Sharing Manufacturer’s Demand Information in a Supply Chain with Price and Service Effort Competition

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yunjie Wang ◽  
Albert Y. Ha ◽  
Shilu Tong
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Wholesale Price ◽  
Problem Definition ◽  
Theoretic Model ◽  
Price Distortion ◽  
Demand Information ◽  
Private Demand ◽  
The Cost ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Share Information

Problem definition: This paper investigates the issue of sharing the private demand information of a manufacturer that sells a product to retailers competing on prices and service efforts. Academic/practical relevance: In the existing literature, which ignores service effort competition, it is known that demand signaling induces an informed manufacturer to distort the wholesale price downward, which benefits the retailers, and so, they do not have any incentive to receive the manufacturer’s private information. In practice, many manufacturers share demand information with their retailers that compete on prices and service efforts (e.g., demand-enhancing retail activities), a setting that has not received much attention from the literature. Methodology: We develop a game-theoretic model with one manufacturer selling to two competing retailers and solve for the equilibrium of the game. Results: We show how an informed manufacturer may distort the wholesale price upward or downward to signal demand information to the retailers, depending on the cost of service effort, the intensity of effort competition, and the number of uninformed retailers. We fully characterize the impact of such wholesale price distortion on the firms’ incentive to share information and derive the conditions under which the manufacturer shares information with none, one, or both of the retailers. We derive conditions under which a higher cost of service effort makes the retailers or the manufacturer better off. Managerial implications: Our results provide novel insights about how service effort competition impacts the incentives for firms in a supply chain to share a manufacturer’s private demand information. For instance, when the cost of effort is high or service effort competition is intense, a manufacturer should share information with none or some, but not all, of the retailers.

Implications of Price Matching in Supply Chain Negotiation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weixin Shang ◽  
Gangshu (George) Cai
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Social Welfare ◽  
Wholesale Price ◽  
Consumer Welfare ◽  
Problem Definition ◽  
Nash Bargaining ◽  
Price Matching ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Multiple Buyers ◽  
Wholesale Pricing

Problem definition: Few papers have explored the impact of price matching negotiation (PM), in which a channel matches its price with the resulting wholesale price bargained by another channel, on firms’ performances, consumer welfare, and social welfare, with and without supply chain coordination. Academic/practical relevance: Negotiation has been widely seen in determining both uniform and discriminatory wholesale prices, which affect outcomes of competitive supply chain practices. Methodology: To characterize the PM mechanism, we use game theory and Nash bargaining theory to compare PM with simultaneous negotiation (SN) through a common-seller two-buyer differentiated Bertrand competition model. Results: Our analysis reveals that PM can benefit the seller but hurt all buyers, which is at odds with some fair wholesale pricing clauses intending to protect buyers. Under coordination with side payments, however, all firms can conditionally benefit more from PM than from SN. Despite firms’ gains, PM leads to less consumer utility and social welfare compared with SN, unless the second buyer in PM is considerably less powerful than the first buyer. Coordination further worsens PM’s negative impact on consumer utility and social welfare. Moreover, the existence of a spot market can increase the wholesale price in PM, hurting buyers, consumers, and society. Furthermore, the qualitative results about PM remain robust under an alternative disagreement point for PM, multiple buyers, and other extensions. Managerial implications: This paper delivers insights on when price matching in supply chain wholesale price negotiation can benefit a seller, buyers, consumers, and society in a variety of scenarios. It advocates how managers can use PM to their own advantages and provides rationale to decision makers for policy regulations regarding wholesale pricing.

On Co-opetitive Supply Partnerships with End-Product Rivals: Information Asymmetry, Dual Sourcing and Supply Market Efficiency

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seung Hwan Jung ◽  
Panos Kouvelis
Keyword(s):  
Wholesale Price ◽  
Information Leakage ◽  
Problem Definition ◽  
The Other ◽  
Theoretic Model ◽  
Market Information ◽  
Dual Sourcing ◽  
Strategic Sourcing ◽  
Demand Information ◽  
Separating Equilibrium

