Models to explore remanufacturing as a competitive strategy under duopoly

Remanufacturing is a product recovery option that upgrades the quality of returns to “as-good-as-new” conditions. Remanufactured products cost less, and are sold with the same or better warranty as for new products. In this paper, we consider a duopoly environment with two manufacturers in direct competition selling their respective new products on the primary market. Specifically, we address the question: In case one manufacturer decides to remanufacture and sell remanufactured products on the price-sensitive secondary market, will it get a competitive advantage over the other manufacturer? We develop theoretical models for a single period and two periods, and show that under the stated assumptions, remanufacturing is almost always more profitable than when there is no remanufacturing. Although remanufacturing may cannibalize new product sales, the combined profitability and market share of the (re)manufacturer on account of new and remanufactured product sales improve over new product sales only. For the competitor, we get mixed results. In some situations, its profitability improves; in some others, it worsens. We also conduct sensitivity analyses with respect to the substitution parameters, price-sensitivity of the secondary market, rate of return of used products (cores), relative market shares of the manufacturers, and relative sizes of the primary and secondary markets. We conclude the paper with managerial implications and directions for future research.     

When to Offer Lower Quality or Remanufactured Versions of a Product

We investigate the profitability of adding a lower quality or remanufactured product to the product portfolio of a monopoly firm, both in single‐period and steady‐state settings. Consumer behavior is characterized by a deterministic utility function for the original product and a nonlinear relative utility function for the lower quality product. We find a threshold for the cost of the low‐quality product below which it is optimal to add it to the firm's portfolio, and show that while a cost advantage is necessary to make the lower quality offering profitable under linear or convex relative utility functions, market segmentation alone can justify the addition of the lower quality product under concave relative utility functions. In particular, we characterize (i) the new product cost under which it is optimal to offer a lower quality version of the product even if it is as costly to produce as the original product; and (ii) the weighted average of new and remanufactured product costs in the steady state under which it becomes cost effective to offer new products under the remanufactured label. Finally, we also identify the maximum possible profits from customer segmentation and the form of the relative utility function that achieves them. We discuss the implications for the common marketing practices of branding and generics.     

创始团队关键人力资本、战略地位优势与创业绩效

鉴于创始团队关键人力资本对新创企业发展的重要性及已有研究的不足,在界定相关概念及其结构维度的基础上,遵循资源/能力-地位-绩效理论逻辑,构建基于能力视角的创始团队关键人力资本对新创服务企业战略地位优势和绩效影响的概念模型。以环渤海、长三角、珠三角和海西地区的新创高技术服务企业创始团队成员为调研对象,基于182份有效问卷,运用SPSS 19.0和AMOS 17.0软件及多元层级回归方法分析数据。研究结果表明,创始团队关键人力资本的3个维度均显著提升新创高技术服务企业绩效,但作用机理不同,绩效效应存在差异,服务扩展优势部分中介适应性营销能力和市场链接能力与绩效的关系,服务扩展优势和服务差异化优势同时完全中介新服务开发能力与绩效关系;适应性营销能力和市场链接能力直接和通过服务扩展优势间接产生的综合绩效效应均显著高于新服务开发能力通过服务扩展优势和服务差异化优势间接产生的综合绩效效应;服务扩展优势在服务差异化优势转化为企业绩效的过程中发挥部分中介作用。新创高技术服务企业应合理配置和整合创始团队成员多样化能力,促进关键人力资本与战略地位优势的协同匹配。     

Emergent Marketing Strategies and Performance: The Effects of Market Uncertainty and Strategic Feedback Systems

Although many process‐based studies appear in the strategic management literature, little attention has been devoted to the formation process of marketing strategies. Drawing on enactment and information‐processing theories, this study views the external environment as a source of information (i.e. enacted) and organizations as information‐processing entities. We propose a conceptual framework of antecedents and market performance consequences of emergent marketing strategies and test it with a sample of 214 UK enterprises. The results suggest that dimensions of market uncertainty (i.e. dynamism and complexity) and strategic feedback systems influence the formation of emergent marketing strategy. Furthermore, the data reveal that market uncertainty aspects condition the association between emergent marketing strategies and market performance in different ways. These findings provide new insights into how emergent marketing strategies evolve and influence organizational outcomes.     

