An Inventory Model for Perishable Products with Stock-Dependent Demand and Trade Credit under Inflation

We consider an inventory model for perishable products with stock-dependent demand under inflation. It is assumed that the supplier offers a credit period to the retailer, and the length of credit period is dependent on the order quantity. The retailer does not need to pay the purchasing cost until the end of credit period. If the revenue earned by the end of credit period is enough to pay the purchasing cost or there is budget, the balance is settled and the supplier does not charge any interest. Otherwise, the supplier charges interest for unpaid balance after credit period, and the interest and the remaining payments are made at the end of the replenishment cycle. The objective is to minimize the retailer’s (net) present value of cost. We show that there is an optimal cycle length to minimize the present value of cost; furthermore, a solution procedure is given to find the optimal solution. Numerical experiments are provided to illustrate the proposed model

OPTIMAL PRICING AND GUARANTEED LEAD TIME WITH CONSIDERATION OF LATENESS PENALTIES

This paper studies the price and guaranteed lead time decision of a supplier that offers a fixed guaranteed lead time for a product. If the supplier is not able to meet the guaranteed lead time, the supplier must pay a lateness penalty to customers. Thus, the expected demand is a function of the price, guaranteed lead time and lateness penalty. We first develop a mathematical model for a given supply capacity to determine the optimal price, guaranteed lead time and lateness penalty to maximize the total profit. We then consider the case where it is also possible for the supplier to increase capacity and compute the optimal capacity

CLUSTER-BASED PRIORITY LIST GENERATION FOR RESOURCE-CONSTRAINED PROJECT SCHEDULING PROBLEMS

Constructive Heuristics for the Resource Constraint Project Scheduling Problems (RCPSP) are preferred scheduling methods when the project network broadens. Then, to generate a good schedule from these heuristics, the priority list used in the algorithm becomes crucial. This paper proposes a Cluster-Based Priority List (CB-PL) method for generating lists to improve makespans of schedules obtained from constructive heuristics. The method creates more intellectual priority lists that generate lower makespans. The approach is built and fine-tuned upon the existing relative literature. The performance of the method is measured by comparing the makespan results. The experiment for the comparison uses serial and parallel scheduling schemes with seven priority rules. Then the experiment is tested through a set of benchmark data. Finally, schedules obtained through the CB-PL showed significant makespan reductions and increases in an overall number of better solutions

ANALYSIS OF A TRACEABILITY SYSTEM FOR PERISHABLE FOOD SUPPLY CHAINS

Food traceability has attracted great attentions due to increasing concerns over food safety and quality. This study analyzes an RFID-enabled traceability system for perishable food supply chains, which consist of an upstream supplier and a downstream retailer. The supplier delivers the RFID embedded perishable food to the retailer. The deployment of RFID enables constant monitoring of the parameters that are critical to the quality and the safety of food and therefore provides real-time food quality data. Based on the quality of food when it arrives at the retailer, the supplier sets the wholesale price and the retailer determines price markdowns, accordingly. We develop a decision-making mechanism for a perishable food supply chain when demand depends on the price, the quality, and the safety of perishable food. The optimal decisions of the participants are derived in both centralized and decentralized systems. We further propose an incentive scheme to coordinate the decentralized system. Numerical analysis is conducted to provide managerial insights in terms of RFID deployment in the perishable food supply chain

A GAME THEORETIC APPROACH FOR THE OPTIMAL INVESTMENT DECISIONS OF GREEN INNOVATION IN A MANUFACTURER-RETAILER SUPPLY CHAIN

This paper analyzes a single manufacturer, single retailer supply chain involving green innovation investment. Consumer demand is dependent on selling price and greening effort of both the manufacturer and the retailer. We consider the effects of consumer environmental awareness, perception difficulty of green products, and degree of goods’ necessity on decision making. According to the relationship between the manufacturer and the retailer, three non-coordinated game (including Manufacturer-Stackelberg, Retailer-Stackelberg, and Vertical Nash) and one coordinated supply chain structures are proposed. The pricing and green investment policies are investigated under these four supply chain structures, respectively. A Retail Fixed Markup (RFM) policy is analyzed when channel members fail to achieve supply chain coordination. The effects of RFM on supply chain performance are evaluated. We compare optimal solutions and profits under the coordination, the Manufacturer-Stackelberg, and the RFM supply chain structure numerically and provide managerial insights for practitioners

Does Driving Range of Electric Vehicles Influence Electric Vehicle Adoption?

