Joint Ordering and Pricing Strategies for Managing Substitutable Products

Starr and Rubinson (1978) develop a model to establish the relationship between product demand and relative prices. The notion of relative prices motivates us to consider a situation in which a retailer would either charge the same retail price for all products if he adopts a ‘fixed’ pricing strategy or charge different prices for different products if he adopts a ‘variable’ pricing strategy. In this paper, we develop a base model with deterministic demand that is intended to examine how a retailer should jointly determine the order quantity and the retail price of two substitutable products under the fixed and variable pricing strategies. Our analysis indicates that the optimal retail price under the variable pricing strategy is equal to the optimal retail price under the fixed pricing strategy plus or minus an adjustment term. This adjustment term depends on product substitutability and price sensitivity. We also present two different extensions of our base model. In the first extension, our analysis indicates that the underlying structure of the optimal retail price and order quantity is preserved when there is a limit on the total order quantity. The second extension deals with the issue of retail competition. Relative to the base case, we show that the underlying structure of the optimal retail price and order quantity is preserved in a duopolistic environment. Moreover, our analysis suggests that both retailers would adopt the variable pricing strategy at the equilibrium.     

免费商品对互补产品扩散的影响

本文基于互补产品扩散模型,在考虑价格策略以及重复购买与批量购买的消费者行为下,建立了免费商品赠送对互补产品扩散影响的优化模型群。通过模拟计算,分析结果表明免费商品的赠送对互补产品的扩散有促进作用,同时赠送互补产品优于仅赠送其中一种产品。在产品引入前进行免费商品赠送的边际效应要高于在其他时期赠送,形成"首期赠送效应"。当消费者有批量购买行为时,企业值得赠送更多的免费商品来提高消费者对产品的了解程度,以获得更高的利润。在对首期赠送水平的参数灵敏度分析后,给出了扩散过程中各个参数选取对于赠样水平的影响趋势与范围。在此基础上,为企业在实际促销决策中给出了具体的应用步骤。     

Supply Chain Strategies for Perishable Products: The Case of Fresh Produce

This paper examines supply chain design strategies for a specific type of perishable product—fresh produce—using melons and sweet corn as examples. Melons and other types of produce reach their peak value at the time of harvest; product value deteriorates exponentially post‐harvest until the product is cooled to dampen the deterioration. Using the product's marginal value of time (MVT), the rate at which the product loses value over time in the supply chain, we show that the appropriate model to minimize lost value in the supply chain is a hybrid of a responsive model from post‐harvest to cooling, followed by an efficient model in the remainder of the chain. We also show that these two segments of the supply chain are only loosely linked, implying that little coordination is required across the chain to achieve value maximization. The models we develop also provide insights into the use of a product's MVT to develop supply chain strategies for other perishable products.     

On the Benefit of Inventory‐Based Dynamic Pricing Strategies

We study the optimal pricing and replenishment decisions in an inventory system with a price‐sensitive demand, focusing on the benefit of the inventory‐based dynamic pricing strategy. We find that demand variability impacts the benefit of dynamic pricing not only through the magnitude of the variability but also through its functional form (e.g., whether it is additive, multiplicative, or others). We provide an approach to quantify the profit improvement of dynamic pricing over static pricing without having to solve the dynamic pricing problem. We also demonstrate that dynamic pricing is most effective when it is jointly optimized with inventory replenishment decisions, and that its advantage can be mostly realized by using one or two price changes over a replenishment cycle.     

产品组合竞争下远视互补品供应商联盟的稳定结构

考虑由4个远视供应商与1个零售商所组成的两层供应链系统,基于最大一致集的概念,探讨部分供应商可替代时互补品联合销售联盟的远视稳定结构。研究发现:当供应商的成本相差较小时,如果两类产品组合的零售竞争强度较小,则远视供应商会偏好各自独立销售给下游零售商;如果两类产品组合的零售竞争强度较大,则远视供应商会偏好形成一个由3个供应商联合销售的大联盟。当供应商的成本相差较大时,远视供应商会偏好形成联合销售的大联盟,或者偏好各自独立销售给下游零售商。但是,两个供应商形成的联合销售联盟不是远视稳定的。     

水平差异产品的内生定价策略选择

本文分析了一个存在定价策略选择下的三阶段Hotelling双头垄断模型,其中厂商可以选择采用单一定价策略或者歧视定价策略。模型的子博弈精炼纳什均衡表明厂商或者同时采用单一定价策略,或者同时采用歧视一价策略。当歧视定价的边际成本相对单一定价的边际成本不太高,或者消费乾注重产品特性差异时,厂商会同时选择歧视定价策略,尽管单一定价下厂商的利润要明显高于歧视定价下的利润;当歧视定价的边际成本相对较高或者消费者不太注重产品特性差异时,单一定价将成为厂商的最优选择。最后本文从社会最优的角度分析比较了两种这价策略下的社会净福利水平。     

