Myopic Versus Farsighted Behaviors in a Low-Carbon Supply Chain with Reference Emission Effects

The increased carbon emissions cause relatively climate deterioration and attract more attention of governments, consumers, and enterprises to the low-carbon manufacturing. This paper considers a dynamic supply chain, which is composed of a manufacturer and a retailer, in the presence of the cap-and-trade regulation and the consumers’ reference emission effects. To investigate the manufacturer’s behavior choice and its impacts on the emission reduction and pricing strategies together with the profits of both the channel members, we develop a Stackelberg differential game model in which the manufacturer acts in both myopic and farsighted manners. By comparing the equilibrium strategies, it can be found that the farsighted manufacturer always prefers to keep a lower level of emission reduction. When the emission permit price is relatively high, the wholesale/retail price is lower if the manufacturer is myopic and hence benefits consumers. In addition, there exists a dilemma that the manufacturer is willing to act in a farsighted manner but the retailer looks forward to a partnership with the myopic manufacturer. For a relatively high price of emission permit, adopting myopic strategies results in a better performance of the whole supply chain

A rising e-channel tide lifts all boats? the impact of manufacturer multichannel encroachment on traditional selling and leasing

Organizing and managing channels of distribution is an important marketing task. Due to the emergence of electronic commerce on the Internet, e-channel distribution systems have been adopted by many manufacturers. However, academic and anecdotal evidence both point to the pressures arising from this new e-channel manufacturing environment. Question marks therefore remain on how the addition of this e-channel affects the traditional marketing strategies of leasing and selling. We set up several two-period dual-channel models in which a manufacturer sells a durable product through both a manufacturer-owned e-channel and an independent reseller (leaser) who adopts selling (leasing) to consumers. Our main results indicate that, direct selling cost aside, product durability plays an important role in shaping the strategies of all members. With either marketing strategy, the additional expansion of an e-channel territory may secure Pareto gains, in which all members benefit

Shattering the Myth of Costless Price Changes: Emerging Perspectives on Dynamic Pricing

In this paper we argue that pricing is all about price changes, and that the costs of price changes are often simultaneously subtle and substantial. We discuss a framework to deal with the dynamics of changing prices. This framework incorporates customer interpretations of price changes, an awareness of the organizational costs of price changes, investments in future pricing processes, and an understanding of the role that supply chains play in price change strategy. The framework can be used at the tactical level to improve the specific price changes chosen and made, at the managerial level to decide whether or not to make a particular price change at all, and at the strategic level to determine what price adjustment processes should be invested in to improve pricing effectiveness in the future.Menu Cost, Myth, Costly Price Change, Cost of Price Adjustment, Dynamic Pricing, Customer Cost of Price Adjustment, Organizational Cost of Price Adjustment, Managerial Cost of Price Adjustment, Supply Chain, Investment in Pricing Processes, Price Change Tactic, Price Change Strategy, Pricing Tactics, Pricing Strategy, Pricing Effectiveness

Bridging Sales and Services Quality Functions in Retailing of High Technology Consumer Products

High technology product sales are positively associated with performance of retailers and distributors in terms of customer service quality, growth in sales and increase in market share. This paper aims at analyzing the impact of retail sales strategies and performance of customer services on customer acquisition, retention and sales growth of high technology consumer products of the high technology consumer products retailers and distributors in Mexico. This paper discusses the triadic relationship of customer- retailer-distributor in the high technology consumer products market segment in reference to the SERVQUAL factors which establish services quality encompassing tangibility, responsiveness, trust, accuracy and empathy. Results of the study reveal that the customers perceive better quality of the relationship in a given frame of functions that are performed effectively by the distributor lowering the extent of conflicts thereof. The discussions in the paper argue that high conformance of quality services delivered by the distributors and value added customer relationship is instrumental for retailers in acquiring new customers and retaining existing customer by augmenting the customer life time value.High technology products sales, customer services, SERVQUAL, customer-distributor relationship, customer value, distributor performance

Classification of Empirical Work on Sales Promotion: A Synthesis for Managerial Decision Making

Sales Promotion activities have gained strategic focus as markets are getting complex and competitive. Key managerial concerns in this area are budget allocation across elements of promotions as well as trade vis. consumer promotion, how to design individual sales promotion techniques and a calendar in face of competitive promotions, how to manage them and evaluate the short-term and long-term impact of the same. The objective of this paper is to present, through Meta-analysis, an overview of recent contributions appearing in scholastic journals relevant to the field of Sales Promotion, to classify them into different classificatory framework, report key findings, highlight the managerial implications and raise issues. The database used is the EBSCO host available on VSLLAN (Library)- Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad). The selection procedure consisted of peer-reviewed scholarly contributions for recent five year period. Out of more than 700 articles 64 article were selected which were analyzed for classifying them into • Perspective addressed: Manufacturer, retailer or consumer. • Market [country where the research was undertaken] • Type of promotion activity addressed - coupon, contest, price cut etc. • Management function addressed: planning, implementation, control [evaluation] • It was found that majority of the articles addressed manufacturers perspectives ; almost all studies were done in developed countries ; coupon as a consumer promotion tool was widely researched; and more than half of the articles were addressing planning related issues. Finally attempt has been made to synthesize managerial implications of the studies under broad topic areas for guidelines for managers.

