Differential pricing and production strategies for heterogeneous products under cannibalization and promotional effects

This study examines the optimal pricing and production strategy of a closed-loop supply chain consisting of a manufacturer, a recycler, and consumers. Considering the cannibalization and promotion effects of remanufactured products on new and secondhand products, we constructed Stackelberg game models under different scenarios. We analyze the impact of the changes in the two effects on the optimal prices and production strategies of the manufacturer and recycler, as well as their countermeasures. We find that (i) how the cannibalization and promotional effects influence the manufacturer and the recycler's pricing and production strategies differ under different scenarios; (ii) when the two effects exceed a threshold, the manufacturer abandons new or remanufactured products, and the recycler prefers to stop production on its new products or continue to remanufacture products; and (iii) the two effects always reduce the profits of the manufacturer and increase the profits of the recycler.     

Price and quality decisions under network effects

I analyse monopoly pricing and quality decisions under network effects. High quality premium and low quality punishment are found to depend on how the impact of marginal costs on quality relates to the intensity of the network effect and the optimism of the producer about final demand. More precisely, marginal costs have to be low enough (but not too low) with respect to the intensity of the network effects and/or the optimism about final demand so that higher prices reflect higher quality. A similar conclusion can be drawn about incentives for quality provision, whenever quality is considered endogenous together with price.     

Use and misuse of information in supply chain forecasting of promotion effects

Demand forecasting is critical to sales and operations planning (S&OP), but the effects of sales promotions can be difficult to forecast. Typically, a baseline statistical forecast is judgmentally adjusted on receipt of information from different departments. However, much of this information either has no predictive value or its value is unknown. Research into base rate discounting has suggested that such information may distract forecasters from the average uplift and reduce accuracy. This has been investigated in situations in which forecasters were able to adjust the statistical forecasts for promotions via a forecasting support system (FSS). In two ecologically valid experiments, forecasters were provided with the mean level of promotion uplift, a baseline statistical forecast, and quantitative and qualitative information. However, the forecasters were distracted from the base rate and misinterpreted the information available to them. These findings have important implications for the design of organizational S&OP processes, and for the implementation of FSSs.     

Optimal pricing for new and remanufactured products

This work investigates the optimal pricing of new and remanufactured products using a model of consumer preferences based on extensive experimentation. The experimental investigation reveals two distinct segments of consumers. One segment is relatively indifferent between new and remanufactured products and displays high sensitivity to price discounts. The second segment shows strong preferences for new products—with an accompanying aversion to remanufactured products—and realtively low sensitivity to price discounts. The pricing analysis examines several scenarios involving a new product manufacturer, ranging from a simple monopolist scenario to a more complex scenario involving competition with third-party remanufacturers. In contrast to the usual finding that new product prices should decrease when competitive remanufactured products enter the market, the introduction of market segments reveals a robust finding across all scenarios: when remanufactured products enter the market, the optimal price of the new product should increase. Through appropriate pricing of new products, the OEM can mitigate the effects of cannibalization and increase profitability.     

Hospital performance standards and medical pricing: The impact of information disclosure in cardiac care

A policy concern is that the initiation of Hospital Compare (HC) reporting in Medicare provided leverage to insurers in price negotiations for lowering private sector prices without regard to hospital performance. Using the sequential Nash bargaining framework we provide economic intuition to the contrary: while average hospital prices decline under quality disclosures, hospitals with above‐average quality are able to exert a stronger bargaining position, consequently capturing prices above the market rate. To explore this issue empirically we estimate variants of difference‐in‐difference models, examining the effects of the three main scores (heart attack, heart failure, and combined mortalities) on transaction prices of related hospital procedures. States which had similar mandated reporting systems in place before the initiation of HC form the control group. Analyzing claims data of privately insured patients, we find that HC exerted downward pressure on prices. However, hospitals rated “above‐average” captured higher prices, thereby offsetting the overall policy effect fully or partially. Leads and lags analysis lends further support for our difference‐in‐difference approach. We find that highly ranked hospitals received a quality premium of 8–14%, comparable to price effects found in other health care markets. We conclude that HC was effective at constraining prices without penalizing high performers.     

Convergence rates of recombining trees for pricing options on stocks under GBM and regime-switching models with known cash dividends

In the literature there appear various kinds of binomial trees for pricing options on stocks under geometric Brownian motions (GBMs) with known cash dividends. The aim of this paper is to compare the performance of the existing binomial trees in aspect of the convergence rates, which are usually used to measure precisely how fast the approximate values converge to the exact one, and to give a theoretical proof of the convergence rates for the interpolation binomial trees which are based on a model that excludes the arbitrage possibilities. Also the paper extends the studies to the regime-switching models with known cash dividend payment.     