Problem definition: We consider opportunities for cooperation at the supply level between two firms that are rivals in the end-product market. One of our firms is vertically integrated (VI), has in-house production capabilities, and may also supply its rival. The other is a downstream outsourcing (DO) firm that has better market information. The DO is willing to consider a supply partnership with the VI, but it also has the option to use the outside supply market. Academic/practical relevance: Such co-opetitive practices are common in industrial supply chains, but firms’ co-opetitive strategic sourcing with the potential of information leakage has not been examined in the literature. Methodology: We build a game-theoretic model to capture the firms’ strategic interactions under the co-opetitive supply partnership with the potential information leakage. Results: The DO exploits its information advantage to obtain a better wholesale price from the VI and may use dual sourcing to protect its private information. Anticipating that, the VI may offer wholesale price concessions as an information rent to obtain the DO’s information. Our work identifies demand uncertainty and efficiency of outside supply market as the factors affecting the VI’s pricing decision and the resulting equilibrium. Pooling equilibrium arises often, but in a few cases, the equilibrium is separating. At the separating equilibrium, the DO always single sources, either from the VI or the independent supplier depending on the demand state. The VI benefits from ancillary revenue-generating opportunity, and from information acquisition in a separating equilibrium. On the other hand, the DO’s benefit is a cheaper price in exchange for market information in a separating equilibrium. In the pooling case, the DO uses dual sourcing to hide demand information, especially in the high demand case, and to better supply the end-market through his accurate demand information. Managerial implications: Our work provides useful insights into firms’ strategic sourcing behaviors to efficiently deal with the potential of information leakage in the co-opetitive supply environment and for the rationale behind such relationships often observed in industries.

Financial Cross-Ownership and Information Dissemination in a Supply Chain

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yossi Aviv ◽  
Noam Shamir
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Information Acquisition ◽  
Information Dissemination ◽  
Consumer Welfare ◽  
Problem Definition ◽  
Theoretic Model ◽  
Operational Decisions ◽  
Demand Information ◽  
Cross Ownership ◽  
The Way

Problem definition: We examine the effect of financial cross-ownership—a situation in which a retailer holds stocks in a competitor—on two crucial operational decisions in a supply chain with competing retailers sourcing from a single supplier: information acquisition and production output. Academic/practical relevance: Financial interconnectedness between competing retailers raises fundamental questions regarding the way information is managed in such markets and the way it affects consumer welfare. Thus, in addition to the relevance to operations management scholars, this subject is of potential interest to policy makers and regulators. Although financial cross-ownership has mainly been unchallenged by regulators, the European Commission has recently called for a deeper understanding of the competitive aspects of this investment tool. Methodology: We develop a game-theoretic model, in which we analyze a supply chain comprised of an incumbent retailer holding stocks in an entrant and both retailers source from a mutual supplier. The incumbent can obtain costless demand information, and the supplier decides whether to leak this information if it is available to him or her. Results: We demonstrate that holding stocks in a rival better aligns the incentives of the rival retailers and results in a lower competition level during the production stage. However, financial cross-ownership can also result in an increased incentive for information acquisition, even when the information is later leaked to the entrant. The acquisition of information benefits not only the retailers but can also make the consumers better off. Managerial implications: Our work contributes to the heated policy debate regarding the competitive effects of financial cross-ownership. In addition, we are the first, to the best of our knowledge, to study the way financial cross-ownership affects operational decisions. Specifically, we show that financial cross-ownership provides incentives to acquire demand information even under the threat of information leakage.

scholarly journals Should a supplier engage in the marketplace? an equilibrium analysis in a hybrid-format supply chain

2021 ◽  
Vol 55 (5) ◽  
pp. 2639-2655
Author(s):  
You Zhao ◽  
Rui Hou
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Wholesale Price ◽  
Equilibrium Analysis ◽  
Theoretic Model ◽  
Basic Model ◽  
Online Marketplace ◽  
Online Marketplaces ◽  
Hybrid Format ◽  
Game Theoretic ◽  
The Impact

Recently, e-commerce platforms have been acting as both a reseller and a marketplace to serve consumers. This study considers a hybrid-format supply chain that consists of a supplier who sells a product through an intermediary by a wholesale price contract. In addition, the supplier can decide whether to accept the intermediary’s offer to engage in the marketplace (if the supplier accepts, then the agency fee should be paid to the intermediary). We develop a game-theoretic model to investigate the impact of supplier encroachment on the supply chain members. Then, we extend our basic model to check the robustness of our main results. Our results show that the supplier prefers to engage in the marketplace if the agency fee is low and the order fulfillment cost is relatively low, the intermediary benefits from the supplier encroachment if the agency fee is relatively low, and consumers always benefit from encroachment. Interestingly, we show that an increase in channel substitutability leads to raising the supplier’s willingness to adopt an encroachment strategy. Our findings contribute to the online marketplace literature by providing valuable insights into the operation management of online marketplaces.