Overview and classification of coordination contracts within forward and reverse supply chains

Among coordination mechanisms, contracts are valuable tools used in both theory and practice to coordinate various supply chains. The focus of this paper is to present an overview of contracts and a classification of coordination contracts and contracting literature in the form of classification schemes. The two criteria used for contract classification, as resulted from contracting literature, are transfer payment contractual incentives and inventory risk sharing. The overview classification of the existing literature has as criteria the level of detail used in designing the coordination models with applicability on the forward and reverse supply chains.Coordination contracts; forward supply chain; reverse supply chain

Transition to Electric Vehicles In the California Automobile Industry

This dissertation presents a comprehensive study on the market adoption of electric vehicle and policy impact of the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate in the California automotive market. This research is primarily consisting of three parts. The author first built a technology innovation pricing model based on multi-nomial logit modelling method. This studies the dynamics among customer preferences, market acceptance and policy impact on vehicle pricing in the California automotive market. Results show that the ZEV mandate could profoundly enhance the market adoption of electric vehicles. There is a threshold on the magnitude of policy intervention. If the number of credits per vehicle is less than the threshold, increasing intervention promotes the EV market penetration; however, beyond the threshold, policy primarily benefits automakers. In the second step, the author presents a decision model for electric vehicle attributes. This research first characterizes the market adoption rate of electric vehicle models under government subsidy and derives optimal vehicle attributes with respect to consumers\u27 preferences and product-based subsidy. The proposed model was then applied to the California\u27s automotive market. Our results also suggest that industry leaders and followers may choose different product strategy and market segments due to different battery manufacturing costs. In the last part, the author constructed a series of scenarios for the transition to battery electric cars and used the Market Acceptance of Advanced Automotive Technologies model to analyze the price competition in the California electric vehicle market. Considering the ZEV mandate already in place, this part investigates the role of this regulation in influencing the pricing decisions of different electric vehicle models and enhancing the overall market adoption rate. It was found that the 200-mile range electric vehicle had remarkable unilateral influence on the pricing of the 100-mile range electric vehicle. It suggests that the 200-mile range electric vehicle will become the core driving force in electric vehicle diffusion in the California electric vehicle market. The ZEV mandate remarkably reduced the prices of both models and increased corresponding annual demand. However, this policy showed considerable influence of changing the structure of the California electric vehicle market

Are secondary markets beneficial for a virtual world operator?

Selling virtual goods for real money has become the dominant business model for virtual worlds in the past decade. As the amount of money involved in virtual goods sales increases, market performance questions gain relevance. In this thesis, we examine the effects of secondary markets on the profitability of a virtual world service provider operating under a virtual goods sales model. More specifically, we ask whether the service provider should tolerate secondary markets or seek to kill them off. The structure of this thesis is as follows: we first review how virtual worlds operate as businesses and provide an analysis of the market conditions faced by a virtual world operator to provide sufficient context for the reader. We then examine the inner workings of virtual economies and review structures commonly encountered within them. Next, we conduct a literature review on real world secondary market models and analyses. Finally, we evaluate the implications of real world secondary market results on secondary markets for virtual goods. In the final section, we present conclusions and possible avenues for further study. We find that recent durable goods research suggests that a profit-maximizing monopolist will not shut down secondary markets, but will choose to reduce durability of goods instead and that these results can apply to virtual worlds as well. However, we also show that the question of allowing or not allowing secondary markets cannot be answered based on profitability alone and that service providers have to also account for externalities brought on by secondary markets

Determinants of Sustainable Relationships in the Albanian Apple Production Sector

This paper analyses the behaviour of Albanian apple growers and their relations with buyers based on a structured survey. We develop a model of relational governance that highlights the importance of sustainable (lasting) relationships and draws upon different theoretical frameworks such as transaction cost economics and social network theory and focuses on determinants of relational exchange. The findings support the social network argument that the presence of verbal agreements between business partners strongly and positively affects exchange relationships. Asset specificity and competition among buyers also affects such relationships. The results and their implications at the management and policy-making level are discussed in detai