Dual-channel supply chain pricing decisions with a risk-averse retailer

This paper investigates a dual-channel supply chain with one risk-neutral manufacturer and one risk-averse retailer where there is only one perishable product with price-dependent stochastic demand. We choose Conditional Value-at-Risk criterion to measure the retailer’s risk-averse level, and assume that the manufacturer’s direct sales channel and the retailer’s traditional channel adopt a consistent pricing strategy. The model explores a Nash bargaining problem where the manufacturer and the retailer negotiate with each other on the wholesale price, the retail price and the order quantity when they have equal bargaining power. It is found that when demand uncertainty follows a uniform distribution, a Nash bargaining equilibrium exists and the retail price will decrease as the retailer becomes more risk averse. However, when the risk-averse indicator increases, the manufacturer’s profit on his direct channel will decrease, increase or first increase and then decrease, depending on the values of the related parameters. The profit shares of the manufacturer and the retailer under the Nash equilibrium model are related to the risk-averse indicator of the retailer. Furthermore, we perform three sets of numerical experiments to verify the effects of the retailer’s risk-averse indicator on decision-making and profit allocations under the different environmental parameters and gain several meaningful managerial insights.     

Myopic vs. far-sighted behaviours in a revenue-sharing supply chain with reference quality effects

In this paper, we consider a dynamic supply chain where a manufacturer produces and distributes a featured product through an exclusive retailer to end consumers. The manufacturer decides the product quality and wholesale price, while the retailer sets the retail price in the presence of a revenue-sharing contract and consumers’ reference quality effects. The objective of this study is to investigate the impacts of myopic behaviour regarding the reference quality on the product quality and pricing strategies and profits of both members. Our results suggest that the manufacturer’s myopia leads to a higher quality, higher price strategy and a higher quality–price ratio which benefits consumers. Meanwhile, relative to the far-sighted behaviour, myopia results in a more quality-sensitive but less price-sensitive market demand. What’s more, we find that the manufacturer is apt to act in a far-sighted way, but the retailer isn’t always willing to cooperate with a far-sighted manufacturer. Taking myopic strategies for both members is likely to gain a high profit of the whole supply chain for a relatively high marginal contribution of product quality on demand and a relatively low revenue-sharing proportion.     

不同市场结构下绿色闭环供应链决策分析

为了分析不同市场结构对绿色闭环供应链成员决策以及绩效的影响,引入环保参数,采用Stackelberg博弈法,比较了三种市场结构下渠道成员的决策、利润和渠道总利润。研究结果表明：制造商主导市场时批发价、零售价和制造商利润最高;零售商领导市场时回收水平、单位利润和零售商利润最高;环保水平和渠道总利润在垂直纳什市场结构下最高。理论上无领导者的垂直纳什结构最理想,但考虑实际情况,零售商控制市场时较好。     

考虑渠道权力结构的O2O供应链合作广告策略研究

通过建立和比较四种Stackelberg博弈模型,即制造商未参与网络零售平台合作广告计划的博弈模型(N模型)、网络零售平台主导的合作广告模型(P模型)、制造商主导的合作广告模型(M模型)、集中决策的合作广告模型(C模型),研究了渠道权力结构对O2O供应链渠道成员合作广告决策的影响。研究发现:当网络零售平台为供应链领导者时,只有当线上渠道交叉销售效应需到达一定水平,制造商才拥有参与网络零售平台合作广告计划的资格,且当交叉销售效应较大时,网络零售平台的利润将超过制造商;而当制造商为供应链领导者时,制造商不愿意让网络零售平台"搭便车",因此具有较高线上渠道交叉销售效应水平的制造商会选择具有较小引导作用的合作广告方案;集中决策模型中的制造商全国性广告投入及供应链整体利润最大。     

基于消费者接受程度的双渠道产品价格和质量决策研究

在消费者对直销渠道和零售渠道接受程度有差异的情形下,研究了产品质量为内生的双渠道供应链中价格和质量联合决策问题。分别构建传统单一零售渠道模型、双渠道分散决策模型和双渠道集中决策模型。比较制造商和零售商在3种模型下的定价均衡决策、产品质量水平和利润,分析零售商和制造商的渠道策略和最优定价。结果表明：与传统单一零售渠道情形相比,在集中决策情形下,制造商开通直销渠道不改变零售价格,但是能够提高产品质量水平和供应链整体利润;在分散决策情形下,制造商开通直销渠道将降低产品批发价、零售价以及产品质量水平;另外当消费者对直销渠道接受程度适中时,制造商和零售商可实现帕累托改进。     

