In this paper, we use a Markov decision process (MDP) to model the joint inventory-promotion decision problem. The state variable of the MDP represents the demand state brought about by changing environmental factors as well as promotion decisions. The demand state in a period determines the...

This paper is concerned with a generalization of classical inventory models (with fixed ordering costs) that exhibit (s, S) policies. In our model, the distribution of demands in successive periods is dependent on a Markov chain. The model includes the case of cyclic or seasonal demand. The...

"The Belt and Road Initiative promotes connectivity among countries and regions along the route and is a powerful tool for the Chinese government to respond to the rise of trade protectionism and the restructuring and shift of global industrial chains in the post-epidemic era. This study...

Supply chains today routinely use third parties for many strategic activities, such as manufacturing, R&D, or software development. These activities often include relationship-specific investment on the part of the vendor, while final outcomes can be uncertain. Therefore, writing complete...

We consider a cooperative advertising channel consisting of a manufacturer selling its product through a retailer in competition with another independent retailer. The manufacturer subsidizes its retailer's advertising only when a certain threshold is positive. Moreover, the manufacturer's...

Cooperative advertising is an incentive offered by a manufacturer to influence retailers' promotional decisions. We study a dynamic durable goods duopoly with a manufacturer and two independent and competing retailers. The manufacturer as a Stackelberg leader announces his wholesale prices and...

We compare site-to-store and store-to-site strategies for dual-channel integration. The site-to-store (resp., store-to-site) strategy can ll unmet orders in the physical channel (resp., online channel) with the inventory in the online channel (resp., physical channel). With one (physical) retail...

The models we present in this chapter are related to two classical inventory models: The EOQ model of Harris (1913) and the dynamic lot size model of Wagner and Whitin (1958). In relation to the EOQ model, our models depart in three different ways: (1) the EOQ model assumes that the problem...

We model an impulse control problem when the controller's action affects the state as well as the dynamics of the state process for a random amount of time. We apply our model to solve a central bank intervention problem in the foreign exchange market when the market observes and reacts to the...

We study sourcing and pricing decisions of a firm with correlated suppliers and a price-dependent demand. With two suppliers, the insight -- cost is the order qualifier while reliability is the order winner -- derived in the literature for the case of exogenously determined price and independent...