42 research outputs found

    Consumer Returns Policies and Supply Chain Performance

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    This paper develops a model of consumer returns policies. In our model, consumers face valuation uncertainty and realize their valuations only after purchase. There is also aggregate demand uncertainty, captured using the conventional newsvendor model. In this environment, consumers decide whether to purchase and then whether to return the product, whereas the seller sets the price, quantity, and refund amount. Using our model, we study the impact of full returns policies (e.g., using 100% money-back guarantees) and partial returns policies (e.g., when restocking fees are charged) on supply chain performance. Next, we demonstrate that consumer returns policies may distort incentives under common supply contracts (such as manufacturer buy-backs), and we propose strategies to coordinate the supply chain in the presence of consumer returns. Finally, we explore several extensions and demonstrate the robustness of our findings

    Sustainability in Supply Chains with Behavioral Concerns

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    Environmental sustainability has received considerable attention in industry and academia. Many firms have begun to adopt sustainability practices, such as investing in cleaner technology and using organic or recyclable materials, to enhance sustainability in supply chains. Such sustainability practices affect corporate social responsibility and business performance. On the other hand, when consumers and supply chain managers make decisions, they may be constrained by behavioral concerns. Behavioral concerns can significantly influence optimization in supply chains. Thus, it is critical to consider the impacts of behavioral concerns on sustainability in supply chains. In this paper, we concisely examine studies in sustainability issues in supply chains with behavioral concerns and introduce the papers featured in this Special Issue

    Service Operations Optimization: Recent Development in Supply Chain Management

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    Services are the key of success in operation management. Designing the effective strategies by optimization techniques is the fundamental and important condition for performance increase in service operations (SOs) management. In this paper, we mainly focus on investigating SOs optimization in the areas of supply chain management, which create the greatest business values. Specifically, we study the recent development of SOs optimization associated with supply chain by categorizing them into four different industries (i.e., e-commerce industry, consumer service industry, public sector, and fashion industry) and four various SOs features (i.e., advertising, channel coordination, pricing, and inventory). Moreover, we conduct the technical review on the stylish industries/topics and typical optimization models. The classical optimization approaches for SOs management in supply chain are presented. The managerial implications of SOs in supply chain are discussed

    Sales rebate contracts in fashion supply chains

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    Coordinating a Supply Chain with Risk-Averse Agents under Demand and Consumer Returns Uncertainty

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    This paper examines the optimal order decision in a supply chain when it faces uncertain demand and uncertain consumer returns. We build consumer returns model with decision-makers’ risk preference under mean-variance objective framework and discuss supply chain coordination problem under wholesale-price-only policy and the manufacturer’s buyback policy, respectively. We find that, with wholesale price policy, the supply chain cannot be coordinated whether the supply chain agents are risk-neutral or risk-averse. However, with buyback policy, the supply chain can be coordinated and the profit of the supply chain can be arbitrarily allocated between the manufacturer and the retailer. Through numerical examples, we illustrate the impact of stochastic consumer returns and the supply chain agents’ risk attitude on the optimal order decision

    The Impact of Price Comparison Service on Pricing Strategy in a Dual-Channel Supply Chain

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    Recently, price comparison service (PCS) websites are more and more popular due to its features in facilitating transparent price and promoting rational purchase decision. Motivated by the industrial practices, in this study, we examine the pricing strategies of retailers and supplier in a dual-channel supply chain influenced by the signals of PCS. We categorize and discuss three situations according to the signal availability of PCS, under which the optimal pricing strategies are derived. Finally, we conduct a numerical study and find that in fact the retailers and supplier are all more willing to avoid the existence of PCS with the objective of profit maximization. When both of retailers are affected by the PCS, the supplier is more willing to reduce the availability of price information. Important managerial insights are discussed

    Service Quality of Online Shopping Platforms: A Case-Based Empirical and Analytical Study

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    Customer service is crucially important for online shopping platforms (OSPs) such as eBay and Taobao. Based on the well-established service quality instruments and the scenario of the specific case on Taobao, this paper focuses on exploring the service quality of an OSP with an aim of revealing customer perceptions of the service quality associated with the provided functions and investigating their impacts on customer loyalty. By an empirical study, this paper finds that the “fulfillment and responsiveness” function is significantly related to the customer loyalty. Further analytical study is conducted to reveal that the optimal service level on the “fulfillment and responsiveness” function for the risk averse OSP uniquely exists. Moreover, the analytical results prove that (i) if the customer loyalty is more positively correlated to the service level, it will lead to a larger optimal service level, and (ii) the optimal service level is independent of the profit target, the source of uncertainty, and the risk preference of the OSP
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