,研究表明,不同的补贴形式只在量上对决策存在影响,而本质上的结论并没有变化。