基于顾客选择行为的多质量等级时鲜产品定价策略研究

基于现实中广泛存在的不同质量等级时鲜产品销售的现象,本文研究了追求收益最大化的销售商定价策略。我们考虑两种质量等级的情形,从顾客在不同等级产品之间的选择行为出发,研究了产品数量既定情形下销售商的最优折扣定价决策。同时,我们将这种"分离"销售策略与混合销售策略进行了对比。研究表明,当潜在顾客规模较小或产品供给相对较多时,分离策略相对混合策略的收益改进是更为显著的。     

产品扩散策略对企业绩效的影响

从市场需求理论和消费者行为理论出发,引入产品复杂度的调节作用,以中国汽车企业作为研究样本,选取32家中国车企2008～2012年的面板数据,对多次级市场和同一市场两种不同的产品扩散策略与企业绩效关系及产品复杂度在策略-企业绩效关系中的调节作用进行分析.实证结果表明,两种产品扩散策略与绩效之间由负向关系转为正向关系,即两种产品扩散策略与企业绩效呈U型关系;产品复杂度加强了多次级市场产品扩散策略与绩效之间的关系,而弱化了同一市场产品扩散策略与绩效的关系.企业应根据自身的情况,选择合适的扩散方式,合理灵活地利用产品复杂度的调节作用,对企业绩效会起到事半功倍的效果.     

Product and service innovation with customer recognition

Product and service innovation is important for brands to succeed in a competitive marketplace. As information technology advances, customer recognition becomes a growing industry trend; that is, brands track customers' purchase history, recognize and price discriminate between repeat and new customers.The trend of customer recognition has changed the nature and intensity of competition between brands. In this article, we examine how customer recognition and the associated changes in competition affect brands' incentives to invest in product and service innovation. We find that when brands have similar equity, customer recognition increases brands' incentives to invest in product and service innovation. However, when brands have sufficiently different equity, customer recognition leads the stronger brand to invest more and the weaker brand to invest less in product and service innovation. In addition, extant literature suggests that customer recognition reduces brand profits. In contrast, we find that customer recognition can increase the weaker brand's profit but decreases it more for the stronger brand. Thus, collecting customers' purchase history data for customer recognition can be beneficial for weaker brands but detrimental for stronger brands.     

Pricing and Replenishment of Competing Perishable Product Variants under Dynamic Demand Substitution

I consider pricing and ordering decisions faced by a retailer selling a perishable product with a two‐period shelf life over an infinite horizon. In the first period, the product is “new”; in the next, it becomes “old.” The new product is perceived by customers to have a higher quality than the old product. Every period, the retailer makes three decisions: prices for the new and old products and how much new product to order. I first show, with some simple cases, that demand uncertainty can make the sale of the old product profitable. I then consider a more realistic case with dynamic demand substitution among customers. I recognize that the retailer's decisions may be constant or may vary across different periods, under different contexts. For instance, varying the price of the new product can sometimes be difficult due to the negative impact it generates among customers. I find that (i) the benefit obtained from selling the old product with constant decisions is much higher than the benefit from allowing all the decisions to vary; (ii) the former benefit increases with a higher procurement cost, a higher quality of the new product, and higher demand volatility; however, the latter benefit is non‐monotone in these parameters; (iii) most of the latter benefit can be obtained by just changing the order quantity; and (iv) as the inventory of the old product increases, when all the decisions vary, the optimal price of the new product may increase or decrease.     

考虑产能约束的新产品与旧产品预售策略研究

预售商品种类繁多，可分为从未上市过的新产品和已经上市过旧产品。面对不同类型的产品，根据消费者效用理论，消费者可能做出不同的决策。研究在产能约束的前提下，零售商销售不同类型产品的最优预售策略问题。结果表明，新产品的最优预售策略取决于正常销售价格，旧产品的最优预售策略受正常销售价格与消费者构成的共同影响，且前者的影响作用大于后者。较低的正常销售价格或较大的高估值消费者比例增大了消费者在正常销售期购买的缺货风险，零售商应采取溢价预售策略，否则应采取折价预售策略。此外将新产品和旧产品的最优预售策略对比发现，利用消费者对产品估值的不确定性，新产品预售比旧产品预售更具优势。     

Measuring the Impact of Increased Product Substitution on Pricing and Capacity Decisions Under Linear Demand Models

We consider two substitutable products and compare two alternative measures of product substitutability for linear demand functions that are commonly used in the literature. While one leads to unrealistically high prices and profits as products become more substitutable, the results obtained using the other measure are in line with intuition. Using the more appropriate measure of product substitutability, we study the optimal investment mix in flexible and dedicated capacities in both monopoly and oligopoly settings. We find that the optimal investment in manufacturing flexibility tends to decrease as the products become closer substitutes; this is because (1) pricing can be used more effectively to balance supply and demand, and (2) the gains obtained by shifting production to the more profitable product are reduced due to increased correlation between the price potentials of the substitutable products. The value of flexibility always increases with demand variability. We also show that, as long as the optimal investments in dedicated capacity for both products are positive, the optimal expected prices and production quantities do not depend on the cost of the flexible capacity. Manufacturing flexibility simply allows the firm to achieve those expected values with lower capacity, while leading to higher expected profits.     

