Impact of product pricing and timing of investment decisions on supply chain co-opetition

In supply chain co-opetition, firms simultaneously compete and co-operate in order to maximize their profits. We consider the nature of co-opetition between two firms: The product supplier invests in the technology to improve quality, and the purchasing firm (buyer) invests in selling effort to develop the market for the product before uncertainty in demand is resolved. We consider three different decision making structures and discuss the optimal configuration from each firm’s perspective. In case 1, the supplier invests in product quality and sets the wholesale price for the product. The buyer then exerts selling effort to develop the market and following demand potential realization, sets the resale price. In case 2, the supplier invests in product quality followed by the buyer’s investment in selling effort. Then, after demand potential is observed, the supplier sets the wholesale price and the buyer sets the resale price. Finally, in case 3, both firms simultaneously invest in product quality and selling effort, respectively. Subsequently, observing the demand potential, the supplier sets the wholesale price and the buyer sets the resale price. We compare all configuration options from both the perspective of the supplier and the buyer, and show that the level of investment by the firms depends on the nature of competition between them and the level of uncertainty in demand. Our analysis reveals that although configuration 1 results in the highest profits for the integrated channel, there is no clear dominating preference on system configuration from the perspective of both parties. The incentives of the co-opetition partners and the investment levels are mainly governed by the cost structure and the level of uncertainty in demand. We examine and discuss the relation between system parameters and the incentives in desiging the supply contract structure.     

供应链协作创新模式比较与协调

从供应链中居于核心地位的供应商出发,基于下游制造商对上游创新的影响,在需求对价格敏感情况下考虑了供应商、制造商、第三方研发机构协作创新的博弈过程,对供应链创新协作的三种模式进行了建模分析。研究结果发现在创新能力相当的情况下,无论从创新力度、各方期望利润,还是从满足需求量等来看,供应商与供应链上关系紧密的下游协作创新的模式不仅可以降低自己创新的投资和创新风险,而且提高了整个供应链创新力度和水平,又可以在收益上双赢,其优于不进行协作创新和委托第三方研发机构的协作创新模式。最后进一步提出了供应链协调策略。     

Dynamic pricing,product and process innovation

The question of simultaneous dynamic pricing, product and process investment policies is crucial for manufacturing and high-tech industries. This paper models these policies in an optimal control setting. On the supply side, the firm sets prices, product and process investment levels over time. On the demand side, current demand depends on price and quality. Under an additive separable demand function, dynamic pricing increases with quality and cost. Therefore, both product innovation and process innovation impact the pricing policy. Under a multiplicative separable demand function, dynamic pricing policy follows the dynamic of production cost and is independent of the evolution of product quality. Thus, process innovation is the main determinant of a firm’s pricing policy over time and product innovation has no impact.     

供应链协作创新模式比较与协调契约

基于协作创新和现代商务模式,以供应商为供应链核心企业,考虑了在需求对价格敏感情况下供应商、制造商、第三方研发机构协作创新的博弈,对供应链创新协作的三种模式进行了建模分析.研究结果发现在创新能力相当的情况下,无论从创新力度、各方期望利润,还是从需求来看,供应商与供应链上关系紧密的下游协作创新的模式不仅可以降低自己创新的投资和风险,而且提高了整个供应链创新力度和水平,在收益上达到双赢,其优于不进行协作创新和委托第三方研发机构的协作创新模式.最后提出了供应链协调契约.     

Retail service for mixed retail and E-tail channels

Together with regular retail channel, a firm can distribute products directly through Internet (referred to as an “e-tail” distribution channel). The competitive edge of the retail channel lies in more value-added services, some of which are unavailable through the e-tail channel. We consider a model mixed with retailing and e-tailing distribution channels where the service level and price decision are made, respectively, ex ante and ex post demand realizations. From the firm’s perspective of managing the two channels, we acquire the optimal decisions and characterize the effects of the demand uncertainty on the firm’s optimal retail service and expected profit. Applying stochastic comparison method, we show the firm’s retail service and profit both increase in the demand mean, and the firm profits from the increase of the convex order of the demand by decreasing his service level. Further, if the coefficient of the demand increases, we characterize that the firm benefits from it. Finally, several numerical studies are presented to gain insights.     

