Design and performance analysis of dynamic supply chain contracts

近年来，由于制造技术进步导致产品种类增加，信息和运输技术进步导致外包，以及更多知识渊博的客户，商业惯例发生了巨大变化。竞争的焦点现已从一体化供应链一级转移到分散和独立的公司相互合作一级。与这种趋势相对应，我们将产品的商业特征定义为价格弹性、供给不确定性和需求不确定性，将市场的商业特征定义为一个商业组织与其他商业组织的相互作用，即，分散化，以及与其他竞争对手的竞争。其中一些业务特征在相关规划范围内正在发生变化。另一方面，大多数供应链契约是在业务特征不变的假设下实施的。如果某些业务特征正在发生变化，则相关的规划范围将被划分为若干“独立”阶段。所选择的供应链契约应用于各个阶段，契约参数需要根据该阶段的商业环境进行调整。这种方法的缺点是：（1）“过于简单化”不同阶段之间的相互作用;（2）忽略了历史数据在合同选择中的价值。据我所知，目前还没有明确尝试在不断变化的环境中同时处理所有业务特征。这项研究计划正是为了实现这一点。首先，我计划调查任何给定的共同供应链合同的性能，同时考虑到产品和市场的业务特点，在不断变化的环境下。然后，在绩效分析的基础上，将提供管理的见解，以匹配的业务特征与供应链合同所需的功能，以指导供应链合同的设计。 大多数行业（尤其是零售业）都期待着在这一领域取得重大进展。

The business practices have changed dramatically in recent years, due to increased product variety resulting from manufacturing technology advancements, outsourcing as a result of information and transportation technology advancements, and more knowledgeable customers. The focus of competition has now shifted from the level of integrated supply chains to that of decentralized and independent firms collaborating with each other. Corresponding to this trend, we define the business characteristics of a product as price elasticity, supply uncertainty and demand uncertainty and the business characteristics of a market as the interaction of one business organization with other business organizations, i.e., decentralization, and its competition with other competitors. Some of these business characteristics are changing over the concerned planning horizon. On the other hand, most supply chain contracts are implemented under the assumption of constant business characteristics. If some business characteristics are changing, then the concerned planning horizon will be segmented into a number of "independent" stages. The selected supply chain contract is applied in each stage and the contract parameters need to be adjusted according to the business environment at that stage. The drawbacks of this approach are (1) "oversimplified" interaction between different stages and (2) ignoring the value of historical data in contract selection. To the best of my knowledge, no explicit attempt to address all business characteristics simultaneously in a changing environment has yet been undertaken. This research program is precisely to accomplish this. First, I plan to investigate the performance of any given common supply chain contract by taking both product and market business characteristics into consideration under a changing environment. Then, based on the performance anayisis, managerial insights will be provided to match business characteristics with features required in supply chain contracts to guide the design of supply chain contracts. Most industries (particularly retail industry) are looking forward to seeing significant progress in this area.