Unraveling Behavioral Ordering: Relative Costs and the Bullwhip Effect

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brent B. Moritz ◽  
Arunachalam Narayanan ◽  
Chris Parker
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Information Sharing ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Bullwhip Effect ◽  
Problem Definition ◽  
Supply Chain Costs ◽  
Cost Impact ◽  
Managerial Implications ◽  
The Cost ◽  
The Impact

Problem definition: We study the bullwhip effect and analyze the impact of human behavior. We separate rational ordering in response to increasing incoming orders from irrational ordering. Academic/practical relevance: Prior research has shown that the bullwhip effect occurs in about two-thirds of firms and impacts profitability by 10%–30%. Most bullwhip mitigation efforts emphasize processes such as information sharing, collaboration, and coordination. Previous work has not been able to separate the impact of behavioral ordering from rational increases in order quantities. Methodology: Using data from a laboratory experiment, we estimate behavioral parameters from three ordering models. We use a simulation to evaluate the cost impact of bullwhip behavior on the supply chain and by echelon. Results: We find that cost increases are not equally shared. Human biases (behavioral ordering) at the retailer results in higher relative costs elsewhere in the supply chain, even as similar ordering by a wholesaler, distributor, or factory results in increased costs within that echelon. These results are consistent regardless of the behavioral models that we consider. The cognitive profile of the decision maker impacts both echelon and supply chain costs. We show that the cost impact is higher as more decision makers enter a supply chain. Managerial implications: The cost of behavioral ordering is not consistent across the supply chain. Managers can use the estimation/simulation framework to analyze the impact of human behavior in their supply chains and evaluate improvement efforts such as coordination or information sharing. Our results show that behavioral ordering by a retailer has an out-sized impact on supply chain costs, which suggests that upstream echelons are better placed to make forecasting and replenishment decisions.

Information sharing in a green supply chain with promotional effort

Kybernetes ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (11) ◽  
pp. 2683-2712 ◽  
Author(s):  
Junfei Ding ◽  
Wenbin Wang
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Information Sharing ◽  
Consumer Surplus ◽  
Green Supply Chain ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Promotional Effort ◽  
Demand Information ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Share Information

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the retailer’s strategy of information sharing in a green supply chain with promotional effort, and the impact of information sharing on the decisions and profits of the manufacturer and the retailer. Design/methodology/approach The developed models aim to maximize the profits of the manufacturer, the retailer and the green supply chain system. The game theory is used to obtain the equilibrium solutions of both the manufacturer and the retailer. A two-part compensation (TPC) contract is designed to motivate the retailer to share information with the retailer. Numerical examples are used to show the impact of parameters on decisions by Matlab 2014. Findings The results show that the green degree increases while the promotional effort level decreases when the manufacturer receives the larger demand information from the retailer; information sharing leads to a profit increase to the manufacturer and a profit loss to the retailer, but can increase the profit of supply chain under a certain condition; information sharing reduces the expected consumer surplus. The TPC contract designed in this paper can not only motivate the retailer to share information but also increases the consumer surplus. Research limitations/implications The study has been done in a monopoly environment where only a retailer can forecast demand information. It is an interesting direction of future research when considering there are more retailers who can forecast such information in a supply chain. Originality/value There exist two main aspects that are different from the existing literature. The stochastic demand function related to the retail price, the green degree and the promotional effort have never appeared in previous literature. This paper considers a green product supply chain with a manufacturer who produces green products and a retailer who has an information advantage because of her promotional effort; this paper investigates the impact of information sharing on the consumer surplus and designs a contract to coordinate the green supply chain.

scholarly journals Can cost sharing contracts coordinate green supply chains based on manufacturers’ overconfidence

2021 ◽  
Vol 236 ◽  
pp. 04014
Author(s):  
Hui Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Cost Sharing ◽  
Supply Chain Coordination ◽  
Wholesale Price ◽  
Numerical Experimentation ◽  
Set Up ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Green Supply Chains ◽  
The Impact

Cost sharing contracts is one of the most common contracts to coordinate green supply chains. In this paper, we examine whether it can coordinate green supply chains in the set up of overconfidence. We assume that the manufacturer is overconfident and the retailer is rational. The manufacturer overestimates consumers’ sensitivity to product greenness and accurately estimates the uncertainty of demand. The overconfident manufacturer and the rational retailer cooperate through cost sharing contracts. Then, we construct a game theoretical model to analyze the impact of manufacturers’ overconfident on product greenness, pricing, profit and supply chain cooperation. At last, a numerical experimentation is presented. We find that, (1) the product greenness, wholesale price and retail price increase with the manufacturer’s overconfidence as well as the retailer’s cost sharing proportion. (2) no matter how much the cost sharing proportion is, the profit of manufacturers and retailers decreases with the manufacturer’s overconfidence level. (3) cost sharing contracts can achieve the green supply chain coordination in rational setting. But under manufacturers’ overconfidence, it cannot.