政府干涉下闭环供应链的回收渠道选择策略

了提高回收效率,在政府对制造商的回收行为进行干涉下建立了制造商回收、零售商回收和混合回收决策模型,分别从消费者、政府、制造商、零售商和供应链整体五个角度研究了回收渠道的选择策略。结果表明,零售商总是希望参与回收;从其他四个角度来看,回收渠道选择主要受回收渠道竞争强度的影响,政府干涉对渠道选择影响不大。     

Competition and cooperation in a supply chain with an offline showroom under asymmetric information

Offline showrooms develop rapidly to resolve consumers’ uncertainty about whether products fit their needs when they purchase online. This paper considers a supply chain where an offline showroom provides experience service for an existing online retailer and intends to introduce a new competing online retailer to satisfy consumers’ heterogeneous demand. The offline showroom has better knowledge of demand information due to closer to offline consumers. We examine the impact of competition and the offline showroom's optimal channel cooperation strategy under asymmetric information and analyse the equilibrium results under the optimal strategy to shed light on channel cooperation and information strategy for supply chain members. We find that under asymmetric information competition prompts the offline showroom to conceal information which generates signal cost (negative information effect) and to increase experience service level which creates value (positive service effect). The optimal channel cooperation strategy depends on the trade-off between these effects. We also find that competition increases the existing online retailer's profit in some conditions. Besides, in some conditions information asymmetry harms all supply chain members, which suggests the offline showroom to share information with the online retailers; in some conditions, information asymmetry harms the offline showroom but benefits the online retailers.     

Pricing decisions for three-echelon supply chain with advertising and quality effort-dependent fuzzy demand

Simultaneous influence of market power structure, advertising and quality efforts on the optimal pricing decisions and performance of a multi-echelon supply chain under uncertainty have received scant attention in the literature. We focus on this gap by examining a serial decentralised three-echelon supply chain consisting of a supplier, a manufacturer and a retailer. The uncertainty associated with customer demand, marginal production costs and effort costs is expressed as linguistic or fuzzy variables. We analyse centralised supply chain to obtain all benchmark parameters. We investigate four decentralised supply chain cases through fuzzy game theoretic approach. We compare among three Stackelberg games with various supply chain leaderships and a vertical Nash. Our key findings are as follows. First, the manufacturer puts least quality effort while retailer puts least advertising effort when they act as Stackelberg leader in a three-echelon supply chain. Second, supplier's per unit price is governed by the channel leadership in three-echelon supply chain while retail prices are less affected by the leadership. We investigate the impact of fuzzy degree of quality and advertising sensitivity on optimal profit distribution among agents. We present numerical analysis to illustrate the importance of the derived theoretical results and discuss additional managerial insights.     

CVaR准则下双渠道供应链订货与信息搭便车行为

研究双渠道供应链中生产商负责的网上直销渠道对零售商负责的传统零售渠道的信息服务搭便车行为。假定产品需求随机且依赖于零售商信息服务水平,利用条件风险值准则和均衡分析方法建立了生产商与零售商均为风险厌恶者时双渠道供应链的集中式决策模型和分散式决策模型,利用合同理论给出了协调供应链的回购加信息服务补贴契约,利用数值仿真方法验证了模型的合理性和协调契约的有效性。研究表明,增加直销渠道对供应链而言是把“双刃剑”,既可吸引潜在需求,也应避免需求由零售渠道向直销渠道的大规模转移;直销渠道的信息服务搭便车行为有利于供应链各方;决策者越厌恶风险,其订货量越低,此时生产商、零售商和供应链的利润都将下降;当风险厌恶因子等于1时,决策者风险厌恶时双渠道供应链的决策与决策者风险中性时一致。     

考虑互惠利他偏好和政府补贴的绿色供应链最优决策研究

为了研究政府补贴、绿色供应链制造商及零售商的互惠利他偏好对双方定价策略、利润、产品绿色度及绿色供应链整体利润的影响,运用博弈理论结合数值仿真方法对4种决策情形下的绿色供应链成员最优策略进行了研究。结果表明,制造商或零售商单方面的互惠利他偏好均会降低自身利润,提高产品绿色度、对方利润及供应链整体利润,且当双方互惠利他程度相同时,零售商的互惠利他偏好更能有效提高产品绿色度;无论是制造商或零售商具有互惠利他偏好,政府增加补贴均会在一定程度上增强其互惠利他偏好对产品绿色度、对方利润及供应链整体利润的提升作用,但不同的是,当制造商具有互惠利他偏好时,政府增加补贴会在一定程度上加重其互惠利他偏好对其自身利润的损害作用,当零售商互惠利他时则不会出现这种情况。     

