零售商风险规避对制造商双渠道选择的影响

在随机的市场需求条件下,本文针对风险中性制造商为主导和风险规避零售商为随从的两级供应链,构建了单源渠道和双源渠道情形下供应链Stackelberg博弈模型,对比分析了不同情形下供应链均衡策略的变化。研究结果表明零售商的风险规避只能改变零售渠道的价格,而不会影响制造商批发价格和电子直销价格的制定;电子直销渠道市场份额会影响制造商和零售商决策的制定,减缓零售商的风险规避影响程度,品牌差异策略并不能完全协调渠道间的冲突。     

考虑碳减排投资与股权合作的供应链融资决策

为探寻低碳供应链中订购资金约束的零售商面对多渠道融资时最优决策，构建了一个碳减排投资的制造商和一个资金约束的零售商组成的两阶段供应链Stackelberg博弈模型，分别在单一债权渠道和债权股权合作渠道下，探讨消费者低碳偏好、银行信贷利率、股权合作比例对低碳供应链融资及订购决策的影响。研究表明，消费者低碳偏好和股权合作比例的提高均有利于扩大低碳产品市场需求、促使制造商提高碳减排投资，同时有利于制造商、零售商实现利润最大化，而银行信贷利率的影响与之相反。且制造商始终偏好债权股权合作渠道，而零售商只在特定条件下偏好债权股权合作渠道；否则将选择单一债权渠道。     

强零售商不确定性闭环供应链回收渠道的决策分析

本文为研究不确定性对强势零售商闭环供应链回收渠道决策的影响,应用多目标规划和非合作博弈解出了三种回收渠道(零售商回收、制造商回收和第三方回收)下多目标效用函数的均衡解,并与确定时的均衡解进行了比较.研究结果表明:不确定性使三种回收渠道的回收率降低、销售价提高以及制造商和零售商效用值减少;与制造商领头的确定性闭环供应链不同,制造商和零售商都会选择制造商直接回收渠道.     

基于期权合约的供应链协调优化决策问题研究

针对由制造商和零售商组成的供应链系统,探讨实行期权合约情况下该供应链系统的最优决策问题;根据是否使用期权合约,以利润最大为目标,构建了Stackelberg博弈模型,运用逆向归纳法得到了相关均衡解。通过风险变化与数值分析发现,随着期权执行价格的提高,制造商利润逐渐增大,且大于未使用期权合约时的利润;而零售商利润逐渐减小,且当期权价格较大时,零售商利润将小于未使用期权合约时的利润。因此,当期权执行价格在一个合适的范围内时,实行期权合约能同时增加制造商和零售商的利润。     

通道费:大零售商挖掘市场效率的一种机制设计

本文运用数值例子和一般化博弈模型对1个生产商、1个大零售商和n个小零售商的市场进行了考察,给出了大零售商对生产商拥有讨价还价力量、生产商对小零售商拥有讨价还价力量时的市场均衡。结论为:(1)在大零售商使用包含通道费在内的"三部费"合约的市场均衡中,上下游可以实现纵向一体化利润。与生产商对下游完全拥有市场力量的情形相比,消费者剩余不会降低,市场价格不会上升,生产商获得的利润也不会减少。(2)大零售商的利润来自于消除上下游市场外部性,以及对市场效率改进的边际贡献。通道费可以视作是大零售商通过挖掘市场效率而获利的一种机制设计。(3)从政策角度看,用单一禁止通道费来提高市场效率和社会福利的目标往往难以实现。与其简单地取消进场费,还不如把政策的着力点放在支持小零售商、改善零售市场结构效率上。     

部分信息下考虑返回策略的供应链协调研究

研究了仅知需求的上下界信息条件下,基于最小最大后悔准则的供应链收益共享契约和返回策略的协调问题。运用Stackelberg非合作博弈理论,分别构建了分散式、收益共享情形下、集中式供应链中零售商订货和供应链内部协调机制。研究发现,当需求的上下界信息发生大幅变动时,供应链系统的利润变化很小。相比分散式供应链情形,收益共享协调机制可以大幅提高零售商以及供应链系统的利润,小幅降低制造商的利润。进一步的分析发现,无论需求上下界信息如何变化,收益共享协调机制下供应链的整体利润大于集中式供应链下系统的利润。     