基于在线评论数据的产品需求趋势挖掘

随着经济水平的提高和物质生活的丰富，消费者的需求变化也越来越快。能否迎合市场需求的变化是企业产品成功的关键。随着社交媒体的发展，消费者为了分享购物体验发表了许多在线评论信息，其中蕴含着消费者的需求变化。本文在产品特征提取和属性情感分析的基础上，构建了垃圾评论识别模型。然后，利用时间序列分析模型预测下阶段的产品属性关注度和情感计算。最后结合历史数据的变化趋势，分析产品属性的重要性和市场满意情况。利用汽车论坛上的汽车评论数据对本文提出的研究模型进行了验证。研究结果可以为企业制定营销策略以及产品改进与创新提供决策支持。     

Optimal Policies for Perishable Products When Transportation to Export Market Is Disrupted

We consider a problem where a firm produces a variety of fresh products to supply two markets: an export market and a local market. A public transportation service is utilized to deliver the products to the export market, which is cheap, but its schedule is often disrupted severely. Each time this happens, the firm faces the following questions. (i) For a product that has been finished and is waiting for delivery to the export market, should it continue to wait, at an increasing risk of decay, and when should the waiting be terminated and the product be put to the local market? (ii) For a product that has not been finished, should its processing be postponed, so as to reduce the loss from decay after its completion? (iii) What is the best sequence to process the remaining products, according to the information available? We develop, in this study, a model to address these and other related questions. We find optimal policies that minimize the total expected loss in both the make‐to‐order and make‐to‐stock production systems, respectively. For each finished product, we reveal relationships among the desirable waiting time, the price at the local market, and the decaying cost. For unfinished products, we find the optimal start times and processing sequence. Numerical experiments are also conducted to evaluate the optimal policies.     

对市场导向、顾客资产导向与新产品开发绩效之间关系的探索性研究——基于中国背景的调节效应模型

当前,市场导向的收益和顾客资产的重要性已经得到了广泛的认同。然而,一方面有关市场导向的认识尚未达成共识,另一方面有关顾客资产的认识也出现了新的误区,而且尚未有文献对新产品开发绩效的复杂影响进行过系统的实证研究。本文旨在开发测量顾客资产导向的有效量表,并通过区分反应型市场导向和先动型市场导向,运用中国企业的实证数据揭示它们对新产品开发绩效的差异性影响,并检验了顾客资产导向对两种不同市场导向与新品绩效之间关系的调节作用,从而引导学者和企业家对市场导向和顾客资产导向的作用形成更为科学的认识。结果发现,顾客资产导向对新产品开发绩效的直接影响并不显著,但却可以对先动型市场导向与新产品开发绩效之间的关系产生积极的调节作用。     

Market-based Organizational Learning and Market Performance Gains

Building upon the market orientation-performance thesis, many investigators are now concerned with broader organizational learning considerations and the antecedents that underlie the analytical properties of learning about competitors and markets. Described as a process of market-based organizational learning, an empirical test of a model is provided which indicates that: when organizations exhibit more favourable learning values (three value-based constructs), their market information processing behaviours and analytical capabilities improve (three knowledge-based constructs), which thereby directly impacts upon market-based outcomes (a market performance construct) that the organization is able to generate. This model is tested with a path-analytic approach from data generated in the UK financial services industry. Discussion of these findings is made in the light of pertinent literature streams, and several implications for future research are provided.     

