Analysis of pricing decision for substitutable and complementary products with a common retailer (original) (raw)

Bundle pricing strategies for two complementary products with different channel powers

Annals of Operations Research, 2017

In this paper, we consider a duopoly market where two manufacturers separately produce and sell two complementary products through a common retailer as a leader-follower movement. The competition has been studied in two-echelon supply chain system and all produced products are sold by the retailer with individual product prices or with pure products' bundling price in the non-cooperative market. The demand of each product linearly depends on prices of these two products as per their nature. Here, model for two different cases (without and with pure products' bundling) are developed mathematically to maximize the profit of each participant of the supply chain and then corresponding optimal pricing strategies are worked out for the manufacturers and retailer. It is shown that supply chain profit for the pure bundling is better than the profit when products are sold at individual prices. Finally, the model is illustrated with numerical data to study the effects of models' parameters in the pricing strategies and some marketing decisions are explored.

Equilibrium pricing and ordering policies in a two-echelon supply chain in the presence of strategic customers

Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciencias, 2016

This paper studying the impact of strategic customer behavior on decentralized supply chain gains and decisions, which includes a supplier, and a monopoly firm as a retailer who sells a single product over a finite two periods of selling season. We consider three types of customers: myopic, strategic and low-value customers. The problem is formulated as a bi-level game where at the second level (e.g. horizontal game), the retailer determines his/her equilibrium pricing strategy in a non-cooperative simultaneous general game with strategic customers who choose equilibrium purchasing strategy to maximize their expected surplus. At the first level (e.g. vertical game), the supplier competes with the retailer as leader and follower in the Stackelberg game. They set the wholesale price and initial stocking capacity to maximize their profits. Finally, a numerical study is presented to demonstrate the impacts of strategic behavior on supply chain gain and decisions; subsequently the effect...

Competitive pricing strategies of multi channel supply chain under direct servicing by the manufacturer

RAIRO - Operations Research, 2020

Internet and its accessible devices (e.g., mobiles, computers) are the unmitigated blessings to the people. Nowadays, internet connectivity almost eliminates all kinds of blockades for the verification of authentication, comparison of prices, and services for a product. Consequently, the market has been becoming more competitive compared to decision making. In this paper, we construct a multi-channel supply chain (MCSC) frameworks with traditional channels as well as a direct channel (DC), where the manufacturer provides services to the customers for both the cases. Then the optimal decisions of the manufacturer and the retailers are examined. The optimal pricing decisions and services are discussed and also compared the profits with one another under various cases (Stackelberg settings, strategic alliance, and two types of no improved service). Then the sensitivity of the service cost coefficients and the cross-channel price coefficients on the profits for each player and the suppl...

Price competition and co-operation in a duopoly closed-loop supply chain

International Journal of Production Economics, 2014

This paper studies cooperation and competition issues in a closed-loop supply chain. The supply chain comprises of two manufacturers who compete for selling their new product as well as for collection of the used-products for remanufacturing through a common retailer. To analyze the situation, mathematical models are developed here for three different cases (i) Non-cooperative system (ii) Channel-cooperative system and (iii) Global-cooperative system. For each of the cases, we have characterized optimal wholesale price and fraction of collection of used product. To draw more managerial insights, we also examine the sensitivity of various parameters such as market size, acquisition cost and transfer price on total channel profit. A numerical study is carried out to illustrate the model, and the results reveal that global-cooperative system is the best among all the three cases considered here. Weighted Shapely Value mechanism is used for sharing of surplus generated in the system due to channel-cooperation .