Optimal inventory policy with supply uncertainty and demand cancellation

We consider a periodic review model where the firm manages its inventory under supply uncertainty and demand cancellation. We show that because of supply uncertainty, the optimal inventory policy has the structure of re-order point type. That is, we order if the initial inventory falls below this re-order point, otherwise we do not order. This is in contrast to the work of Yuan and Cheung (2003) who prove the optimality of an order up to policy in the absence of supply uncertainty. We also investigate the impact of supply uncertainty and demand cancellation on the performance of the supply chain. Using our model, we are able to quantify the importance of reducing the variance of either the distribution of yield or the distribution of demand cancellation. The single, multiple periods and the infinite horizon models are studied.     

Single versus multiple supplier sourcing strategies

Successful supply chain management necessitates an effective sourcing strategy to combat uncertainties in both supply and demand. In particular, supply disruption results in excessive downtime of production resources, upstream and downstream supply chain repercussions, and eventually a loss in the market value of the firm. In this paper we analyze single period, single product sourcing decisions under demand uncertainty. Our approach integrates product prices, supplier costs, supplier capacities, historical supplier reliabilities and firm specific inventory costs. A unique feature of our approach is the integration of a firm specific supplier diversification function. We also extend our analysis to examine the impact of minimum supplier order quantities. Our results indicate that single sourcing is a dominant strategy only when supplier capacities are large relative to the product demand and when the firm does not obtain diversification benefits. In other cases, we find that multiple sourcing is an optimal sourcing strategy. We also characterize a non-intuitive trade-off between supplier minimum order quantities, costs, and supplier reliabilities. Finally, we examine the robustness of our results through an extensive numerical analysis of the key parameters of our model.     

The setting of profit targets for target oriented divisions

Setting profit targets and striving to achieve them is fundamental to business survival and success. However, there has been little research on modeling profit-target setting. In this paper, we study analytic target setting under a common business scenario where a firm is in control of multiple divisions. Both the firm and the divisions maximize the profit probability, i.e., the probability of achieving some given profit target. The firm sets a profit target for each division which then acts as a price-setting newsvendor. We first obtain the optimal order quantity, the optimal retail price, and the maximal profit probability of a single division given its assigned target. We then derive the firm’s profit probability and focus on two specific cases to gain more managerial insights. In the first case of fair target setting, we show that when each division’s demand distribution has an increasing failure rate, if a division has a relatively high (low) production cost, its assigned profit target decreases (increases) with regard to its price elasticity. In the second case, if the firm is in control of two identical divisions, each division’s optimal profit target is just half of the firm’s profit target when the price elasticity is two or more, regardless of production cost and demand distribution.     

The dynamics of price, quality and productivity improvement decisions

Although quality has received significant attention during the last decades and its economic benefits are beyond any doubt, lots of questions have remained unanswered as to how much, when, and in what to invest to maintain sustainable competitive advantage. A model is introduced here to guide a firm in addressing these questions. The firm produces a single product and operates in a market where monopolistic competition is effective. Demand for the product in the industry depends on both price and performance quality. Increasing productivity knowledge decreases unit production cost, but demand for the company’s product decreases over time, as competitors will be able to offer products with similar performance. Productivity and quality knowledge can be developed through induced and autonomous learning in order to strengthen company position. The paper provides an optimal control formulation of the problem and develops necessary conditions for optimality and characterizes the dynamics of optimal price, quality and investment decisions.     

Contracting with demand uncertainty under supply chain competition

We examine supply chain contracts for two competing supply chains selling a substitutable product, each consisting of one manufacturer and one retailer. Both manufacturers are Stackelberg leaders and the retailers are followers. Manufacturers in two competing supply chains may choose different contracts, either a wholesale price contract in which the retailer??s demand forecasting information is not shared, or a revenue-sharing contract in which the retailer??s demand forecasting information is shared. Under supply chain competition and demand uncertainty, we identify which contract is more advantageous for each supply chain, and under what circumstances.     

