Three Essays on Supply Chain Competition with Different Network Structures

Three Essays on Supply Chain Competition with Different Network Structures PDF Author: Deming Zhou
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business logistics
Languages : en
Pages : 300

Book Description


Competing on Supply Chain Quality

Competing on Supply Chain Quality PDF Author: Anna Nagurney
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319254510
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 399

Book Description
This book lays the foundations for quality modeling and analysis in the context of supply chains through a synthesis of the economics, operations management, as well as operations research/management science literature on quality. The reality of today's supply chain networks, given their global reach from sourcing locations to points of demand, is further challenged by such issues as the growth in outsourcing as well as the information asymmetry associated with what producers know about the quality of their products and what consumers know. Although much of the related literature has focused on the micro aspects of supply chain networks, considering two or three decision-makers, it is essential to capture the scale of supply chain networks in a holistic manner that occurs in practice in order to be able to evaluate and analyze the competition and the impacts on supply chain quality in a quantifiable manner. This volume provides an overview of the fundamental methodologies utilized in this book, including optimization theory, game theory, variational inequality theory, and projected dynamical systems theory. It then focuses on major issues in today's supply chains with respect to quality, beginning with information asymmetry, followed by product differentiation and branding, the outsourcing of production, from components to final products, to quality in freight service provision. The book is filled with numerous real-life examples in order to emphasize the generality and pragmatism of the models and tools. The novelty of the framework lies in a network economics perspective through which the authors identify the underlying network structure of the various supply chains, coupled with the behavior of the decision-makers, ranging from suppliers and manufacturers to freight service providers. What is meant by quality is rigorously defined and quantified. The authors explore the underlying dynamics associated with the competitive processes along with the equilibrium solutions. As appropriate, the supply chain decision-makers compete in terms of quantity and quality, or in price and quality. The relevance of the various models that are developed to specific industrial sectors, including pharmaceuticals and high technology products, is clearly made. Qualitative analyses are provided, along with effective, and, easy to implement, computational procedures. Finally, the impacts of policy interventions, in the form of minimum quality standards, and their ramifications, in terms of product prices, quality levels, as well as profits are explored. The book is filled with many network figures, graphs, and tables with data.

The Dynamics and Effects of Supply Network Structure

The Dynamics and Effects of Supply Network Structure PDF Author: Marat Davletshin
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 266

Book Description
The rising interest in network theory among supply chain scholars reflects an emerging shift in perspective. To deliver global speed, efficiency, and responsiveness, modern firms' supply chains are becoming increasingly complex. The patterns of interactions and interdependencies among hundreds of firms interconnected by these complex supply chains cannot be adequately explored from the dyadic perspective, which has dominated supply chain research for decades. Many supply chain scholars agree that the language of networks can provide a syntax and structure to describe and explore this complex reality. The actual application of network theory in supply chain research, however, has been limited. This dissertation provides three examples of how rigorous network analysis can furnish both a theory and a method to study modern firms' supply chains and obtain new knowledge advancing both scholarly thought and business practice. In this light, this dissertation may serve as a guide for supply chain scholars seeking to leverage the potential of empirical network analysis in their research. Essay 1 explores some of the ways in which structural properties of a firm's supply network affect the accuracy of forecasts made by stock analysts. Essay 2 examines how a firm's supply network changes its structure when the firm experiences stretches of financial difficulty. Essay 3 investigates how the structure of a firm's supply network changes as the firm unfolds a significant exploratory innovation project. Collectively, these three essays demonstrate the value of the network perspective as a great connector of ideas extending the interface between supply chain management and other business disciplines.

Three Essays on Supply Network Architecture

Three Essays on Supply Network Architecture PDF Author: Myung Kyo Kim
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781303615450
Category : Business logistics
Languages : en
Pages : 230

Book Description


Technology, Service, and Collaboration in Retail Supply Chains

Technology, Service, and Collaboration in Retail Supply Chains PDF Author: Xiaowen Huang
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 448

Book Description


Three Essays on the Marketing Strategies of a Durable Goods Manufacturer

Three Essays on the Marketing Strategies of a Durable Goods Manufacturer PDF Author: Ngan Ngoc Chau
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 184