Pricing strategies in the competitive reverse supply chains with traditional and e-channels: A game theoretic approach

International Journal of Production Economics, 2018

Increasing attention to sustainable development issues and competition between different supply chains are forcing the stakeholders to use different incentives to capture more market share. Collecting channels are one of the effective topics in the reverse competitive chains. Because of the importance of this issue, we consider two collecting reverse supply chains consist of a retailer and a manufacturer who compete together by proposing more rewards to the customers. One of these chains tries to facilitate the collecting process and obtain more market share by using the direct and traditional channels advantages. The other one uses only the traditional channel. Hence, the return rate of each channel not only depends on the self-reward but also is function of the cross-rewards suggested to the customer by the competitors in the other channels. The competitive environment in our model consists of internal and external competitions. Competition between two channels of one chain infers to internal competition, external competition that points out to competition among two supply chains. We apply three game theory structures to obtain the optimal channels rewards: Nash, Nash-Stackelberg-first supply chain, and Nash-Stackelberg-second supply chain. Finally, we comparing the results of decision variables and profit function of members under three structures through numerical analysis. Our numerical investigations show that e-channel because of less costly than traditional channel proposes more appropriate reward to customers, so this channel could obtain a more substantial share of the market. Moreover, the results reveal that highest return rate occurred under Nash scenario while Nash-Stackelberg-first supply chain and Nash-Stackelberg-second supply chain are the most economic scenarios for the first and the second supply chains, respectively.

Optimal pricing in the presence of advance booking strategies for complementary supply chains

2020

With the high competition among companies, they tend to improve their market share by applying di erent selling mechanisms such as online to o ine commerce as an e cient selling mechanism in which they sell their products via both online and real stores. This study deals with a selling problem for two complementary supply chains including a supplier and a shopping center where the commodities are sold by a virtual shopping center and a traditional one that present items as complementary shopping centers. It was assumed that market demand depended on price and service level so that the customers could purchase items via both shopping centers based on their priorities. Also, to analyze the reactions of the partners of the chain, di erent games were deemed. The aim was to obtain the closed-form solutions for the decision variables of the members of the network in order to maximize their pro ts. Prices of di erent selling periods at each echelon of the chains were decision variables of the model. The closed-form solutions for the decision variables were derived and the solutions were examined by a numerical example. Several sensitivity analyses of the key factors were performed to determine the e cient ones for the variables and pro ts.

Joint Selling of Complementary Components Under Brand and Retail Competition

Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 2015

S uppliers of complementary goods often package their items together when selling to downstream retailers. One motivation behind this behavior is to reduce double marginalization through coordinated pricing so that system efficiency is improved and individual members can also benefit. The objective of this paper is to understand how competition in supply chains would impact such joint selling partnerships among complementary suppliers. We first model competition at the supply level, which is generated from the existence of multiple partially substitutable brands (or suppliers) for a particular component. We then extend the analysis to a model that also involves retail competition caused by decentralization among retailers who assemble suppliers' components into final products and sell to customers. The analysis of a model with two complementary components, one of which has multiple brands, indicates that the supply-level competition discourages joint selling of complementary goods. That is, when competing brands become more alike (or substitutable), complementary suppliers act more independently in pricing and selling their items. However, retail competition leads to an opposite effect: Competition among retailers would actually encourage complementary suppliers to package their goods together and act jointly.

Article The Equilibrium Decisions in a Two-Echelon Supply Chain

2014

This article studies a supply chain composed of a manufacturer and two competing retailers. The manufacturer produces two substitutable products and offers respective service levels to customers who buy one of the two products. Each retailer can only order one kind of product from the manufacturer, and then sell them to the market at a certain sale price. The demands for two products are influenced not only by the service levels the manufacturer provides, but also the sales prices of the two products. Furthermore, we investigate the equilibrium behavior of members in the supply chain with the aid of the Stackelberg game, and discover a number of insights concerning some important parameters. Finally, Numerical analysis is presented to validate our theoretical results and compare channel performances.

Price-demand Modeling: A Tool to Support Inventory and Production Decisions for Competing Products

Aim of this positioning paper is to explore the existing price-demand models that have been applied in inventory and production management so far and to identify new potential structures that may have been applied in marketing research but have not been touched yet in inventory and production research. Our focus will be on dynamic pricing structures for competing products, since our exploration so far revealed that they have not been studied exhaustively in price-demand inventory literature. Specifically, we propose a price-demand-inventory model framework for optimizing joint pricing, production, inventory and transportation decisions in a supply chain with multiple products, multiple factories, and multiple markets operating in multiple periods. The factories operate in a cooperative environment where these decisions are given centrally so as to maximize the total profit. Competition between the various product types is achieved centrally by setting market specific prices for each product type in each market in each period. To support this price setting we introduce several promising price-demand structures for competing products.