Channel Structures of Online Retail Platforms

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albert Y. Ha ◽  
Shilu Tong ◽  
Yunjie Wang
Keyword(s):  
Wholesale Price ◽  
Problem Definition ◽  
Channel Structure ◽  
Theoretic Model ◽  
Online Retail ◽  
Sales Channels ◽  
Channel Choice ◽  
Dual Channel ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Channel Structures

Problem definition: This paper investigates the channel choice problem of an online platform that exerts service effort to enhance the demand in its sales channels. Academic/practical relevance: In the existing literature on the channel structure of an online retail platform, it is usually assumed that a manufacturer sells through either the platform’s agency or reselling channel but not both. In practice, many manufacturers sell the same products through both channels of the same online retail platform, a phenomenon that cannot be explained by the existing theory. Moreover, online retail platforms routinely invest in retail services that enhance the demand in their sales channels. Methodology: We develop a game-theoretic model to investigate the equilibrium channel choice, wholesale price, and retail quantity decisions. We also conduct sensitivity analysis to evaluate the impact of some parameters on the equilibrium. Results: We derive conditions under which each of the three channel structures (agency channel, reselling channel, and dual channel) emerges in equilibrium. We show that the wholesale price in the reselling channel is reduced because of the addition of the agency channel even when both channels are equally efficient, which extends the wholesale price effect because of the addition of a less efficient direct channel in the supplier encroachment literature. Our analysis highlights the flexibility of a dual channel for firms to shift sales between the two channels, which could increase the retail platform’s incentive to exert service effort. Managerial implications: Our study provides useful insights to managers to understand and make channel choice decisions in supply chains with manufacturers selling through online retail platforms.

scholarly journals Information Acquisition and Its Incentives in an E-Commerce Supply Chain under the Offline Showroom Model

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 1791-1804
Author(s):  
Mengli Li ◽  
Xumei Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Information Acquisition ◽  
Incentive Contracts ◽  
Demand Forecast ◽  
Competition Intensity ◽  
Demand Information ◽  
Optimal Information ◽  
Acquisition Strategy ◽  
The One ◽  
The Impact

Recently, the showroom model has developed fast for allowing consumers to evaluate a product offline and then buy it online. This paper aims at exploring the optimal information acquisition strategy and its incentive contracts in an e-commerce supply chain with two competing e-tailers and an offline showroom. Based on signaling game theory, we build a mathematical model by considering the impact of experience service and competition intensity on consumers’ demand. We find that, on the one hand, information acquisition promotes supply chain members to obtain demand information directly or indirectly, which leads to forecast revenue. On the other hand, information acquisition promotes supply chain members to distort optimal decisions, which results in signal cost. The optimal information acquisition strategy depends on the joint impact of forecast revenue, signal cost and demand forecast cost. Notably, in some conditions, the offline showroom will not acquire demand information even when its cost is equal to zero. We also design two different information acquisition incentive contracts to obtain Pareto improvement for all supply chain members.

scholarly journals Dynamic Adjustment Mechanism and Differential Game Model Construction of Mask Emergency Supply Chain Cooperation Based on COVID-19 Outbreak

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1115
Author(s):  
Shufan Zhu ◽  
Kefan Xie ◽  
Ping Gui
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Differential Game ◽  
Production Technology ◽  
Wholesale Price ◽  
Transfer Payment ◽  
Dynamic Adjustment ◽  
Supply Chain System ◽  
Government Subsidies ◽  
Technology Investment ◽  
The Impact

Incorporating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mask supply chain into our framework and taking mask output as a state variable, our study introduces the differential game to study the long-term dynamic cooperation of a two-echelon supply chain composed of the supplier and the manufacturer under government subsidies. The study elaborates that government subsidies can provide more effective incentives for supply chain members to cooperate in the production of masks compared with the situation of no government subsidies. A relatively low wholesale price can effectively increase the profits of supply chain members and the supply chain system. The joint contract of two-way cost-sharing contract and transfer payment contract can promote production technology investment efforts of the supply chain members, the optimum trajectory of mask production, and total profit to reach the best state as the centralized decision scenario within a certain range. Meanwhile, it is determined that the profits of supply chain members in the joint contract can be Pareto improvement compared with decentralized decision scenario. With the increase of production technology investment cost coefficients and output self-decay rate, mask outputs have shown a downward trend in the joint contract decision model. On the contrary, mask outputs would rise with growing sensitivity of mask output to production technology investment effort and increasing sensitivity of mask demand to mask output.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document