Pricing schemes for digital content with DRM mechanisms

In this paper, utilizing game-theoretic model, we examine the impact of collaborative structure, content quality, and network environment on the development of pricing scheme and DRM protection policy of digital content. DRM protection level decreases and pirating activities becomes relatively tolerable as the content provider and platform provider operate collaboratively. Depending on the market structure, higher content quality may strengthen or weaken the adoption of DRM. However, it would seem that, as the network environment becomes more decentralized and uncontrolled, weaker DRM protection should be a better strategy.     

基于模糊层次分析法的铁路运价自动定价方法研究

通过分析影响铁路运价定价的各种因素,选取了其中的运营成本、国家价格策略、货主市场承受能力、平行运行径路的竞争、附加成本、盈利水平、供求关系等7个影响因素,运用模糊层次分析方法,确定了各运价定价影响因素的指标权重,从而为铁路企业在新建铁路运价定价过程中提供决策依据和参考标准.     

石油价格机制改革之对策

文章在阐述我国石油价格形成机制的演变过程的基础上,针对我国目前石油定价机制所导致的诸如石油价格变动滞后以及由此带来的市场信号失灵等问题思考了相应的改革对策,提出了调整政府价格管理职能、建立平等竞争的市场规则、完善稳定油价的调控体系以及加快建立石油战略储备等7个方面的建议。     

Stackelberg–Nash equilibrium of pricing and inventory decisions in duopoly supply chains using a nested evolutionary algorithm

Pricing and inventory control in a competing environment, as separate entities, have attracted much attention from academics and practitioners. However, integrating these decisions in a competitive setting has not been significantly analyzed by academics, but is of great significance to practitioners. In this study, the joint decision on price and inventory control of a deterioration product is investigated in a duopoly setting. We consider two competing supply chains, each consisting of one manufacturer and one retailer. Each manufacturer, as the leader of their supply chain determines the wholesale price to maximize their profit, while the retailer as the follower should determine the retail price and inventory cycle to maximize his or her profit. Using a game theoretic approach, we formulate in-chain, and chain-to-chain competition as a bi-level programming problem, and analyze Stackelberg–Nash equilibrium of the problem. Furthermore, two versions of a nested algorithm are proposed to obtain the equilibrium. Both versions employ a modified threshold-accepting (TA) algorithm to solve the first level of the problem. However, while the first version utilizes the modified TA algorithm to deal with the second level of the problem, the second version applies a differential evolution (DE) approach. Eventually, a numerical study is carried out not only to compare two developed versions of the algorithm, but also to implement the sensitivity analysis of main parameters. Based on numerical experiments, although the accuracy of both versions of algorithm are alike, using TA is more computationally efficient than using DE. Furthermore, despite the permissibility of partial backlogging, it has never occurred in equilibrium points due to in-chain and chain-to-chain competition.     

完全开放的双边电力市场中供需双方叫价拍卖的贝叶斯博弈模型

随着我国进行电力体制改革和建立发电侧竞争市场，需求方很快也会引入竞争，并建立完全开放的双边电力市场。研究供给侧和需求侧如何建立有效的报价策略具有十分重要的理论和实践价值。作者将所有发电公司看成供给方，把所有买电代理商看成需求方，将供给方和需求方的报价问题看成是他们向市场的投标问题，并根据市场确定的规则，总需求电量将在某一价格下完成交易，因而它是供给方和需求方的双方叫价拍卖问题。通过对双方叫价拍卖的交易规则进行描述，针对供给方的生产成本和需求方的估价是私有信息的情况，建立了完全开放的双边电力市场中供给和需求双方叫价拍卖的不完全信息贝叶斯博弈模型，并求解贝叶斯纳什均衡，给出供给方和需求方的均衡报价策略。     

管网独立后我国储气库公司的经营策略探讨

随着我国油气管理体制改革的不断推进,原来捆绑经营的地下储气库（以下简称储气库）将与管道逐步实现业务分离、财务独立乃至产权独立,如何做好储气服务的经营,便成为储气库运营企业亟待思考并解决的问题。为此,以美国储气库运营企业为例,系统分析了其在天然气市场化改革前后管理体制、服务类型和经营策略的变化,进而结合我国储气库业务经营中的关键因素和现存问题,对我国储气库企业的经营提出了建议。结论认为：①美国天然气市场化改革之后,传统的储气服务商通过设立子公司的形式实现了管输与储气的财务分离和经营统一,新建储气库通过开放季的形式进行预售从而锁定客户,将注采能力作为经营重点加强管理,向老客户提供优先续约权从而兼顾公平与效益;②我国的储气库经营还面临着现行储转费测算方法难以反映储气库实际运行成本、对注采能力重要性的认识有待加强等储多问题;③我国储气库经营企业应建立新的储气服务费定价机制,加强对注采能力的管理和经营,将城市燃气企业作为重点用户加强管理并与之深入合作,在合同设计中对气质、注采能力分配等关键参数进行明确规定,进一步细化服务细则。     

Pricing and inventory management in a system with multiple competing retailers under (r, Q) policies

We consider a multi-retailer system operated on an infinite horizon, in which each retailer faces stochastic demand following a Poisson process and adopts a continuous-review (r, Q) policy for replenishing inventory to satisfy customer demand. The system involves decisions of pricing and inventory management with the goal of maximizing profit, which equals the sales revenue minus the purchase and inventory costs. Taking Cournot competition into account, models are formulated to optimize simultaneously the expected sales volumes and (r, Q) policies of all retailers. An efficient approach is proposed to calculate the approximate inventory cost. Based on this approach, solution methods for centralized and decentralized scenarios are developed. A great number of numerical computations are provided to evaluate the efficiency of the solution methods, and their performance in the two scenarios. Moreover, system performance under sequential decisions (first pricing and then inventory management) is also investigated.     

Utilization-based pricing for power management and profit optimization in data centers

Traditional load balancing approaches may spread the load on more computers as long as the performance in terms of response time or cost is minimized. Nowadays power is a growing cost factor for data centers. In this paper, from the service provider’s point of view, the load balancing decision is made based on whether power consumption can be reduced or more profit can be earned. To achieve this, we design pricing algorithms to influence the load distribution. Both algorithms take into account the utilization of computers besides other factors, such as prices and power costs. In the first algorithm, we design pricing functions with respect to the computer utilization to encourage or discourage resource usage. In the second algorithm, we focus on the profit that a service provider can earn after deducting power cost from its revenue. We formulate this profit optimization problem and derive the optimum price solution.     

Analysis of pricing strategies for e-business companies providing information goods and services

In this paper, we introduce a mathematical model to analyze pricing and service quality strategies for e-business companies providing information services to customers. The basic strategy considered in this paper is that a monopolistic e-business company provides free services to try to earn a profit by developing premium goods or services to market created by their free goods or services. It is a kind of versioning strategy where lower quality versions of information goods are provided free. And a direct network effect was also considered. And we tried to find the profit maximizing strategies for monopolistic e-business companies. As a result, the optimal quality and price for the premium goods or services can be obtained at the same level of the intensity of the direct network effect. And the exact term related with the network externality is derived and insights are demonstrated through numerical explorations.