Book Description
When purchasing durable goods, consumers not only pay for current but also future consumption; consequently, forward looking behavior is an important consideration in durable goods markets. For example, anticipating that prices will go down in the future, consumers may delay the purchase today; such behavior has a significant impact on the firm's marketing strategies. This dissertation investigates the impact of durability on two marketing strategies: new product introductions and supply chain design. The first part of this dissertation (Chapter 3) examines a durable goods manufacturer's new product introduction strategy under different market environments where network effects and product compatibility are important. More specifically, this part explores the incentives of a firm to use either a replacement strategy or a skipping strategy--in the former, the firm commercializes the existing technology, while in the latter, it does not; in either case, an improved technology will be available in the future and the firm will introduce a new product at that time. Using a two-period analytical model with network effects, the analysis shows how the level of improvement in the new product, along with the type of compatibility between the products, interacts with network strength to determine the manufacturer's optimal strategy. Under gradual new product improvement, there is a strict preference for replacement. In contrast, under rapid new product improvement, that preference only holds in markets with relatively high levels of the network strength; at lower levels of the network strength, skipping is preferred; interestingly, for moderate values of the network strength, the level of product improvement affects the manufacturer's optimal choice differently under varying types of compatibility. The second part of this dissertation (Chapters 4 and 5) focuses on the supply chain design decisions of a durable goods manufacturer who is a sole supplier of an essential proprietary component for making the end product. Three different supply chain structures are considered. In the first, the manufacturer operates as a "component supplier" and sells the component to a downstream firm who then makes the end product. In the second structure, the manufacturer produces the end product using its component but does not make that component available to any other firms; here, the manufacturer operates as a "sole entrant". Finally, the manufacturer can operate as a "dual distributor" who not only makes the end product using its own component, but sells the component to a downstream firm who then competes against the manufacturer in the end product market. The extant literature on the optimal choice among the above supply chain structures has focused mainly on static settings in a framework of price competition. By contrast, researchers predominantly use quantity competition to examine durable goods markets in dynamic (i.e., multiple time period) settings. Moreover, the literature notes diversity in optimal firm behavior under the two types of (i.e., price and quantity) competition. Therefore, to transition from supply chain design in a static setting to a more dynamic one where consumers are forward-looking, this part utilizes Chapter 4 to analyze the manufacturer's choice using quantity competition in a static setting. This analysis (in Chapter 4) identifies precisely the shift in the manufacturer's choice of supply chain structure when moving from price competition to a quantity competition framework. With that analysis as a benchmark, the next chapter focuses on the manufacturer's choice in a dynamic setting. More specifically, Chapter 5 investigates the impact of durability on the optimality of the supply chain structures identified above. Using a two period setting, the analysis explores how the manufacturer's preference for different supply chain structures is modified. The findings reveal that, e.g., when durability is taken into account, the manufacturer's preference for the sole entrant role goes up, while the preference for the component supplier role goes down. Further, under certain conditions, the manufacturer may opt to be a dual distributor in the first period and then choose to become only a component supplier in the second period. The underlying rationale for such shifts in preference is directly linked to durability, which creates future competition and substantially reduces the manufacturer's profitability in the long run. Interestingly, this negative impact varies across different supply chain structures. Overall, this dissertation contributes to the current literature on durable goods and enhances our understanding of the impact of durability on the optimality of distinct marketing strategies, and provides insights that are valuable to both academics and managers.

Dissertation Abstracts International

Dissertation Abstracts International PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Dissertations, Academic
Languages : en
Pages : 640

Book Description


Essays on Quantitative Analysis of Supply Chain Structures

Essays on Quantitative Analysis of Supply Chain Structures PDF Author: Xinjie Shi
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 125

Book Description
This thesis consists of three separate, but related, essays that deal with the topic of how supply chain structure as well as the use of contracts impact performance of a supply chain. The main focus is the analysis of behavior of indirect-sale supply chains in terms of relative bargaining power and decision rights of the participants. Modeling as Stackelberg games, this thesis explores the existence of Nash equilibriums and the issues surrounding supply chain coordination. In Essay one, "The Role of Decision Structure in Supply Chain Coordination with Stochastic Demand", the analysis focuses on how different supply chain structures affect the choice of contracts in coordination under a generalized setting in which more powerful agent does not necessarily assume the Stackelberg leadership. This study shows that an optimal coordinating contract is based not only upon the overstock liquidation advantage the supplier/retailer may have, but also upon the specific decision hierarchy in the supply chain. In Essay two, "Supply Chain Performance with Power Imbalanced Suppliers", studies the effects of product substitution when suppliers and retailers have an imbalance of decision making power. In particular, we address the questions of structure dominance and why certain supply chain power structures are more stable. Finally, Essay three, "Supply Chain Coordination with Revenue Sharing Contract when Retailer Sells Store-Brand Products", a retailer-dominated supply chain coordination problem is investigated when the retailer sells store-brand products. Among many insights developed, it follows that two-parameter revenue-sharing contracts are preferred to both wholesale-price contacts and one-parameter revenue-sharing contracts in supply chain coordination due to its flexibility in profit division.

Managing Supply Chain Networks

Managing Supply Chain Networks PDF Author: Alexandre Oliveira
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780133764529
Category : Business logistics
Languages : en
Pages :

Book Description


Three Essays in Supply Chain Management with Demand Dependencies

Three Essays in Supply Chain Management with Demand Dependencies PDF Author: Kunpeng Li
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780549909651
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 274

Book Description
Product demand is an important component of business research. The formulation of demand functions is fundamental in model setups, and can be a direct factor in model results. Demand dependency is an important area in the study of demand functions. This dissertation fits in the demand dependency literature, where many interesting industrial phenomena have been explored, but many others have not yet been studied. In addition, the existing literature mainly focuses on pricing models. Very little has been done on quality design and analysis. This dissertation includes quality as a decision variable in various demand dependency models, investigates some interesting business scenarios, and provides insights to many managerial issues.