Global facility network design in the presence of competition

We study the facility network design problem for a global firm that is a monopolist seller in its domestic market but faces local competition in its foreign market. The global firm produces in the face of demand and exchange rate uncertainty but can postpone localization and distribution of the output until after uncertainties are resolved. The competitor in the foreign market, however, enjoys the flexibility of postponing all production activities until after uncertainties are resolved. The two firms engage in an ex-post Cournot competition in the foreign market. We consider three potential network configurations for the global firm. Under a linear demand function, we provide the necessary and sufficient condition that one of the three networks is the global firm’s optimal choice, and explore how the presence of foreign competition affects the sensitivity of the global firm’s design to various cost parameters and market uncertainties.     

Diversity of firm’s life cycle adapted from the firm’s technology investment decision

The stylized model presented is an optimal control model of technology investment decision of a single product firm. The firm’s technology investment does not have only a long-run positive effect but also a short-run adverse effect on its sales volume. We examine the case of high adverse investment effects where the firm finally leaves the market but we have observed different life cycles till this happens. Depending on the firm’s initial technology stock and sales volume, we compute different firm’s life cycles, which are driven by a trade-off between two strategies: technology versus sales focus strategy. Indifference curves, where managers are indifferent to apply initially technology or sales focus strategies, separate founding conditions of the firm to various classes distinguishable because of the firm’s life cycle.     

Buyback contracts with price-dependent demands: Effects of demand uncertainty

We explore buyback contracts in a supplier–retailer supply chain where the retailer faces a price-dependent downward-sloping demand curve subject to uncertainty. Differentiated from the existing literature, this work focuses on analytically examining how the uncertainty level embedded in market demand affects the applicability of buyback contracts in supply chain management. To this end, we seek to characterize the buyback model in terms of only the demand uncertainty level (DUL). With this new research perspective, we have obtained some interesting new findings for buyback. For example, we find that (1) even though the supply chain’s efficiency will change over the DUL with a wholesale price-only contract, it will be maintained constantly at that of the corresponding deterministic demand setting with buyback, regardless of the DUL; (2) in the practice of buyback, the buyback issuer should adjust only the buyback price in reaction to different DULs while leave the wholesale price unchanged as that in the corresponding deterministic demand setting; (3) only in the demand setting with an intermediate level of the uncertainty (which is identified quantitatively in Theorem 5), buyback provision is beneficial simultaneously for the supplier, the retailer, and the supply chain system, while this is not the case in the other demand settings. This work reveals that DUL can be a critical factor affecting the applicability of supply chain contracts.     

Supply chain performance assessment and supplier and component importance identification in a general competitive multitiered supply chain network model

In this paper, we develop a multitiered competitive supply chain network game theory model, which includes the supplier tier. The firms are differentiated by brands and can produce their own components, as reflected by their capacities, and/or obtain components from one or more suppliers, who also are capacitated. The firms compete in a Cournot–Nash fashion, whereas the suppliers compete a la Bertrand since firms are sensitive to prices. All decision-makers seek to maximize their profits with consumers reflecting their preferences through the demand price functions associated with the demand markets for the firms’ products. We construct supply chain network performance measures for the full supply chain and the individual firm levels that assess the efficiency of the supply chain or firm, respectively, and also allow for the identification and ranking of the importance of suppliers as well as the components of suppliers with respect to the full supply chain or individual firm. The framework is illustrated through a series of numerical supply chain network examples.     

随机需求下有产能约束的技术创新策略研究

在随机需求和技术变革的环境下,基于有产能约束的单供应商-单零售商的供应链结构,研究供应商分销价格决策和技术创新策略以及零售商订货决策。建立了三阶段Stackelberg博弈模型,通过逆推方法求得了供应商最优分销价格和技术创新策略以及零售商最优订货量,深入探讨了供应商产能、新技术出现概率以及市场需求期望与波动分别对供应商、零售商和供应链整体利润的影响。结果表明当供应商产能不足时进行技术创新会提高供应商和供应链的利润,但零售商因间接承担供应商技术创新的投资成本而利润下降;当供应商产能过剩时进行技术创新则会降低供应商及供应链的利润,而零售商的利润增加。新技术出现概率增加会提高供应链各成员的利润;提高市场需求期望并减小市场波动对供应商及供应链有利,但可能会降低零售商的利润。     

