A simulation‐based algorithm for optimal pricing policy under demand uncertainty |
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Authors: | Saswata Chakravarty Sindhu Padakandla Shalabh Bhatnagar |
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Affiliation: | 1. Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, , Bangalore, 560012 India;2. Department of Computer Science and Automation, Indian Institute of Science, , Bangalore, 560012 India |
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Abstract: | We propose a simulation‐based algorithm for computing the optimal pricing policy for a product under uncertain demand dynamics. We consider a parameterized stochastic differential equation (SDE) model for the uncertain demand dynamics of the product over the planning horizon. In particular, we consider a dynamic model that is an extension of the Bass model. The performance of our algorithm is compared to that of a myopic pricing policy and is shown to give better results. Two significant advantages with our algorithm are as follows: (a) it does not require information on the system model parameters if the SDE system state is known via either a simulation device or real data, and (b) as it works efficiently even for high‐dimensional parameters, it uses the efficient smoothed functional gradient estimator. |
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Keywords: | optimal pricing policy Bass model parameterized stochastic differential equation (SDE) stochastic approximation algorithm smoothed functional gradient estimates |
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