List pricing and discounting in a Bertrand–Edgeworth duopoly

List, or retail, pricing is a widely used trading institution where firms announce a price that may be discounted at a later stage. Competition authorities view list pricing and discounting as a procompetitive practice. We modify the standard Bertrand–Edgeworth duopoly model to include list pricing and a subsequent discounting stage. Both firms first simultaneously choose a maximum list price and then decide whether to discount, or not, in a subsequent stage. We show that list pricing works as a credible commitment device that induces a pure strategy outcome. This is true for a general class of rationing rules. Further unlike the dominant firm interpretation of a price leader, the low capacity firm may have incentives to commit to a low price and in this sense assume the role of a leader.     

The emerging value network in the mobile phone industry: The case of Japan and its implications for the rest of the world

This paper considers how the mobile phone industry is changing from a value chain to a value network using the Japanese market as an example. Value networks involve a larger number of firms, a more complex set of relationships between them, and agreements on a greater number of interface standards than do value chains. Building from this concept of a value network, the paper shows how: (1) agreements on many of these interface standards are enabling connections to be made between the mobile phone and other industries; (2) the resulting products and services often reflect the technological capability of phones and the existing products and services in these “other” industries; (3) each new interface standard requires a new critical mass of users; and (4) a critical mass of users for a new interface standard partly builds from previously created critical masses of users. On a practical level, this paper's analysis adds to a growing list of evidence that the growth in Western mobile Internet markets is nowhere near its potential and that the change from a value chain to a value network requires a different form of standard setting, policy making, and management than are currently used in the mobile phone industry.     

Innovation contests: attracting new solvers and new high-quality solutions

This study extends research on online innovation contests by focusing on the process of an innovation contest. The authors propose that the decision of a solver to join a contest and the likelihood that a solver will submit a high-quality solution are functions of the current number of solvers in a contest and of the current number of high-quality solutions. The hypotheses are tested in an empirical analysis using a unique data set of 1351 online innovation contests for graphic design projects. The study finds that solvers joining a contest and solvers submitting high-quality solutions are two dynamic and interacting processes that impact the outcomes of an innovation contest. More specifically, the results reveal that (1) a solver is less likely to join a contest that already has many solvers, and many high-quality solutions; (2) a solver is more likely to submit a high-quality solution in a contest if the contest has already many solvers or the focal solver has already submitted one or more high-quality solutions; (3) a solver is less likely to submit a high-quality solution if the contest already has many high-quality solutions developed by others. Organizers of online innovation contests need to understand these complex relationships when they manage contests and aim to improve contest performance. This article details the implications of these findings for the theory and practice of innovation contests.     

煤炭企业物资采购预付款风险管理与控制

结合当前形势对煤炭企业物资采购预付款风险进行分析,从精细化管理角度出发提出了建立预付款首接风险责任制、供应商管理机制、全程跟踪机制、预警机制、预付款指标奖惩制度和后续管理6个管理机制,以此形成完善的风险防范运行机制,强化风险管理,降低预付款采购风险。     

Short product life cycles: implications for the marketing activities of small high-technology companies*

ABSTRACT Many high-technology products are characterized by a “short” product life cycle (PLC)—a short life on the market, a steep decline stage and the lack of a maturity stage. The paper discusses the implications for marketing activities of this pattern in the case of small high-technology companies. It is shown that the marketing of a short PLC product requires a high level of marketing, managerial ability and sophistication as well as an investment of a large amount of resources. It is pointed out that small high-technology firms are faced with a particularly difficult situation in this case because they lack appropriate resources and marketing sophistication. An understanding of the short PLC problem will help the small companies to conduct a more realistic assessment of the magnitude of the marketing task they face in order to adequately prepare themselves or avoid a commitment to projects which are beyond their abilities.     

Financing a central research laboratory: A tool of R & D subsidy policy

Abstract . In this paper we discuss two major issues of financing a central research laboratory.
First, the decision faced by the firm or the division whether to invest in its own laboratory or to rent compatible central laboratory services. The second issue is the price that a central laboratory should charge for renting out its facilities.
Under the assumptions that a laboratory can serve a large number of users over a long period of time and thus diversify the risk of liquidation better than a single firm or division, we show that, under uncertainty, the rent for the central laboratory assets is less than the price that a firm is willing to pay for its usage. This surplus has interesting policy implications for the diversified firm that operates a central R & D laboratory for the use of its divisions and may wish to establish a transfer price system. Moreover, if the government finances a central laboratory to service industrial firms and it follows a policy of subsidizing industrial R & D, the surplus may be given to the user of the laboratory as a direct subsidy.     

