Supply chain finance: optimal introduction and adoption decisions

Supply chain finance (SCF) can improve supply chain performance by facilitating longer payment terms for buyers and better access to financing for suppliers. In spite of these clear benefits, there is empirical evidence for some hesitation and resistance to SCF adoption, manifesting in an often substantial time lag between a buyer's introduction of SCF and its adoption by all targeted suppliers. Observed adoption processes often resemble the s-shaped Bass-curve suggesting that successful early adoptions support adoption decisions by other suppliers. Based on these observations, we consider supplier SCF adoption decisions within a diffusion model, to obtain insights regarding a buyer's optimal SCF introduction decisions in terms of timing and payment terms. We find that initial payment terms and procurement volume strongly affect the optimal timing of SCF introduction and optimal payment term extensions. The degree to which the buyer can influence suppliers in their adoption decisions affects the optimal introduction timing, but not optimal payment terms. Interestingly, our results suggest that, in spite of the clear benefits, many buyers might be well-advised to postpone their SCF implementations

Supply chain interactions due to store-brand introductions: The impact of retail competition

Store-brand products are of increasing importance in retailing, often causing channel conflict as they compete with national brands. Focusing on the interactions that arise in single-manufacturer single-retailer settings, previous research suggests that one main driver of store-brand profitability to the retailer is that it leads to a reduction of the national-brand wholesale price. Under retail competition, the Robinson Patman Act then introduces an interesting trade-off: A retailer that introduces a store brand incurs the associated costs and risks, while sharing this benefit with its competition. We show that the resulting interactions can cause retailers to play "chicken", either of them preferring a store-brand introduction by the competitor. Such interactions do not arise in channels with a single retailer, as has been the object of most previous research, and we show that some of the key insights derived from single-retailer models fail to hold when retailers compete. We conduct a numeric study, and our findings suggest that retailers are more likely to randomize their store-brand introduction strategies when customers have strong store preferences, and when the retailers' store-brand products are similar to the national-brand product in terms of customer valuations and production cost.Supply chain management Store brands Competition Vertical product differentiation Game theory

Spectral surface albedo over Morocco and its impact on radiative forcing of Saharan dust

This journal is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported LicenseIn May-June 2006, airborne and ground-based solar (0.3-2.2 mu m) and thermal infrared (4-42 mu m) radiation measurements have been performed in Morocco within the Saharan Mineral Dust Experiment (SAMUM). Upwelling and downwelling solar irradiances have been measured using the Spectral Modular Airborne Radiation Measurement System (SMART)-Albedometer. With these data, the areal spectral surface albedo for typical surface types in southeastern Morocco was derived from airborne measurements for the first time. The results are compared to the surface albedo retrieved from collocated satellite measurements, and partly considerable deviations are observed. Using measured surface and atmospheric properties, the spectral and broad-band dust radiative forcing at top-of-atmosphere (TOA) and at the surface has been estimated. The impact of the surface albedo on the solar radiative forcing of Saharan dust is quantified. In the SAMUM case of 19 May 2006, TOA solar radiative forcing varies by 12 W m(-2) per 0.1 surface-albedo change. For the thermal infrared component, values of up to +22 W m(-2) were derived. The net (solar plus thermal infrared) TOA radiative forcing varies between -19 and +24 W m(-2) for a broad-band solar surface albedo of 0.0 and 0.32, respectively. Over the bright surface of southeastern Morocco, the Saharan dust always has a net warming effect.Peer reviewe

Specialization and competition in healthcare delivery networks

Healthcare operations, Service operations, Competition, Specialization, Game theory, Spatial modeling,