产品类别对企业合作广告与定价策略的影响

研究由一个制造商和一个电子零售商组成的供应链,分析产品类别对企业合作广告与定价策略的影响。本文先后考察了合作广告下Stackelberg主从博弈和Nash合作博弈模型的建立与分析,比较了两种博弈均衡下的策略选择及其系统期望利润,用数学仿真软件检验了产品网络适应度对两个模型的合作广告费用和利润的影响,最后利用Nash讨价还价理论对合作利益进行了分配,并确定了制造商在渠道合作广告合作联盟协调中的分摊率,基于这个结果获得最佳的市场策略。     

双渠道供应链环境下企业创新投入研究

电子商务环境下渠道冲突与和谐并存问题受到越来越多关注,利用Stackelberg博弈,在价格竞争与价格敏感需求条件下,构建零售商以创新投入降低其分销成本、制造商对其创新投入实施策略性补偿激励的双渠道供应链模型,研究发现策略性创新激励补偿能实现制造商与零售商收益的Pareto改进、实现消费者福利改进。     

基于B2C背景下多渠道供应链的渠道选择及定价策略分析

本文对B2C背景下多渠道供应链的渠道选择与定价策略问题进行分析,首先对B2C以及多渠道供应链博弈问题的研究背景进行分析,然后对多渠道供应链的渠道竞争问题进行阐述,侧重对渠道选择与定价策略问题进行分析,通过相关分析得出以下几个方面的结论 ：第一,从制造商与零售商渠道策略偏好的角度上来说,无论多渠道供应链权力结构以零售商还是制造商占主导,对于制造商而言,多数情况下均偏向对第三方电商销售平台的引入。第二,从多渠道供应链均衡策略的角度上来说,供应链成员渠道策略均衡会同时受到平台费率以及渠道竞争水平这两个方面因素的影响,且平台费率、渠道竞争水平与均衡策略之间存在一定的正相关关系。在制造商占据领导地位的情况下,供应链均衡策略的选择对制造商而言更为有利;而在零售商占据主导地位时,供应链均衡策略有可能并非零售商;制造商的策略最优解。第三,在多渠道供应链中引入第三方平台会对供应链产生重大影响,对提升其整体绩效水平有重要意义,直接表现为对总利润以及消费者剩余的增加,且提高渠道竞争水平会减少多渠道供应链受第三方平台引入所产生的影响,对供应链利益水平也有相应的影响。     

考虑自有品牌与直销渠道下的广告模型研究

本文研究制造商引入直销渠道和零售商创建自有品牌之间渠道的竞争关系。零售商创建自有品牌作为制造商品牌的替代品,消费者判断购买何种产品时,受制造商产品广告效应的影响,而制造商开通直销渠道受消费者渠道偏好的影响。研究发现,当制造商产品的销售比例小于一定范围时,零售商和制造商渠道的均衡决策是双方同时引入自有品牌和直销渠道。     

Complementary Goods: Prices and Consumer Welfare Under Duopoly and Monopoly

We examine prices, profits, and consumer surplus for differentiated complementary goods under duopoly and a multi‐product monopoly. We find that little can be said about the relative magnitudes of prices of the components of a system of complementary goods under the alternative market structures. Although demand complementarity can lead to lower prices for either the primary or the secondary good under monopoly, both prices are not necessarily lower. The results unique to this paper are that, when two complementary goods form a system, the system price is unambiguously lower and consumer surplus and profits are higher under a multi‐product monopoly.     

Market share as a source of market power: Implications and some evidence

This paper investigates the proposition that firms with a high market share enjoy a unique form of market power—“inherent product differentiation.” The analysis is based on a sample of 6492 banks, during the 1970s. Tests tend to control for market concentration, scale economies, and explicit product differentiation as factors influencing rates of return. Test results indicate that market share per se is a source of high profits, regardless of the level of concentration and after controlling for firm size. These findings question the Demsetz (1973) view that high profits of market leaders are due to efficiency rather than to some form of market power.These findings suggest that traditional market models that account only for a single price may be incomplete. The paper suggests a kind of simple model that would account for the existence of multiple prices in a market.     