Dynamic pricing in a semi-centralized dual-channel supply chain with a reference price dependent demand and production cost disruption: the case of Iran Khodro Company

Scientia Iranica, 2020

During the years of imposed sanctions against Iran, Iran Khodro Company (IKCO) got into a hazardous situation due to CKD parts' purchasing cost increment and emersion of new product variants in the competitive market. To examine such situation, this study examines a multi-period semi-centralized dual-channel supply chain where a common retailer (free market) and two manufacturers' (IKCO and Saipa as a major competitor) direct channels are confronted with reference price dependent and stochastic demand. The problem is analyzed under Stackelberg and cooperative games scenarios using heuristic algorithm and a League Championship algorithm respectively, as solution methods. Results obtained from solving the problem with IKCO data proves higher profitability of the cooperative game and its remarkable resilience for all products' memory types i.e. short/long term memory against production cost disruption which is imposed to IKCO in some periods. Besides calculating Saipa's optimal wholesale price in the disruption periods, our approach with support of experimental analyses is able to assign a supply chain's degree of resilience against disruptions to its product's memory type and also power structure. 1 Introduction In industrial world, considerable increase in number of manufacturers stimulates their concern about continuity and as a result, persuades them to enhance their product to meet customer's preferences and interests. Therefore, the manufacturers should have a close relationship with the customers. Dual-channel supply chain is a kind of supply chain providing this 2 relationship. The dual-channel supply chain, as it is evident from its name, has two selling channels, including retail channel (also known as traditional channel) in which product is offered by retailer and E-direct channel wherein selling of the product is conducted by the manufacturer and ordinarily using internet. Academic researches orientation towards the dualchannel supply chain and using this type of supply chain by top manufacturers of the world like Samsung, HP, IBM, Sony, Dell, Lenovo, Panasonic, and Pioneer Electrics demonstrate the profitability and its vital role in survival of a manufacturer [1]. Some Iranian companies like IKCO, Saipa, Pars Shahab Light Company and Rasa Nour Neishabour Company have two selling channels. Pricing is one of the crucial decisions in the supply chain and is influential in its profitability. There is a strong literature in supply chain pricing field. Due to the fact that most of the researches utilized game theoretical approach, some of them are indicated briefly in this section. Sana et al (2014) studied a three-layer supply chain and considered both collaborative and Stackelberg scenarios [2]. Modak et al (2016) studied a closed loop supply chain and considered cooperative and Stackelberg games scenarios that in the stackelberg game, the retailers' competition was modeled under Cournot and collusion games [3]. Modak et al (2016) investigated a supply chain wherein they considered manufacturer-led Stackelberg vertical game in which the retailers have three different behaviors namely Cournot, Collusion and Stackelberg. They utilized all units discount contract with franchise fee as a channel conflict respondent [4]. Sana et al (2017) considered knowledge management approach in agro-industrial supply chain of cocoa wherein they took into consideration collection centers-led Estackelberg and collaboration scenarios [5]. Modak et al (2018) considered a two-echelon closed loop supply chain in which in addition to considering three possible collection activities of used product for recycling namely retailer led collection, manufacturer led collection and third party led collection, they introduced the concept of sub-game perfect equilibrium and alternative offer bargaining strategy to resolve the channel conflict and distribute surplus profit [6] Roy et al (2018) studied a two-echelon supply chain and obtained optimal order quantity under Estackelberg, Bertland, Cournot-Bertland and integrated scenarios [7]. It is worth mentioning that, the importance of pricing in the dual-channel supply chain is higher than the one-channel supply chain due to the existence of price competition that generates channel conflict. Multiplicity of the channel conflict-related researches in the literature proves the critical importance of this field. These researches have analyzed the channel conflict and introduced some strategies to decline the effects of the conflict, additionally. The strategies are divided into two groups, including use of contracts and improvement of sales services as well as customer loyalty. In the first group, Tsay and Agraval (2004) utilized game theory to examine the channel conflict and coordinate the chain members as well [8]. Mukhapaday (2006) instituted profit sharing contract while the retailer has the ability to add on some values to the product