非对称信息和模糊需求下的闭环供应链协调决策研究

在模糊需求和非对称销售价格信息下,研究了由单一制造商和零售商组成的两级闭环供应链系统的协调问题。通过建立不确定环境下的集中决策和收益共享-费用共担契约决策模型,分别得到了不同模型下闭环供应链系统的最优策略。并进一步通过算例分析了契约下供应链各方收益随模糊需求和价格的变化情况,以及该契约对整个系统决策效率的影响。结果表明:收益共享-费用共担契约能有效实现模糊闭环供应链系统的协调,实现闭环供应链系统决策的最优化;其次,需求和零售价格的不确定性程度越高,对零售商的最优订购量、供应链成员及系统利润的影响也越大。     

Signaling Quality: Dynamic Price-Advertising Model

This paper extends the existing quality-signaling literature by investigating the roles of price and advertising levels as quality indicators in a dynamic framework. Considering perceived quality as a form of goodwill, we modify the well-known Nerlove-Arrow dynamic model to include price effects. In our model, price is used both as a monetary constraint and as a signal of quality, while advertising spending is used only as a signaling device, and thus purely as a dissipative expense. Utilizing optimal control, we determine optimal decision rules for a firm regarding both price and advertising over time as functions of perceived quality. The results indicate that, when prices act as monetary constraints and are reduced to increase demand, the firm should use the signaling role of advertising by increasing spending to accelerate perceived quality increases. In cases when the value of the perceived quality goes up together with the increase in the perceived quality by more than the demand, in percentage terms, the firm should increase the price (use its signaling role). At steady-state, we find that the level of optimal profit margin relative to price decreases with the elasticity of demand with respect to the brand price. However, higher elasticity of demand with respect to the firm’s perceived quality and/or a higher impact of price (advertising) lead/leads to a higher optimal profit margin (advertising spending) relative to price (revenue).     

风险规避供应商参与下基于实物期权的供应链协调

研究不确定性需求下,由风险规避的供应商和占主导地位的零售商组成的二级供应链的协调问题。构建了基于实物期权的协调机制,给出了实现协调的最优期权价格和期权执行价格的求解算法,分析了供应商风险规避特性对各方订货量和利润的影响。结果表明,在供应商风险规避条件下,基于实物期权的契约可以实现不确定需求下的供应链协调。     

Timing and eco(nomic) efficiency of climate-friendly investments in supply chains

Emission trading schemes such as the European Union Emissions Trading System (EUETS) attempt to reconcile economic efficiency with ecological efficiency by creating financial incentives for companies to invest in climate-friendly innovations. Using real options methodology, we demonstrate that under uncertainty, economic and ecological efficiency continue to be mutually exclusive. This problem is even worse if a climate-friendly project depends on investing in of a whole supply chain. We model a sequential bargaining game in a supply chain where the parties negotiate over implementation of a carbon dioxide (CO₂) saving investment project. We show that the outcome of their bargaining is not economically efficient and even less ecologically efficient. Furthermore, we show that a supply chain becomes less economically efficient and less ecologically efficient with every additional chain link. Finally, we make recommendations for how managers or politicians can improve the situation and thereby increase economic as well as ecological efficiency and thus also the eco-efficiency of supply chains.     

An evaluation of the environmental factors for supply chain strategy decisions using grey systems and composite indicators

The purpose of this work is to assess the importance of environmental factors in a supply chain with four partners as a preliminary step to select the competitive strategies and objectives. To achieve this purpose, a real case study was carried out in a footwear supply chain, in which two approaches were used: the grey system theory and uncertainty analysis tools for composite indicators. In order to validate both approaches, a seven-phase research methodology was developed and applied to our case study. In addition, the priorization of environmental factors was calculated individually for each partner. The results allow managers to establish the competitive strategy that best suits the prioritization of the most relevant factors and to define the most appropriate objectives where the supply chain should invest its efforts and resources.