This study aims to determine the influential factors on the market share of electric vehicles through panel data analysis based on time series data from 2011 to 2015 in 31 countries. We selected five significant independent variables that are expected to affect electric vehicle adoption based on literature review. The econometric model in this study suggests that the relative price of electric vehicle compared to internal combustion engine vehicle, driving range, and number of models available in markets are correlated to the market share of electric vehicles. On the other hand, relationship between recharging infrastructure—an important factor for electric vehicle adoption in many studies—and market share of electric vehicles turned out to be insignificant in this study. From a political point of view, we argue that policy makers need to allocate more resources to research and development in order to extend driving range at the early stage of electric vehicle deployment in the markets

Dynamic Technological Diversification and Its Impact on Firms’ Performance: An Empirical Analysis of Korean IT Firms

This paper aims to analyze the influence of the technological diversification on a firm’s innovation capabilities and investigates the effect of various strategies on the firm’s financial performance in a technology-oriented environment. We employ the entropy measurement to calculate technological diversification with 2095 patents, which are applied from years 2009 to 2011 by 507 firms that have participated in Korean government Information Technology (IT) Research and Development (R&D) supporting programs. In our framework, a firm should not diversify among the related technology fields, but should concentrate on a specific technology to reinforce the competitive advantage. However, in the case of the firms with sufficient resources, increasing technological diversification among the unrelated technology fields plays a key role on the firms’ performance. Furthermore, the degree of the technological diversification should be adjusted dynamically in compliance with the change of a firm’s innovation capabilities. Therefore, these results suggest that a firm should develop differentiated competitiveness through specialization by prioritizing its capabilities, and then exploit unrelated technological diversification to search for new opportunities

Identification of Promising Smart Farm Technologies and Development of Technology Roadmap Using Patent Map Analysis

In this study, we suggest methodologies for identifying promising and vacant technologies on smart farms by analyzing patent information. Additionally, a technology roadmap for smart farms is suggested using network analysis. The database of patents related to smart farms was extracted from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) by keyword search, and valid patents data was selected and clustered using the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) algorithm. We also conducted the technical importance analysis and trend analysis to identify promising technology topics. By developing a patent map based on a self-organizing map (SOM), we were able to identify vacant technologies among smart farm technology groups. In order to develop vacant technologies, we presented a stepwise technology roadmap by analyzing the relationship between technology elements using network analysis. The proposed procedure and analysis method provides useful insights in establishing research and development (R&D) strategies for the development of smart farm technology roadmaps

Firm Growth and R&D in the Korean Pharmaceutical Industry

We explore the impact of research and development (R&D) on sales growth rate with firm-specific factors under the Korean pharmaceutical industry structure using listed Korea pharmaceutical company data from 2007 to 2018 with the quantile regression technique. We find that R&D intensity has a positive effect on firm growth rate while R&D scale a negative effect on the firm growth rate at the upper quantile, whereas the result is opposite at the lower quantile. Firm size has a mixed relationship with sales growth at the upper quantile, thus Gibrat’s law is rejected in the Korean pharmaceutical industry. Firm age has a negative relationship with the sales growth rate at the upper quantile, which shows the consistent result with previous research that young firms grow faster. Patent persistence has a negative relationship with sales growth at the upper quantile, while a positive effect at the lower quantile. We show that young firms and firms with high R&D intensity contribute to the high growth rate, while the relationship is not clear at the lower quantile. Therefore, policy implication in this research is that the government should pay attention to encouraging and supporting R&D investment activities and small firms as well as consider ways to enhance patent rights