Chun-Hung Chiu

Price, Rebate, and Returns Supply Contracts for Coordinating Supply Chains with Price Dependent Demand

Channel rebates and returns policies are common mechanisms for manufacturers to entice retailers to increase their order quantities and sales ultimately. However, when the underlying demand depends on the retail price, it has been known that channel coordination cannot be achieved if only one of these mechanisms is deployed. In this paper, we show that a policy that combines the use of wholesale price, channel rebate, and returns can coordinate a channel with both additive and multiplicative price-dependent demands. In addition to determining the sufficient conditions for the contract parameters associated with the equilibrium policy, we show that multiple equilibrium policies for channel coordination exist. We further explore how the equilibrium policy can be adjusted to achieve Pareto improvement. Other issues such as the maximum amount of expected profit that the manufacturer can share under the coordinated channel, the structural properties of the contracts under both the additive and multiplicative price-dependent demand functions are also discussed.

Supply chain risk analysis with mean-variance models: a technical review

Pioneered by Nobel laureate Harry Markowitz in the 1950s, the mean-variance (MV) formulation is a fundamental theory for risk management in finance. Over the past decades, there is a growing popularity of applying this ground breaking theory in analyzing stochastic supply chain management problems. Nowadays, there is no doubt that the mean-variance (MV) theory is a well-proven approach for conducting risk analysis in stochastic supply chain operational models. In view of the growing importance of MV approach in supply chain management, we review a selection of related papers in the literature that focus on MV analytical models. By classifying the literature into three major areas, namely, single-echelon problems, multi-echelon supply chain problems, and supply chain problems with information updating, we derive insights into the current state of knowledge in each area and identify some associated challenges with a discussion of some specific models. We also suggest future research directions on topics such as information asymmetry, supply networks, and boundedly rational agents, etc. In conclusion, this paper provides up-to-date information which helps both academicians and practitioners to better understand the development of MV models for supply chain risk analysis.

Coordination Mechanism for the Supply Chain with Leadtime Consideration and Price-Dependent Demand

We study a coordination contract for a supplier-retailer channel producing and selling a fashionable product exhibiting a stochastic price-dependent demand. The products selling season is short, and the supply chain faces great demand uncertainty. We consider a scenario where the supplier reserves production capacity for the retailer in advance, and permits the retailer to place an order not exceeding the reserved capacity after a demand information update during a leadtime. We formulate a two-stage optimization problem in which the supplier decides the amount of capacity reservation in the first stage, and the retailer determines the order quantity and the retail price after observing the demand information in the second stage. We propose a three-parameter risk and profit sharing contract that coordinates the supply chain. The proposed contract permits any agreed-upon division of the supply-chain profit between the channel members.

Supply chain coordination with risk sensitive retailer under target sales rebate

Target sales rebate (TSR) contracts have been shown to be useful in coordinating supply chains with risk-neutral agents. However, there have been few studies on the cases with risk sensitive agents. As a result, based on the classic Markowitz portfolio theory in finance, we carry out in this paper a mean-variance (MV) analysis of supply chains under TSR contracts. We study a supply chain with a single supplier and a single risk averse retailer. We propose TSR contracts for achieving coordination. We demonstrate how TSR contracts can coordinate the supply chain which takes into consideration the degree of risk aversion of the retailer. We find that the supplier can coordinate the channel with flexible TSR contracts. In addition, we extend the supply chain model to include sales effort decision of the retailer. Conditions for TSR contracts to coordinate the supply chain with sales effort of retailer are also derived.

Price Wall or War: The Pricing Strategies for Retailers

In this paper, we apply the game theory to study some strategic actions for retailers to fight a price war. We start by modeling a noncooperative pure pricing game among multiple competing retailers who sell a certain branded product under price-dependent stochastic demands. A unique Nash equilibrium is proven to exist under some mild conditions. We demonstrate mathematically the incentives for retailers to start a price war. Based on a strategic framework via the game theory, we illustrate the use of service level to build price walls which can prevent a huge drop in price, as well as profit. Three kinds of price walls are proposed, and the respective strengths and weaknesses have been studied. Analytical conditions, under which a price wall can effectively prevent big drops in both market share and profit, are developed. Aside from the proposed price walls, two other pricing strategies, which can lead to an all-win situation, are examined.

Optimal Pricing and Stocking Decisions for Newsvendor Problem With Value-at-Risk Consideration

Motivated by the popularity of VaR measure in financial applications, we study the classical newsvendor problem with Value-at-Risk (VaR) consideration and price-dependent demands. We first investigate the problems structural properties and derive analytically the optimal joint stocking and pricing decisions. We then explore the difference between the optimal decisions under the VaR formulation and the classical expected profit-maximization model. Finally, we reveal an interesting analytical relationship between the inventory service level and the VaR measure. Insights are generated.

Periodic Review Multiperiod Inventory Control Under a Mean–Variance Optimization Objective

We study in this correspondence paper a solution scheme which solves a periodic review multiperiod inventory problem under a mean-variance (MV) framework. We first investigate a primal inventory problem with an MV objective function. Owing to the nonseparable nature of variance, we construct an auxiliary problem which is separable. By solving the auxiliary problem, we identify the conditions under which the solutions of the primal and auxiliary problems converge. Hence, we propose the algorithm and show that a base-stock policy is optimal.

Optimal Advertising and Pricing Strategies for Luxury Fashion Brands With Social Influences

In marketing, it is well known that social needs play an important role in the purchase of conspicuous products such as high-end luxury fashion labels. In this paper, we analytically study the optimal advertising and pricing decisions for luxury fashion brands in a market that consists of two consumer groups with contrasting social needs for fashion products, namely, the leader group (LG) and the follower group (FG). We consider a situation where the LG consumers have the desire to distinguish themselves from the FG consumers, whereas the FG consumers would like to assimilate themselves with the LG consumers. We first develop an original optimization model for this problem. We then explore the optimal solution scheme by separating the problem into tactic-based subproblems and conduct an extensive sensitivity analysis. Our analysis reveals that the optimal strategies follow different scenarios, and it can be optimal for a brand of conspicuous product to do the following: 1) Advertise to only one group while sell to the whole market; 2) advertise and sell to the FG only; and 3) advertise and sell to the LG only. Important insights are also reported.

Sales Rebate Contracts in Fashion Supply Chains

We explore in this paper the performance of sales rebate contracts in fashion supply chains. We conduct both analytical and numerical analyses via a mean-variance framework with reference to real empirical data. To be specific, we evaluate the expected profits and variance of profits � riskof the fashion supply chains, fashion retailers, and manufacturers under � 1� the currently implemented sales rebate practices, � 2� the case without sales rebate, and � 3� the theoretical coordination situationif target sales rebate is adopted� . In addition, we analyze how sales effort affects the performances of the supply chain and its agents. Our analysis indicates that the rebate contracts may hurt the retailer and the manufacturer of a fashion supply chain when it is inappropriately set. Moreover, a properly designed sales rebate contract not only can coordinate the supply chainwith retail sales effortbut can also improve expected profits and lower the levels of risk for both the manufacturer and the retailer.

Innovative Mass Customization in the Fashion Industry

Mass customization (MC) is a popular strategy in the fashion industry. MCaims at satisfying individual customer’s needs with customized products and at acost near that of mass production. In this chapter, we first conduct acomprehensive literature review on MC in the fashion industry. We then propose ascheme to classify the MC practices as traditional and innovative. By exploringmany real world cases, we compare and develop insights on the applications ofdifferent kinds of MC in the fashion industry. Managerial recommendations aregenerated. We believe that this chapter can lay a good foundation for futurestudies on MC.