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.     

Competitive strategy in remanufacturing and the impact of take-back laws

This paper examines the impact of take-back laws within a manufacturer/remanufacturer competitive framework. Take-back laws require that firms take responsibility for the collection/disposal costs of their products. We consider two alternative implementations of take-back laws that are distinguished by the degree of control that the manufacturer has on returns sold to the remanufacturer. In one implementation, known as collective WEEE take-back, the manufacturer has no control over returns sold to the remanufacturer. The other implementation, known as individual WEEE take-back, gives complete control to the manufacturer.We develop a general two-period model to investigate questions of interest to policy-makers in government and managers in industry. Our results suggest that, in some settings, enactment of collective WEEE take-back will result in higher manufacturer and remanufacturer profits while simultaneously spurring remanufacturing activity and reducing the tax burden on society. A negative effect is higher consumer prices in the market. In other settings, we find that collective WEEE take-back introduces a structural change to the industry—creating an environment where remanufacturing becomes profitable when it is not profitable without a take-back law. With respect to individual WEEE take-back, we find that the manufacturer often benefits from allowing the remanufacturer to enter the market, though from a government policy-maker perspective, there are clear risks of monopolistic behavior.     

Sustainable reverse supply chains and circular economy in multichannel retail returns

The percentage of products being returned in multichannel retail are high and further increasing, yet many retailers and manufacturers are unaware of the importance and scale of this issue. They consider dealing with returns as a cost of doing business and are oblivious of the potential for conflicts between their corporate social responsibility commitments and their returns practices. This article investigates how far sustainable practices and circular economy concepts have been implemented in retail returns systems; it identifies vulnerabilities, barriers, and challenges to the implementation of sustainable, circular practices and suggests ways to overcome them, as sustainability, loss prevention, and profit optimisation can go hand in hand with the right approach to the organisation of the reverse supply chain. Implications of this research on strategic management are outlined. The research was conducted using in‐depth interviews and observations with four major retailers in the United Kingdom, 17 structured interviews, 100 retailer website reviews, and three retail community workshops, all with British and other European retailers.     

基于确定当量的风险规避零售商最优订货决策分析

在报童模型的基础上,分析了风险规避对零售商订货决策造成的影响。比较了几种常用的供应链风险分析模型．认为确定当量法是一种更有效的分析方法。利用指数效用函数对风险进行定量处理．通过确定当量分析方法,将随机效用值转化为确定的效用值．从而将风险引入收益函数进行订货决策分析。同时,证明了零售商的风险规避将导致其最优订货量下降,而且随着零售商风险规避意愿的增强,最优订货量会不断减少。最后,通过数值实验,对风险中性和风险规避零售商的订货量进行了比较。     

建立应急防控物资供应链模式设想

伴随紧急事件发生常会出现物资短缺、供应渠道不畅等问题,尤其对于一些像医疗用品等特殊物资的供给,因其规格标准具有严格要求,加之生产企业和供应商数量有限,短时间获得大量供应尤其存在困难。文章运用供应链管理模式结合医用物资的生产供应特点,提出了由政府层面组建应急防控物资供应链并发挥指挥协调作用的设想,通过集中整合政府各职能部门和社会分散资源,保障各类应急防控物资顺利获得并及时发送到位。     

The role of physical distribution services as determinants of product returns in Internet retailing