OBSERVABLE MANAGERIAL INCENTIVES AND SPATIAL COMPETITION

In this paper we investigate the relationship between product market competition and managerial incentives within a circular city model with observable agency contracts. With respect to the case of unobservability studied by Raith (2003 ), we find that optimal managerial contracts provide lower incentives, and that equilibrium expected prices and profits are higher. Changes in competition fundamentals have ambiguous effects, but observable contracts alleviate their impact on incentives. Finally, observability involves three major implications: managerial incentives are higher under price regulation than under competition; prices may increase with the number of firms; consumer welfare may diminish when competition increases.     

Marketplace,reseller, or web-store channel: The impact of return policy and cross-channel spillover from marketplace to web-store

With the advent of e-commerce, new platform sales have been created in the online retailing industry, and choosing the best platform has become a challenge for manufacturers. For instance, marketplace and web-store are two e-channels for selling goods directly to end customers. In the marketplace, manufacturers sell their products directly to online customers through e-tailers' platforms and share revenue with e-tailers. In the web-store channel, manufacturers sell their products directly to end customers through their platforms and do not need to e-tailers' platforms. However, some manufacturers and e-tailers continue with reseller channel yet. Reseller channel is another conventional channel in which manufacturers distribute their products to e-tailers, then e-tailers choose retail prices and sell them to consumers. Therefore, with these three different channels, the key question is when and under what conditions manufacturers can choose marketplace or reseller channel in addition to their web-store channels to grow their market share. In this paper, we analyze these three different e-channels and the conditions that manufacturers adopt the marketplace or reseller channel. For this purpose, we consider a model with two manufacturers and one e-tailer in which the manufacturers have their web-store channels, and they are willing to adopt another channelـ reseller or marketplace. The manufacturers offer a return policy in their web-store channels as a competitive strategy for attracting more customers. We find that offering return policy in web-store channels has no effect on the choice between the marketplace and reseller channel, but it has an impact on the amount of manufacturers' profits in each channel. Also, we demonstrate that regardless of offering return policy, as the coefficient of cross-channel effect increases, the manufacturers' profits, whether they choose reseller channel or marketplace channel, increase. But, as the coefficient of cross-channel effect increases, the e-tailer's profit increases when both manufacturers choose reseller channel, otherwise decreases. If manufacturers offer a return policy, the e-tailer's profit is highest when both manufacturers choose reseller channel, and if they do not offer a return policy, the e-tailer's profit is highest when both manufacturers choose marketplace channel.     

Profits and perils in the antiques and collectibles market: the influence of product knowledge structures on dealer exchange outcomes

The secondary market for antiques and collectibles represents a disorganized market channel characterized by competition for supply of rare goods and retail sales arising from non-traditional channels, loose ties among channel members, and largely unregulated transactions between buyers and sellers. This study explores how knowledge structures affect dealers' abilities to turn a profit in the antiques and collectibles market. Data were obtained from in-depth interviews with eight professional antiques and collectibles dealers operating in different regions of the United States. Findings indicate that while information is widespread, its credibility can be difficult to assess without some degree of product and market knowledge. Furthermore, the findings show knowledge plays a critical and somewhat differential role in the ability of professional dealers to turn a profit. Knowledge asymmetries that create favorable conditions for profits when dealers hold the balance of informational power in the upstream acquisition of antiques and collectibles ironically reduce dealers' ability to earn profits in downstream resale of these goods. Findings support a multidimensional view of knowledge as a broader concept, based on information and product and market expertise, but deepened by experiences that lead to tacit knowledge, which can be difficult to transmit.     

Stock return predictability and determinants of predictability and profits

We examine stock return predictability for India and find strong evidence of sectoral return predictability over market return predictability. We show that mean-variance investors make statistically significant and economically meaningful profits by tracking financial ratios. For the first time in this literature, we examine the determinants of time-varying predictability and mean-variance profits. We show that both expected and unexpected shocks emanating from most financial ratios explain sectoral return predictability and profits. These are fresh contributions to the understanding of asset pricing.     