考虑信息披露的双渠道供应链两周期定价策略

在一个含有线上直销渠道的双渠道供应链中,考察当消费者注重产品体验时,信息不披露和信息披露两种模式下制造商、零售商两周期的定价策略。研究发现:消费者对产品体验为高的概率和信息披露对提升制造商和零售商的议价能力都存在正向的作用;信息披露使实体店第二期的需求对前期需求更加敏感,而对第二期价格及成本的敏感性下降;不论信息是否披露,第一期实体店定价总高于网店定价,但当消费者体验产品为高的概率足够大时,网店在第二期可以采用高于实体店的定价策略,且信息披露可以使网店在第二期有更多的可能制定高于实体店的定价;信息披露使得制造商在两期内都可以获得更高的收益,而零售商的收益变化与披露成本有关,且零售商在第一期受益的可能性更高。     

Dual-channel closed loop supply chains: forward channel competition,power structures and coordination

This paper examines the effect of forward channel competition and power structure on dual-channel closed loop supply chains (CLSC), which consists of a manufacturer, a retailer and a collector. The manufacturer can either wholesale products to the retailer or directly sell them to the market, the collector undertakes the collection activity of used products. Under different channel power structures, a centralised and three decentralised models are explored under symmetric and asymmetric relative status between direct and retail channels. Through a comprehensive comparison among these models, the result shows that each channel member has an incentive to play the channel leader’s role. Meanwhile, from the total channel system’s perspective, we find that the manufacturer-led or retailer-led model can either be the most effective CLSC under symmetric relative channel status, which depends on the channel substitution rate between two channels. While under asymmetric relative channel status, the numerical result shows that the whole CLSC should select collector-led, manufacturer-led and retailer-led CLSC model in turn with the retail channel’s relative status becoming stronger. Finally, with the benchmark of the centralised decision-making system, we design modified two-part tariff contracts to coordinate dual-channel CLSCs under different channel power structures.     

考虑渠道成本差异的双渠道供应链定价策略与渠道选择

根据网上渠道不同销售模式的特征,构建制造商网上直销、网上分销和网上代销3种供应链定价模型,引入渠道成本参数并分析制造商如何进行产品定价和渠道选择。研究表明,在3种渠道结构中,代销模式下产品价格最低,直销模式和分销模式下的价格受到渠道偏好的影响;随着线上或线下渠道成本增加,制造商会降低该渠道产品的批发价格,而零售价格与自身渠道成本正相关;此外,当制造商自建网上平台成本较低时,制造商选择直销模式最优;当制造商自建网上平台成本较高,且代销平台服务效率较低时,制造商应选择分销模式,否则制造商选择代销模式更优。     

双渠道供应链的库存与定价策略研究

针对由传统零售渠道和网络直销渠道组成的双渠道供应链模型,考虑批发价格和传统零售价格确定情况下,同时市场需求随机且受价格影响时,对制造商在直销渠道上的最优定价和库存量决策,以及零售商在传统分销渠道上的最优订货量进行研究。通过模型分析和数值仿真说明：当需求分配比例处在一定范围内时,存在可行的直销价格。当加入直销价格不小于批发价格的约束条件后,在更小的需求分配比例范围内能够找到均衡解。且在此合理的区域内,传统零售渠道订货量减少,直销渠道库存量增大,但供应链总的销售量基本不变。零售商的期望收益有所增加,对于供应商,其来自于零售渠道的期望收益减少,来自于直销渠道的收益以及总收益增多。整个供应链的收益得到提高。     

Pricing and effort decisions for a supply chain with uncertain information

This paper analyses the pricing and effort decisions of a supply chain with single manufacturer and single retailer. The manufacturer produces a kind of product and then wholesales the product to the retailer, who in turn retails it to customers over a single selling season. The retailer can influence demand through her sales effort. This research depicts the consumer demand, the manufacturing cost and the sales effort cost as uncertain variables. Considering the demand expansion effectiveness of sales effort, one centralised and three decentralised game models are built on the basis of the expected value criterion, and the equilibrium solutions are obtained. We investigate the effects of the parameters’ uncertainty degrees on the pricing and effort decisions. The results indicate that the manufacturer benefits from improvement in demand and cost uncertainties when he has at least bargaining power in the supply chain. The results also imply that the uncertainty degree of sales effort elasticity has an outstanding influence on the pricing and effort decisions, whereas the uncertainty degree of price elasticity has a modest impact on these decisions. We also study the effects of the parameters’ uncertainty degrees on the supply chain from the consumers’ perspective. The results suggest that with a power retailer, the retail price should always be on the high end. Consequently, consumers do not necessarily benefit from a power retailer. When the manufacturer and the retailer have equal bargaining power, consumers do not necessarily benefit from the supply chain, either.     