To Preannounce or Not: New Product Development in a Competitive Duopoly Market

In this study, we consider the issue of preannouncing or not preannouncing the development of a new product. Our research is motivated by contrasting views in the literature and varying actions observed in practice. We develop and analyze a game theoretic model that examines the effect of a firm's preannouncement of its product development. Our model is based on a durable goods duopoly market with profit‐maximizing firms. The first firm is an innovator who initially begins developing the product; the second firm is an imitator that begins developing a competing product as soon as it becomes aware of the innovator's product. We assume that consumers are rationally expectant and purchase at most one unit of the product when they have maximum positive utility surplus that is determined by the characteristics of the product, the consumer's marginal utility, and the consumer's discounted utility for future expected products. The innovator firm can release information about its product when it begins developing the product or can guard information about its product until it introduces the product into the market. Our analysis and numerical tests show that, under some conditions, the innovator firm can benefit by preannouncing its product and giving the imitator firm additional time to differentiate its product. We discuss these conditions and their implications for new product development efforts.     

Investment in Facility Changeover Flexibility for Early Entry into High‐Tech Markets

A model is introduced to analyze the manufacturing‐marketing interface for a firm in a high‐tech industry that produces a series of high‐volume products with short product life cycles on a single facility. The one‐time strategic decision regarding the firm's investment in changeover flexibility establishes the link between market opportunities and manufacturing capabilities. Specifically, the optimal changeover flexibility decision is determined in the context of the firm's market entry strategy for successive product generations, the changeover cost between generations, and the production efficiency of the facility. Moreover, the dynamic pricing policy for each product generation is obtained as a function of the firm's market entry strategy and manufacturing efficiency. Our findings provide insights linking internal manufacturing capabilities with external market forces for the high‐tech and high‐volume manufacturer of products with short life cycles. We show the impact of manufacturing efficiency and a firm's ability to benefit from volume‐based learning on the dynamic pricing policy for each product generation. The results demonstrate the benefits realized by a firm that works with its manufacturing equipment suppliers to develop more efficient and flexible technology. In addition, we explore how opportunities afforded by pioneer advantage enable a firm operating a less efficient facility to realize long term competitive advantage by deploying an earlier market entry strategy.     

政府市场规制、产品消费选择和企业绿色技术创新

本文通过构建由地方政府、企业和消费者组成的绿色技术创新系统演化博弈模型,分析了不同现实情形下系统的均衡策略演化过程,并借助系统动力学实验方法进一步研究了相关因素对系统均衡的影响。研究发现:(1)在绿色技术创新演化博弈系统所有可能的均衡策略中,只存在三个稳定的均衡策略,即地方政府、企业和消费者的策略分别为(市场规制,不绿色技术创新,购买传统产品)、(市场规制,绿色技术创新,购买传统产品)、(市场规制,绿色技术创新,购买绿色产品)。(2)企业绿色技术创新品牌收益和消费者绿色产品消费的经济收益是影响博弈演化系统最终向不同稳定均衡策略演进的主要因素。(3)在第一种均衡状态下,产品的基础价值、绿色偏好收益、绿色消费意识和产品价格等是影响消费者购买绿色产品的主要因素;在第二种均衡状态下,政策收益、规制成本及产品市场需求量是影响政府采取市场规制策略的主要因素;在第三种均衡状态下,绿色技术创新补贴系数、市场规制强度和企业绿色技术创新品牌收益是影响企业采取绿色技术创新策略的主要因素,且各影响因素对博弈主体策略选择的方向和边际的影响均存在较大差异。上述结论将为进一步完善绿色发展理论提供参考,也为构建市场导向的绿色技术创新体系提供借鉴。     

Organizational Integration for Product Development: The Effects on Glitches,On‐Time Execution of Engineering Change Orders,and Market Success

Deviations from requirements during the product development process can be considered as glitches. Fixing glitches, or problems, during the product development process consumes valuable resources, which may adversely affect product development time and hamper the firm's goal to pursue a first‐mover advantage. It is posited that an integrated organizational response can diminish incidences of glitches and improve the ability of the firm to respond to engineering changes, subsequently leading to improved market success. This organizational response frequently includes heavyweight product development managers who are seen as essential catalysts for internal integration. Though internal integration is vital, it is equally important to integrate with customers and suppliers alike because such network partners can provide access to information, knowledge, and unique and complementary resources that are otherwise unavailable to the firm. Findings, which are based on a sample of 191 product development projects in the automotive industry, suggest that some integration routines have a positive impact on product development outcomes and market success, while other routines can in fact hamper the collective effort.     