Optimal inventory and pricing policies for remanufacturable leased products

In this paper we consider a company which leases new products and also sells remanufactured versions of the new product that become available at the end of their lease periods. When the amount of end-of-lease items in stock is not sufficient to meet the demand for remanufactured products, the firm may purchase additional cores from a third-party supplier. We develop a dynamic programming formulation for determining the optimal price of remanufactured products, and optimal payment structure for the leased products. Our objective is to maximize the discounted system-wide profit over a finite horizon. The profit function consists of revenues that are obtained from remanufactured product sales and leasing, remanufacturing and manufacturing costs, inventory holding and shortage costs. We consider a consumer choice based demand model for mapping a potential customer into one of the product segments (a remanufactured product customer or a customer for a leased product with a particular lease period) for a given price/lease payment vector. We explore several properties of the discounted profit function and provide insight on the behavior of pricing and inventory policies. We also investigate the effect of key product characteristics such as deterioration in age, cost of shortage in remanufacturable product inventory, and key market characteristics such as relative willingness-to-pay for buying a remanufactured product and relative willingness-to-pay for leasing a new product on optimal pricing policies through a computational study.     

Bilateral Bargaining with Externalities

This paper provides an analysis of a non‐cooperative pairwise bargaining game between agents in a network. We establish that there exists an equilibrium that generates a coalitional bargaining division of the reduced surplus that arises as a result of externalities between agents. That is, we provide a non‐cooperative justification for a cooperative division of a non‐cooperative surplus. The resulting division is related to the Myerson‐Shapley value with properties that are particularly useful and tractable in applications. We demonstrate this by examining buyer‐seller networks and vertical foreclosure.     

Pricing with Endogenous Direct Advertising in a Monopoly

This paper develops a model of informative advertising in which a firm builds a database using its historical sales records in order to directly target ads on those consumers who have a high probability of purchasing its products. We show that the firm can use this type of direct advertising as a screening mechanism to identify high demand consumers. As a result, direct advertising can work essentially as a device to increase a firm's monopoly power. From a social point of view, this implies that the transition from traditional mass-advertising to direct advertising can generate a trade-off between higher advertising efficiency and greater monopoly power. We compute the model to shed light on the relative strength of these two forces, and find that while direct advertising might have a substantial negative impact on consumers, this advertising technology can only occasionally reduce welfare.     

Twists and turns of triadic business relationship recovery

This study focuses on triadic business relationship recovery processes through a single case study. We address the question of what kind of process takes place when a business relationship on the verge of ending is recovered and what roles a third actor can play in the process. As a result, we model a process through which a triadic business relationship is recovered and attraction, trust, and commitment are restored.     

APPLYING MONTE CARLO SIMULATION AND RISK ANALYSIS TO THE FACILITY LOCATION PROBLEM

Facility location problems have become a more strategic decision than just finding the lowest cost space to house a company's product. When choosing the placement of a distribution center, a company must weigh the new freight costs and the cost of a new or leased structure against its necessary service levels, as well as several other factors. Companies can also save on logistics costs in choosing the correct location by incorporating the inherent risk and variability that are involved in a facility location decision. However, in reality, most companies do not analytically consider risk and variability in choosing a location. This article presents a methodology to help determine candidate locations and then conduct a financial risk analysis to determine the ideal location of a new facility.     

Using performance-based warranties to influence consumer purchase decisions

Abstract

Traditional warranty analysis focuses on the reliability of a product and offers warranty designs that compensate a consumer if the item fails. We introduce the concept of a performance-based warranty (PBW) that guarantees that a product will operate at or above some baseline level of performance, such as a minimum energy efficiency for an appliance. We illustrate how consumer behavior can change in the presence of a PBW and define the parameters for which a manufacturer may increase revenue. Finally, we present an algorithm to solve for the optimal PBW design given a consumer’s belief about the expected performance of the product.     