Software piracy and outsourcing in two-sided markets

This paper examines the role of software piracy in digital platforms where a platform provider makes a decision of how much software to produce in-house and how much to outsource from a third-party software provider. Using a vertical differentiation model, we theoretically investigate how piracy influences the software outsourcing decision. We find that when piracy is intermediate, the loss in in-house software profits due to piracy outweighs the loss in licensing fee profits. As a result, an increase in piracy leads to more outsourcing. However, when piracy is high, it becomes too expensive for the platform provider to subsidize the software provider, resulting in a decrease in outsourcing. Moreover, when software variety is also endogenously chosen by firms, the platform provider’s incentive to develop software variety in-house depends not only on the return from software profits but also on the return from hardware profits. Under such a situation, an increase in piracy always leads to less outsourcing and less total software variety. To provide additional insights on the outsourcing decision, we conduct empirical analyses using data from the U.S. handheld video game market between 2004 and 2012. This market is a classical two-sided market, dominated by two handheld platforms (Nintendo DS and Sony PlayStation Portable) and is known to have suffered from software piracy significantly. Our regression results show that in this market, piracy increases outsourcing but has no effect on the total software variety.

     

Competitive sustainable processes and pricing decisions in omnichannel closed-up supply chains under different channel power structures

In recent years, omnichannel retailing and remanufacturing issues have rapidly emerged in the closed-loop supply chain (CLSC). The omnichannel is a combination of online and in-store retailing, and it affects supply chain relationships and channel power structures by changing value creation processes. It allows consumers a hybrid shopping experience where they can order products online and pick them up in the store or test in-store and buy online (TSBO). Despite this practice, no studies exist on CLSC considering omnichannel retailing under different channel power structures. We investigate the TSBO retailing strategy and its impact on CLSC profit considering price competition between manufacturer and remanufacturer under Manufacturer Stackelberg (MS), Retailer Stackelberg (RS), Vertical Nash (VN), and cooperation (CO) models game settings. In this paper, mathematical models are developed to drive the optimal solution. A two-part tariff coordination mechanism (i.e., IS model) is also used to integrate all supply chain members. The proposed models examine the environmental and social welfare benefits of adopting green innovation products and remanufacturing processes in omnichannel retailing. A numerical study is carried out to illustrate the proposed models' application. The results show that the IS model can synchronize the economic, environmental, and social aspects leading to significant increases in performance. Total supply chain profit under the CO model is the highest. The manufacturer and remanufacturer generate higher profits in the MS model, whereas the retailer makes higher profits in the RS and VN models. When a manufacturer only wants to increase profit with green processes and is not concerned about omnichannel processes, more resources must be allocated for green innovation.     

Technology-investing countries and stock return predictability

For 77 technology-investing countries we test whether their stock market returns are predictable. We find that exchange rate returns and U.S. stock excess returns predict stock market returns for most countries in our sample, while crude oil and inflation predict returns of less than 40% of countries. While in out-of-sample tests the evidence of predictability declines, U.S. returns still beat the constant returns model for three-quarters of countries in our sample. A portfolio of all 77 countries offers a mean-variance investor annualized profits of between 5.7% and 8.0%, and profits are maximized when return forecasts are based on U.S. returns.     

Compete in Price or Service?—A Study of Personalized Pricing and Money Back Guarantees

Retailers use both pricing and service strategies to respond to intensified competition. Here we develop a duopoly model to investigate the impact of the increasingly popular personalized pricing strategy (PPS) and the widely used Money Back Guarantee (MBG) customer returns policy. We consider two retailers who differ in customer satisfaction rates. Each retailer chooses a pricing strategy, PPS or uniform pricing, and a product return strategy, MBG or ‘no returns.’ We show that both PPS and MBG are dominant strategies, but their impact on retailers’ prices and profits are different; while PPS intensifies price competition and may lead to a prisoner’s dilemma in which both retailers may lose profit, MBG mitigates price competition and may result in a Pareto improvement in both retailers’ profits. Both PPS and MBG increase the size of the overall market, but not the total duopoly profit. The total customer surplus and social welfare may increase under either strategy. In addition, we obtain some interesting observations as to how our results may change if the product quality/customer satisfaction rate is endogenously chosen in the duopoly. Some of our findings are in contrast to related results reported in the literature.