信息失称下的创业资本运营分析

信息不对称是创业资本存在和发展于新兴高科技企业融资市场的关键原因。本文把信息不对称和它导致的道德风险问题、逆向选择问题统一于一个模型之中,并且系统分析了创业资本在应对这些问题中所体现的核心能力和竞争优势。文章还简单讨论了信息不对称对创业资本退出方式的影响。     

Strategic Grading in the Product Acquisition Process of a Reverse Supply Chain

Most recommerce providers have moved to a quality‐dependent process for the acquisition of used products. They acquire the products via websites at which product holders submit upfront quality statements and receive quality‐dependent acquisition prices for their used devices. Motivated by this development of reverse logistics practice, the aim of this study is to analyze the product assessment process of a recommerce provider in detail. To this end, we first propose a sequential bargaining model with complete information which captures the individual behavior of the recommerce provider and the product holder. We determine the optimal strategies of the product holder and the recommerce provider in this game. We find that the resulting strategies lead to an efficient allocation, although the recommerce provider can absorb most of the bargaining potential due to his last mover advantage. In a second step, we relax the assumption of complete information and include uncertainty about the product holder's valuation of the product. We show the trade‐off underlying the recommerce provider's optimal counteroffer decision and analyze the optimal strategy, using a logistic regression approach on a real‐life dataset of nearly 6,000 product submissions. The results reveal a significant improvement potential, compared to the currently applied strategy.     

Joint Life‐Cycle Dynamics of New and Remanufactured Products

Many products considered for remanufacturing are durables that exhibit a well‐pronounced product life cycle—they diffuse gradually through the market. The remanufactured product, which is a cheaper substitute for the new product, is often put on the market during the life cycle of the new product and affects its sales dynamics. In this paper, we study the integrated dynamic management of a portfolio of new and remanufactured products that progressively penetrate a potential market over the product life cycle. To this end, we extend the Bass diffusion model in a way that maintains the two essential features of remanufacturing settings: (a) substitution between new and remanufactured products, and (b) a constraint on the diffusion of remanufactured products due to the limited supply of used products that can be remanufactured. We identify characteristics of the diffusion paths of new and remanufactured products. Finally, we analyze the impact of levers such as remanufacturability level, capacity profile and reverse channel speed on profitability.     

制造商技术开放策略问题研究

在高新科技领域，制造商往往需要面对技术优势与需求优势的选择问题，技术策略（开放/封闭）逐渐成为选择的关键。在产品需求理论的框架内，研究了制造商的技术策略问题，通过构建制造商技术策略模型，分析产品的网络外部性、规模经济效应以及新制造商对于制造商不同技术策略下最优利润的影响，进而得出制造商的技术策略、新制造商的市场进入策略及相应的市场结果。最后，文章进行了拓展，分别研究了存在多个新制造商和市场进入成本两种情况下各方策略及市场结果的变化。研究发现：（1）制造商数量对于潜在市场总需求的影响系数越大，制造商越倾向于选择技术开放策略；（2）适中的网络外部性强度和规模经济效应强度有利于制造商选择技术开放策略；（3）当新制造商数量增加时，制造商技术策略的变化方向由其初始技术策略所决定；（4）市场进入成本不会影响制造商的技术策略，却会改变技术开放策略下新制造商的市场进入策略，进而使得市场结果发生分化；（5）专利授权费会激励制造商选择技术开放策略。     