苯酚的国内外生产现状及市场前景

目前，全球苯酚的总生产能力约为9260kt／a，2004年总消费量约为7745kt／a。预计到2009年总生产能力将达到11350kt／a，总消费量将达到9452kt／a。2005年我国苯酚的总生产能力约为580kt／a，2004年产量为410kt／a，消费量约为689．6kt／a，产不足需，每年都得大量进口。预计到2010年我国苯酚的总生产能力将达到约1000kt／a，消费量将达到约855kt／a。针对目前我国苯酚生产存在的问题，提出了今后的发展建议。     

Mutual commitment to support exchange: relation‐specific IT system as a substitute for managerial hierarchy

This paper examines the effects of information technology (IT) on the governance of vertically related firms. We propose that a highly relation‐specific IT system in inter‐firm transactions plays a key role in the resulting inter‐firm governance as a mutual sunk‐cost commitment, in terms of leading to both less vertical integration (i.e., a change in governance mode as a first‐order effect) and a smaller number of suppliers (i.e., a change within a governance mode as a second‐order effect). As a result, this highly relation‐specific IT system (bilateral investment) can be an alternative governance mode of electronic integration that acts as a substitute for managerial hierarchy and vertical financial ownership. From a strategic management perspective, this paper provides transaction costs and resource‐based explanations on IT systems' impact on the organizational boundary decision and its impact on the likelihood of the firm achieving sustainable competitive advantage. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Deed Types, House Prices and Mortgage Interest Rates

When houses are sold they come with a deed attached that spells out the legal guarantees on good title. Some deeds give clues about the characteristics of the seller or the house. Using a 37,043-observation house price hedonic with a Bayesian spatial error model, we find the type of deed attached to a housing sale can have a dramatic correlation with the sale price. Ten deed types command a discount, and one commands a premium relative to warranty deeds. Mortgage rates for sheriff's deeds and foreclosure deeds are lower than for warranty deeds, indicating more sophisticated buyers.     

Auctions for Split-Award Contracts

The buyer of a homogeneous input divides his input requirements into two contracts that are awarded to different suppliers. He uses a sequential second-price auction to award a primary and a secondary contract. With a fixed number of suppliers the buyer pays a higher expected price than with a sole-source auction. The premium paid to the winner of the secondary contract must also be paid to the winner of the primary contract as an opportunity cost. When entry is endogenous, we identify the conditions under which a secondary contract can increase the number of suppliers and lower the expected price.     

采用市场倒逼机制促进煤炭生产革命

从"动力源""持续性"和"有效性"3个方面着眼,介绍了煤炭生产和消费者间的关系和煤炭消费需求的新变化,分析了煤炭供应者实施煤炭生产革命的方略,提出引发和推动煤炭生产革命的最根本动力是市场客户需求,只有采用市场客户需求倒逼机制才能有效地促进煤炭生产革命。     

Product improvement and leadership in differentiated markets

This paper examines the persistence of market leadership when firms invest nonexclusively in product-improving R&D prior to competing in a differentiated Bertrand market. The analysis establishes that whether a leader maintains its position depends on the nature and extent of differentiation. While a leader in a horizontally differentiated market always becomes increasingly dominant as a result of its investment, there exist equilibria in which a leader in a vertically differentiated market loses its position.     

煤炭市场供需波动与价格风险管理

大秦线的春季检修是历年上半年北方下水煤供应波动的主要因素,通过分析发现大秦线检修带来的供给波动在历年的夏季价格大跌中发挥了关键性作用。除了大秦线检修之外,需求的波动、运输计划的调整等都会带来市场的波动。在供大于求的市场环境下,价格易跌难涨,波动对于短期价格变化有重大影响。价格的下行实际上是在各种供需波动作用下,少涨多跌的动态调整过程。因此,在当前的煤炭经营管理中,应强化波动管理,最大限度地避免供需波动、平滑煤炭供应、稳定市场价格。     

Reinventing a business model in industrial networks: Implications for customers' brand perceptions

Although researchers recognize the need for established market-centered business models that address and satisfy consumer's needs, little research has been done on the link between a customer's perception and a business model innovation (BMI). We addressed this research opportunity by conducting a case study encompassing 394 respondents to explore how a BMI affects customers' brand perceptions, distinguishing between their brand trust, brand loyalty, and brand equity. We conceptualize a BMI from an industrial network perspective and decompose the effect of different BMI dimensions: value offering innovation (VOI), value architecture innovation (VAI), and revenue model innovation (RMI). Our results show that a VOI has a positive impact on brand equity and a negative impact on brand loyalty. Further, a VAI has an inverted u-shaped relationship with brand trust, whereas an RMI has a positive impact on brand trust. In turn, brand trust fully mediates the relationships between an RMI and brand loyalty and an RMI and brand equity. Our insights contribute to BMI research from a customer-centric perspective. In particular, we extend our knowledge of BMIs by offering a more granular understanding of how different BMI dimensions affect a customer's brand perceptions. We contribute to industrial networks literature by offering rich and novel insights to purposefully manage an industrial network's BMI.