Coordination of a dual-channel supply chain after demand or production cost disruptions

Coordinating a dual-channel supply chain could not only achieve the integrated profit of the supply chain but also alleviate the channel conflict. Although some researches addressed this area, there is scant literature to discuss the coordination issue in the situations of disruption. To fill this void, we utilise a contract with a wholesale price, a direct channel’s price and a lump sum fee to coordinate a dual-channel supply chain under the cases of demand disruptions and production cost disruptions. After deriving the optimal contract for each case, we find that the manufacturer can achieve coordination of the disrupted supply chain by adjusting the parameters of the coordination contract used in a normal environment. We also show that after disruptions, there exists a contract adjustment benefit zone, in which both the manufacturer and the retailer can benefit from the adjustment of coordination contract when demand increases or production cost decreases. A further analysis of the production and distribution strategies in the coordinated dual-channel supply chain after disruptions suggests that the adjustment of the total production and sales of each channel depends heavily on the level of disruptions and the degree of consumers’ loyalty to both channels.     

Online retailer recommender systems: a competitive analysis

As thriving and fast-moving technologies, recommender systems have been widely adopted by online retailers to increase their sales recently. This has significant impacts on the stakeholders in the online supply chain. How an online retailer uses recommender systems to maximise its profit through choosing different recommendation strategies for two upstream competing manufacturers is explored in this paper. In particular, a game between one online retailer and two competitive manufacturers is constructed in which these manufacturers can be selectively and strategically recommended by the retailer. The analytical results show that as the recommendation strength of recommender systems increases, neither manufacturers nor the retailer can always enjoy higher profits, which is counterintuitive. Furthermore, this study reveals that (i) a recommended manufacturer may enjoy a higher profit through sharing the recommendation market with its rival than through monopolising this market; (ii) recommending two manufacturers in both is the most feasible way for the online retailer to benefit from controlling the supply chain. Finally, it is interesting that recommender systems are found to be good mechanisms to help to coordinate the online supply chain with one retailer and two manufacturers because the recommendation market generated by recommender systems alleviates channel conflict.     

基于批发价定价权转移的制造商渠道选择

制造商的批发价定价权发生转移会带来供应链绩效增加和制造商利润降低。利用这一供应链特征,给出了制造商渠道选择的数理方法。制造商在零售商具有/不具有批发价定价权的渠道选择中,潜在的市场规模是关键的选择因素。研究表明:市场规模相同时,制造商会选择拥有批发价定价权的渠道;当拥有批发价定价权的零售商拥有较大市场规模时,制造商会选择该供应链渠道,而此时对供应链双方都具有价值。     

Optimal pricing and trade-in policies in a dual-channel supply chain when considering market segmentation

Many companies are implementing trade-in programmes through multiple channels. This may ultimately lead to fiercer channel conflict and competition. Few studies have explored firms’ optimal trade-in policies in such an environment. To fill the gap, we build a theoretical model that captures the features of a dual-channel situation in which a manufacturer implements a trade-in programme through retail and direct channels simultaneously. Compared with the case in which there is no trade-in rebate, the results show that a trade-in programme can intensify or mitigate the double marginalisation effect if the retailer can initially decide the trade-in rebate in the retail channel. This significantly relies on market segmentation. However, when the retailer cannot decide the trade-in rebate in the retail channel, the trade-in programme aggravates the double marginalisation effect. Second, the trade-in rebate offered by the retailer may be higher than the subsidy offered by the manufacturer, as long as the retailer can autonomously decide the trade-in rebate in the retail channel. Furthermore, we find that both the manufacturer and retailer prefer to obtain the right to autonomously decide the trade-in rebate in the retail channel, but the supply chain prefers that the manufacturer do it. Some numerical examples are provided to further explain these outcomes.     

多供应链间的Nash和Stackelberg博弈决策模型

以N条包含一个制造商和一个零售商的单链式供应链为研究对象,分别讨论了多供应链间Nash博弈和Stackelberg博弈问题,对N条供应链间博弈均衡解进行了分析和求解,证明了N条供应链博弈下均衡解的存在性和唯一性。在实例分析中,以两条供应链为例,比较了不同博弈框架下定价策略和系统利润的差异。结果表明,对于供应链1来说,链间Nash博弈时的零售商利润、制造商利润和供应链利润均大于链间Stackelberg博弈情形,也即无论从零售商、制造商还是整条供应链的角度,他们均乐于放弃作为领导者的先动优势;对于供应链2来说,情况则相反,也即无论从零售商、制造商还是整条供应链的角度,他们均乐于作为追随者发挥后动优势。