Market Orientation,Internal Process,and External Network: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis of Key Decisional Alternatives in the New Service Development*

Scholars from different disciplines acknowledge the importance of studying new service development (NSD), which is considered a central process for sustaining a superior competitive advantage of service firms. Although extant literature provides several important insights into how NSD processes are structured and organized, there is much less evidence on what makes NSD processes successful, that is, capable of contributing to a firm's sales and profits. In other words, which are the decisions that maximize the likelihood of developing successful new services? Drawing on the emerging “service‐dominant logic” paradigm, we address this question by developing an NSD framework with three main decisional nodes: market orientation, internal process organization, and external network. Using a qualitative comparative analysis technique, we discovered combinations of alternatives that maximize likelihood of establishing a successful service innovation. Specifically, we tested our NSD framework in the context of hospitality services and found that successful NSD can be achieved through two sets of decisions. The first one includes the presence of a proactive market orientation (PMO) and a formal top‐down innovative process, but the absence of a responsive market orientation. The second one includes the presence of both responsive and PMO and an open innovation model. No single element was a sufficient condition for NSD success, though PMO was a necessary condition. Several implications for theory and decision‐making practice are discussed on the basis of our findings.     

A heuristic approach to in-season capacity allocation in a multi-product newsvendor model

Based on an actual problem, we develop and test two heuristics for optimizing the newsvendor’s response to new in-season demand information for a multi-product single-period problem. In this model, in addition to the quantities produced prior to the beginning of the selling season, the newsvendor can produce additional quantities of some products after the selling season begins. Sales data of all products is updated daily, and using these updates, the newsvendor can test if the quantities already produced are still optimal. If the newsvendor finds that the actual demand of a product up to a point in time indicates that the quantity already produced is too small, then the product becomes a candidate for an incremental production quantity. In Heuristic I, we fix the pre-season production quantities to those that are optimal for the classic newsvendor model. In Heuristic II, because the newsvendor may have some recourse during the selling season, we allow for reductions in the pre-season production quantities from the optimal classic newsvendor model production quantities. Using a simulation experiment, we show that even under an unbiased forecast, both heuristics result in higher profit, with Heuristic II outperforming Heuristic I. The increase in profits from using the heuristics increases significantly with the number of products for which the forecast is biased. In addition, the improvements in profits decrease significantly as the lead time and the penalty for late production increase.     

基于策略性竞争博弈的供应链信息共享策略

在供应链成员的市场信息以及成本非对称的情形下，讨论两个终端企业（一个自产自销，一个从上游批发产品），在供应链中信息共享策略的方案，包括：信息优势企业如何根据市场需求情况确定是否信息共享（若是，则如何共享）；信息劣势企业如何根据对方透露出的市场信息来决策订货量；上游供应链如何决策批发价，从而控制整个供应链的博弈态势，使下游销售商在竞争中更为主动。经过研究发现，低市场类型时，自产自销商乐于共享信息，使竞争对手摄于低迷的市场状况从而降低订货量；在高市场类型且市场波动较小时自产自销商依然选择共享，在乐观的市场条件下表明自己的竞争优势，从而一定程度上威摄入侵者；而市场波动较大时，由于信息共享的额外收益不足以抵消信息共享需付出的额外成本，从而选择不共享信息。     

Distributed Development and Product Line Decisions

Distributed product development is becoming increasingly prevalent in a number of industries. We study how the global distribution of product development impacts the profit‐maximizing product line that a firm offers. Specifically, we formulate a model to understand the linkage between cost arbitrage as a driver of distributed development and consequent market implications such as customer perceived quality loss to remotely developed products. Analysis of the model reveals that a firm should expand the product line for a development‐intensive good only at intermediate values of cost advantage and quality loss. We modify the base model to include development capacity constraints as a driver of distributed development and find that the results are robust to this change. Our analysis affirms the need for product managers to incorporate the implications of distributed development in making their product line design decision.