Strategic Buyer Behavior in Markets with Dynamically Priced Goods

关于动态、多时期环境下的收益管理的理论工作在很大程度上是基于顾客是短视的假设；也就是说，一旦商品的价格低于他们愿意支付的固定最高价格，他们就会购买。因此，研究的重点一直是卖方做出的定价或库存决策。买家是短视的简化假设也是这一领域实验研究的基础。在这个奖项下进行的研究将重点转移到对客户的理论和实验调查上，他们被认为是战略性的和理性的；那些愿意推迟购买易腐商品（如机票或时装）以利用未来可能的降价机会的人。这项研究包括建立一个模型，规定一个理性的、有战略的买家应该如何行动，然后在精心控制的实验中测试这些模型的描述能力。这些实验包括在计算机控制的实验室中实现模型的假设，参与者扮演买家的角色，根据他们的表现获得货币回报。在这些实验中做出的决定将被记录下来，将观察到的行为与最优行为模型规定的行为进行比较，并确定观察到的行为与预测行为之间的任何可复制和系统差异（例如，买家可能会延迟购买太长时间，或者考虑到他们对未来价格路径的预期，可能会过早购买）。本文还将推导出在多周期季节中从事易腐货物买卖的买卖双方的实际含义。

Theoretical work on revenue management in a dynamic, multi-period environment has largely been based on the assumption that customers are myopic; namely, that they purchase a good as soon as its price falls below a fixed maximum price that they are willing to pay. Consequently, the focus of research has been on the pricing or inventory decisions made by the seller. The simplifying assumption that buyers are myopic also underlies the experimental research in this area. Research conducted under this award shifts the emphasis to the theoretical and experimental investigation of customers who are assumed to be strategic and rational; ones who are willing to delay their purchase of a perishable good (e.g., an airline ticket or a fashionable dress) in order to exploit potential future price reductions. The research involves developing models prescribing how a rational and strategic buyer should act and then testing the descriptive power of these models in carefully controlled experiments. These experiments involve implementing the assumptions of the model in a computer-controlled laboratory with participants assuming the role of buyers who receive monetary payoffs contingent on their performance. Decisions made in these experiments will be recorded, observed behavior compared to that prescribed by a model of optimal behavior, and any replicable and systematic differences between observed and predicted behavior (e.g., buyers may delay their purchase for too long or, alternatively, may buy too early given their expectations about future price paths) identified. Practical implications for both sellers and buyers engaged in the selling and buying of perishable goods in a multi-period season will also be derived.