Pressure continues to build on Internet retailers to squeeze out inefficiencies from their day-to-day operations. One major source of such inefficiencies is product returns. Indeed, product returns in Internet retailing have been shown to be, on average, as high as 22% of sales. Yet, most retailers accept them as a necessary cost of doing business. This is not surprising since many retailers do not have a clear understanding of the causes of product returns. While it is known that return policies of retailers, along with product attributes, are two important factors related to product return incidents, little is known about which aspects of the online retail transaction make such a purchase more return-prone. In the current study, we seek to address this issue. We use a large data set of customer purchases and returns to identify how process attributes in physical distribution service (PDS) influence product returns. The first attribute involves perceptions of scarcity conditions in inventory availability among consumers when retailers reveal to consumers information on inventory levels for the products that they intend to buy. Our results show that orders in which items are sold when these conditions are revealed to shoppers have a higher likelihood of being returned than orders in which these conditions are not revealed. While prior research has argued that inventory scarcity perceptions have an effect on purchases, our findings suggest that they are also related to the likelihood of these purchases being returned. The second attribute involves the reliability in the delivery of orders to consumers. We find that the likelihood of orders being returned depends on the consistency between retailer promises of timeliness in the delivery of orders and the actual delivery performance of the orders. Moreover, we find that the effect that consistency in the delivery has in the likelihood of returns, is stronger for orders that involve promises for expedited delivery than for orders with less expeditious promises. That is, although the occurrence of returns depends on the delays in the delivery of orders to consumers relative to the initial promises made by the retailers, this effect is more notable for orders that involve promises of fast delivery.     

发展上海食品物流的对策研究

作为朝阳产业的食品物流在上海已经有了初步发展，但食品物流的发展现状还远远不能满足上海这个国际大都市的需要整个物流市场制度的不健全，相对延缓了其健康发展，作为第三产业组成部分的食品物流的发展迫在眉睫，食品物流的发辰必将有利于上海市经济的发展以及十一五规划目标的买现论文据此分析了上海发展食品物流的必要性，并提出相关发展对策。     

我国连锁零售业供应链管理的策略

首先,从国内连锁零售业的迅猛发中得出其快速发展的原因,同时清醒地意识到和世界零售巨头的差距.其次,面对外资零售巨头在我国咄咄逼人的发展态势,结合我国零售企业的发展现状及存在的差距,得出实施供应链管理的必要性的结论.最后,阐述国内连锁零售业为迎接挑战,加强供应链管理的具体策略.     

物联网环境下绿色供应链闭环运作模式研究

随着环境压力的增加及资源的限制,建设绿色环保型企业已成为我国相关企业发展面临的迫切任务。确保信息的准确性和及时性是绿色供应链闭环运作模式成功的关键因素,物联网的兴起为绿色供应链闭环运作管理提供了良好的发展机遇。文中对物联网环境下的绿色供应链闭环运作模式进行了探讨,给出了物联网环境下绿色供应链闭环运作结构模型,为绿色闭环供应链管理模式的应用进行了有价值的探索。     

供应链中需方最优采购比例的确定方法

供应链中的企业面临多供应商采购问题,按照采购质量最优化的要求,应用数学方法对需方采购比例进行了探讨并推导出该比例的数学表达式.该方法可以应用到供应链中以求成本和风险最低、质量和效益最好.同时又兼顾供应链合作关系的稳定性.     

基于非对称信息的闭环供应链激励合同策略研究

在价格敏感的随机需求量和与回收努力敏感的回收量条件下,假定供、销双方销售价格和分销商回收努力程度信息不对称,建立基于销量和废品回收量的双重激励机制,给出供应商为吸引分销商选择对自己最有利的售价和努力程度而设计的最优激励合同,比较了不同信息条件下供销双方的策略。     

商业银行经营决策对我国货币供给的影响及建议

商业银行经营行为对我国货币供给的影响作用于基础货币投放和存款货币创造两个阶段。国有控股商业银行因其垄断性地位使得信贷投放过于集中、流动性管理水平低,其他股份制商业银行不受风险约束的盲目扩张倾向,都可能造成我国货币供给和调控政策实施效果偏离预期。针对以上问题,本文建议,国有控股商业银行应加强股份制改革,建立现代企业制度;其他股份制商业银行根据自身的条件确定发展方向,有序竞争。     

