Pricing in the presence of strategic consumers

在战略消费者面前定价

• 批准号: RGPIN-2015-06322
• 负责人: Mantin, Binyamin
• 金额: $ 1.46万
• 依托单位: University of Waterloo
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2016-01-01 至 2017-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=614080
• 关键词: Pricing; presence; strategic; consumers

Supply chain management strives to minimize supply-demand mismatch. This objective is constantly challenged by changing environments, risks, and uncertainties. Many Canadian businesses, such as those in the travel and hospitality industries, engage in multi-period competitive dynamic pricing, where demand modelling plays a major role. These dynamic pricing decisions are operationalized through revenue management mechanisms, often commanding frequent price updates. An outcome of revenue management algorithms is price volatility, which can influence consumers’ purchase and timing decisions in ways that have not been studied yet by the academic literature. The proposed research will assemble rich datasets, primarily from the airline industry, to analyze and enhance our knowledge on the emerging trade-offs in the presence of price volatility or revenue managed goods. Insights generated from the empirical analysis will serve as the foundation for analytical game-theoretical multi-period dynamic programming models, capturing demand more realistically: traditional revenue management models will be redesigned and extended to incorporate the effects of price volatility for varying degrees of competition intensity and strategic consumer behaviour to identify optimal levels of price updates and their magnitudes. Strategic consumers take into account future realizations of prices and availability of goods, and time their purchase accordingly. Drawing on examples of the airline industry and of secondary markets (such as Amazon), two additional aspects will be explored. First, inventory decisions in the presence of uncertain demand; such decisions can critically affect the interaction between sellers and consumers and the resulting dynamic pricing decisions. Optimal inventory and corresponding pricing decisions will be proposed and I will investigate whether the sellers can leverage the presence of strategic consumers to increase profitability. Second, the emergence of online marketplaces, which compete with traditional distribution channels. These marketplaces provide consumers with an efficient channel to trade their goods and clear the market. I will research how the supply chain partners shall react to the emergence of secondary markets, how the goods should be dynamically priced, and whether such marketplaces can benefit retailers, suppliers, and consumers. This research will: (i) extend our knowledge and understanding of price volatility of revenue managed goods and the effects of strategic consumer behaviour; (ii) benefit firms in designing dynamic pricing algorithms as well as improving inventory decisions and supply chain coordination; (iii) serve policy makers in supporting consumers in such environments; and (iv) produce exceptionally well trained graduates with a sought after solid set of empirical and modeling skills with exposure to applications.

供应链管理致力于最大限度地减少供需不匹配。这一目标不断受到不断变化的环境、风险和不确定性的挑战。许多加拿大企业，例如旅游和酒店行业的企业，都采用多周期竞争性动态定价，其中需求模型发挥着重要作用。这些动态定价决策通过收入管理机制来实施，通常需要频繁的价格更新。收入管理算法的一个结果是价格波动，它可以以学术文献尚未研究的方式影响消费者的购买和时间决策。拟议的研究将汇集主要来自航空业的丰富数据集，以分析和增强我们对价格波动或收入管理商品存在下的新兴权衡的了解。实证分析产生的见解将作为分析博弈论多周期动态规划模型的基础，更现实地捕捉需求：传统的收入管理模型将被重新设计和扩展，以纳入价格波动对不同程度的竞争强度和战略消费者行为的影响，以确定价格更新的最佳水平及其幅度。 战略消费者会考虑未来的价格和商品供应情况，并相应地安排购买时间。借鉴航空业和二级市场（例如亚马逊）的例子，我们将探讨另外两个方面。第一，需求不确定情况下的库存决策；此类决策可能严重影响卖家和消费者之间的互动以及由此产生的动态定价决策。将提出最佳库存和相应的定价决策，我将研究卖家是否可以利用战略消费者的存在来提高盈利能力。其次，在线市场的出现与传统分销渠道竞争。这些市场为消费者提供了交易商品和清理市场的有效渠道。我将研究供应链合作伙伴应如何应对二级市场的出现，商品应如何动态定价，以及此类市场是否能让零售商、供应商和消费者受益。 这项研究将：（i）扩展我们对收入管理商品价格波动以及战略消费者行为影响的认识和理解； (ii) 有利于企业设计动态定价算法以及改进库存决策和供应链协调； (iii) 为决策者提供支持此类环境中的消费者的服务； (iv) 培养训练有素的毕业生，他们拥有一套扎实的经验和建模技能，并接触应用。