高校科技成果转让中的价值分析与定价策略研究

高校科技成果是知识生产和知识利用的集合体,科技成果转让意味着知识生产力向现实生产力的转化。文章从知识经济学角度出发,利用知识商品价值理论对高校科技成果进行价值属性和价值特点的分析。在价值分析的基础上结合影响高校科技成果转让的主要因素,提出了科技成果转让中的定价策略。     

基于DEA的机械制造业上市公司生产经营效率评价

文章建立评价东部地区25家机械制造行业上市公司生产经营效率的数据包络分析模型,测算了各上市公司的总体效率、技术效率、规模效率及其规模效益状况;分析了各类机械制造业上市公司在投入、产出及资源配置效率等方面的特点,进而提出促进机械制造业高效发展的若干建议。     

基于DEA的机械制造业上市公司生产经营效率评价

文章建立评价东部地区25家机械制造行业上市公司生产经营效率的数据包络分析模型,测算了各上市公司的总体效率、技术效率、规模效率及其规模效益状况;分析了各类机械制造业上市公司在投入、产出及资源配置效率等方面的特点,进而提出促进机械制造业高效发展的若干建议。     

Performance effects of using an ERP system for manufacturing planning and control under dynamic market requirements

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have a controversial reputation. Critics say that even if ERP systems may be beneficial for organizations operating in stable conditions, they are surely detrimental to organizations that face dynamic market requirements. This is because ERP systems are said to impose such procedures and constraints on organizations that make business processes inflexible to change. In contrast, proponents argue that the information-processing capabilities of ERP systems are crucial for organizations that face dynamic market requirements and also that the criticized procedures and constraints actually support process reengineering. These two contradictory arguments are often found in practitioner literature, but both of them can also be supported by management theory. The central tenets of the Organic Theory of organization design imply that ERP systems should be detrimental when market requirements change frequently, whereas the principles of Rigid Flexibility Theory suggest that they should be advantageous. In this study, we use cross-sectional data from 151 manufacturing plants to determine which argument is more applicable in the context of manufacturing planning and control. The results strongly favor the use of ERP systems under dynamic market requirements. To facilitate the reconciliation of the two contradictory arguments, we discuss how the results may have been influenced by two contextual factors: the predominantly technical nature of the studied organizational system and the tight interdependence of the studied activities.     

Environmental Innovations and Strategies for the Development of New Production Technologies: Empirical Evidence from Europe

This study empirically investigates whether firms' improvements in energy and material efficiency are related to the extent to which external partners are involved in the development of process innovations. In particular, we distinguish three different process innovation strategies: firms may follow an ‘in‐house strategy’ and develop their innovations mainly within the firm, they may opt for an ‘external strategy’ and let mainly external partners develop innovations, or they may opt for a ‘cooperation strategy’ and develop innovations jointly with external partners. Using data of manufacturing firms obtained from the fourth Community Innovation Survey covering 14 European countries, we conduct total sample as well as industry‐ and country‐specific regressions. Our results indicate that firms following the ‘external strategy’ tend to have a lower probability of introducing process innovations leading to a marked increase in energy and material efficiency. Moreover, in contrast to extant literature, none of our results suggests that companies following a ‘cooperation strategy’ experience greater environmental innovation performance. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

浅谈提升中小城市酒店服务质量的对策

近几年中小城市酒店业发展势头迅猛,但其服务质量却与大城市中小酒店的服务存在较大的差距。文章从提升服务质量对中小城市酒店发展的重要性入手,分析了顾客对中小城市酒店服务质量的要求和中小城市酒店服务质量存在的问题及原因,提出了建立完善的酒店服务制度、明确酒店工作流程和服务标准、创新酒店服务类型、优化服务过程、加强酒店培训、完善酒店质量监控体系等措施,以提升酒店服务质量和酒店管理水平。     

多品种小批量制造型企业供应链智能维护系统研究

通过分析多品种小批量制造型企业供应链的特点和主要问题,结合供应链智能维护系统的作用,提出了多品种小批量制造型企业供应链智能维护的框架体系结构。介绍了供应链智能维护系统的核心模块:信息采样融合与处理模块和供应链判断决策并形成供应链维护报告模块的主要功能及其所用的供应链运作参考模型(SCOR)和供应链判断决策可采用的方法。同时对系统实现的一些技术进行了探讨,并对供应链管理提出了一种新的思路。     

Time-consistent investment and reinsurance strategies for insurers under multi-period mean-variance formulation with generalized correlated returns

The existing literature on investment and reinsurance is limited to the study of continuous-time problems, while discrete-time problems are always ignored by researchers. In this study, we first discuss a multi-period investment and reinsurance optimization problem under the classical mean-variance framework. When the asset returns with a serially correlated structure, the time-consistent investment and reinsurance strategies are acquired via backward induction. In addition, we propose an alternative time-consistent mean-variance optimization model that contrasts with the classical mean-variance model, and the corresponding optimal strategy and value function are also derived. We find that the investment and reinsurance strategies are both independent of the current wealth for the above two optimization problems, which coincides with the conclusion presented in the continuous-time problems. Most importantly, the above investment strategies with serially correlated structures are both conditional mean-based strategies, rather than unconditional ones. Finally, we compare the investment and reinsurance strategies suggested above based on the simulation approach, to shed light on which investment-reinsurance strategies are more suitable for insurers.     

金融危机下中小型货代企业的应对策略

美国次贷危机导致的金融风暴引发了全球性的金融危机,并不断地向实体经济渗透。金融危机给货代行业带来了许多风险因素,但同时也给货代企业带来了一定的机遇。文章主要研究中小型货代企业在金融危机下的经济环境中如何规避风险,抓住机遇,采取有效的应对策略。