基于降价预期的生鲜农产品定价策略研究

顾客的价格感知影响需求。以降价预期刻画顾客对当前价格的感知,针对零售商在维持需求和利润最大化条件下降价两种策略,研究了生鲜农产品的最优定价问题。研究表明,零售商的利润随着价格认同系数增加而增大;顾客对独立产品存在降价预期不会影响零售商的利润,但是对替代品存在降价预期,零售商的利润会下降;零售商若能完全观察到顾客存在降价预期,将抬高初始价格。     

中小制造企业在线直销与传统分销双渠道定价决策研究

针对传统渠道中处于非主导地位的中小制造企业开展双渠道销售时存在的价格冲突问题,考虑产品数字属性对渠道需求的影响,构建了制造商与零售商独立决策和制造商占非主导地位两种情况下的双渠道定价决策模型,给出了两种情况下的双渠道最优定价,并分别考察了产品数字属性变化以及决策权利结构不同对最优定价的影响。研究结果表明,处于非主导地位的中小制造企业应采用依从强势零售商的定价策略,该策略有利于制造商和零售商以及渠道整体收益的增加;随着产品数字属性的增大,制造商的最优定价相应地提高,而零售商的最优定价则相应地降低;制造商占非主导地位时的双渠道最优定价高于制造商与零售商独立决策时的双渠道最优定价。     

The Effect of Product Variety and Inventory Levels on Retail Store Sales: A Longitudinal Study

We examine the effects of product variety and inventory levels on store sales. Using 4 years of data from stores of a large retailer, we show that increases in product variety and inventory levels are both associated with higher sales. We also show that increasing product variety and inventory levels has an indirect negative effect on store sales through their impact on phantom products—products that are physically present at the store, but only in storage areas where customers cannot find or purchase them. Our study highlights a consequence of increased product variety and inventory levels that has previously been overlooked in studies of retail product variety and inventory management. It also quantifies the impact of phantom products on store sales. In addition, our study provides empirical evidence to support earlier claims that higher product variety and inventory levels lead to an increase in defect rate. We discuss the implications of our findings for retail inventory and assortment planning and for the design of retail stores.     

公开或隐藏未来市场价格对新品预售的影响研究

预售是新产品上市前,商家允许消费者提前预定产品的一种销售手段。本文以新产品预售为背景,建立了商家同时销售新旧两代产品时的预售模型,先对消费者最优购买策略进行了分析,在此基础上,分两种情况,即商家在预售阶段公开或隐藏新品未来市场价格,研究了商家最优预售价格折扣和最优订购量。最后,通过数值仿真分析了影响新品预售策略和商家收益的一些因素。结果表明,商家在预售阶段公开新品未来市场价格可以获得更高期望收益。     

新产品开发创意新源泉——来自海尔的案例分析

开发适合市场需求的新产品已经成为企业获得竞争优势的重要来源.通过对海尔三个实践案例的分析,指出零售商是企业获得新产品开发创意的重要源泉,并提出了通过零售商获得新产品开发创意的途径.研究结论不仅丰富了现有的理论成果,同时也为我国企业实践提供了有益的指导.     

无外部市场条件下中间产品转移价格的博弈分析与决策

本文首先用反例证明了文^[1]中在各分厂成本函数和最终产品需求函数已知的条件下,给出的中间产品最优转移价格的两个计算公式并不总是成立的,给出了这两个计算公式成立的充要条件,并分析了公司关于中间产品转移价格决策的动态一致性问题。接着,利用完全信息动态博弈对中间产品转移价格的确定问题做了进一步的分析研究。最后,针对文^[1]中给出的中间产品最优转移价格的两个计算公式不成立的情况,讨论了中间产品转移价格的确定问题。     

新鲜产品跨季销售中的动态库存管理策略研究

新鲜产品在跨季销售过程中不可避免地发生变质，给分销商带来较大的风险。本文基于一个两阶段决策模型来帮助分销商动态管理库存，在考虑产品质量随机变化的情形下更好地匹配供给与需求。具体来说，在采摘季节确定采购的总数量；在销售季节结合产品新鲜度的演变以及剩余库存水平的变化动态地决策每周期的销售量，以实现期望利润的最大化。我们采用动态规划模型分析销售期的库存管理决策，刻画了利润函数和最优决策的结构性质，并考察了库存量、新鲜度水平和价格等参数对最优库存决策的影响。数值实验结果表明，当产品变质风险大、需求不确定性低时，动态库存管理策略相比静态策略的利润改进效果更为显著。     

易逝品降价时点设定问题的Cournot博弈模型

本文基于Gallego和van Ryzin的两级价格策略,构建了两种竞争性易逝品降价时点设定问题的Cournot博弈模型,应用图解法求得Cournot均衡点,得出在竞争环境下先动企业会推迟降价时点而后动企业会提前降价的结论,通过实例分析验证了这一结论,同时指出了转移概率对均衡结果的影响.研究结果可为竞争环境下易逝性产品降价策略的制定提供决策支持.