The role of intermediaries in establishing a sustainable supply chain

In sustainable supply chain management, buyers may use intermediaries to bridge exchanges with suppliers when knowledge of suitable sustainability practices is weak and in need of facilitation. Understanding how supply chain intermediaries perform this role and what happens when intermediation is no longer needed is important in establishing more sustainable supply chains. Two supply chain intermediaries have been investigated with the resulting case study evidence analysed using the Gioia methodology. The findings suggest supply chain intermediaries add value to the buyer-supplier exchange by facilitating sustainability-related information transfer, knowledge development, risk management and improved capabilities. For example, specific practices such as corrective action reports, often managed by the intermediary, underpin the development of a sustainable supply chain. When the intermediary is no longer needed, they become disintermediated from the specific buyer-supplier exchange but may be re-employed in a new triadic relationship in the future with previous parties. This provides positive spill-over effects through intermediation–disintermediation–post-intermediation cycles for both the buyer and supplier populations and for broader society. Overall, the findings highlight the value of the transient position of supply chain intermediaries in establishing sustainable supply chains and the intended consequences of their involvement.     

农产品加工业供应链利益均衡分配演化博弈分析

农产品加工业供应链各个节点企业加入到供应的根本目的就是获得供应链产生的超额利益,超额利益的分配问题成为目前研究工作的热点,文章用演化博弈理论对农产品加工业供应链的利益分配问题进行了研究,并建立的演化博弈模型,并对模型进行了分析,最终确定了分配系数的取值。     

The role of primary processing in the supply risks of critical metals

This study seeks to understand the role of primary processing, i.e. the first post-mining stage, in supply risk, by means of a case study on three critical metals (neodymium, cobalt, and platinum) in the context of Japan. Applying the ‘footprint’ concept with a multiregional input–output model, we have quantified the direct and indirect vulnerability of the Japanese economy to such risks. Considering the supply risks associated with primary processors, we find that Japanese final consumers are exposed to relatively higher supply risks for neodymium as compared with cobalt and platinum. Our study shows that the primary processing stage of a metal’s supply chain may contribute significantly to the overall supply risks, suggesting that this stage should be taken into due account in understanding and mitigating supply-chain vulnerability through, e.g. supplier diversification and alternative material development.     

A Markov Decision Process approach for balancing intelligence and interdiction operations in city-level drug trafficking enforcement

We study a resource allocation problem in which law enforcement aims to balance intelligence and interdiction decisions to fight against illegal city-level drug trafficking. We propose a Markov Decision Process framework, apply a column generation technique, and develop a heuristic to solve this problem. Our approaches provide insights into how law enforcement should prioritize its actions when there are multiple criminals of different types known to them. We prove that when only one action can be implemented, law enforcement will take action (either target or arrest) on the highest known criminal type to them. Our results demonstrate that: (i) it may be valuable to diversify the action taken on the same criminal type when more than one action can be implemented; (ii) the marginal improvement in terms of the value of the criminals interdicted per unit time by increasing available resources decreases as resource level increases; and (iii) there are losses that arise from not holistically planning the actions of all available resources across distinct operations against drug trafficking networks.     

A hybrid modeling approach for resilient agri-supply network design in emerging countries: Colombian coffee supply chain

Sustainability and resilience in Agri-Food Supply Chains is a challenging topic of current interest in the research community. Resilience for Agri-Food Supply Chain (AFSC) is the capability of the supply network to manage and mitigate disruptions due to global warming and natural phenomena such as landslides and floods of crops, among others caused by humans. A significant challenge is to design efficient and resilient AFSCs in emerging countries while perishability constraints are considered. A methodology to design an AFSC for emerging countries is addressed in this research. The phenomena that aid in identifying critical aspects of the AFSC affecting their resilience are identified. The former approach combines optimization and simulation schemes by considering resilience metrics related to availability and connectivity. Indeed, the solution approach addresses the uncertainty by using simulation of disruptive events and finding resilient designs using mathematical programming. The proposed framework has been evaluated in a Colombian coffee supply chain. The obtained results show the efficiency of the proposed scheme to design AFSCs and allow the practitioners to measure, predict, compare, and improve the level of resilience of their supply chains (SCs).