This paper examines the effect of information sharing on supply chain configuration where the market characterized by demand uncertainty. A dynamic multi-stage game theoretic model with incomplete information is employed to capture the sequence of events. Our supply chain consists of two...

When an improvable durable good (such as packaged software) saturates the market, the seller could be tempted to release new versions too frequently, hurting her profit. A novel contractual device, which we term as a Free New Version Rights warranty (Free NVR warranty), can help the seller...

In many industries, product design and manufacturing lead-times are sufficiently long that both the quality level of a product and the amount of inventory produced must be determined before a firm knows what the actual demand will be. In this paper, we conduct a theoretical analysis of such a...

Retailers often offer price and quantity promotions to customers during clearance sales. In a price promotion, they offer discounted unit prices. In a quantity promotion, they usually offer a buy-one-get-one free (BOGO) or buy-two-get-one free (BTGO) policy. Under BOGO, customers buying one unit...

Although rebates are widely employed, redemption is not effort-free, and the hassle of redemption is an important decision variable for buyers. The current research examines the impact of hassle cost on optimal rebate strategy. An analytical model is developed that simultaneously determines the...

When markets have different types of users that attract one another, more demand from one group can spur additional demand from the matched group in a virtuous cycle. These effects are often present in platform markets. Examples include application developers/users, credit card...

Critics have long faulted the wide-spread practice of trade promotions as wasteful. It has been estimated that this practice adds up to $100 billion worth of inventory to the distribution system. Yet the practice continues. In this paper, we propose a price-discrimination model of trade...

This paper presents findings from a census of more than 79,000 stock-keeping units (SKUs) in 37 consumer packaged goods categories totaling $55 billion in annual revenue. It shows that, in 86% of product categories, the relationship between market share and retail distribution is increasing and...

We investigate firms' re-manufacturing strategies in the case of a Cournot duopoly. On one hand, re-manufactured products cannibalize sales of new products by the same firm and hurt its profits. On the other, re-manufacturing can be a profitable marketing strategy to target different customer...

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...