×

Optimal decisions for sellers considering valuation bias and strategic consumer reactions. (English) Zbl 1394.90369

Summary: In the online market for new and innovative products, valuation bias commonly occurs between the initial valuation before purchase and the true valuation after purchase as a result of the consumer’s lack of knowledge regarding the product. Valuation bias works in a complex manner. On the one hand, positive valuation bias increases the seller’s demand, while on the other hand, it can also cause consumers to return their purchases, which results in losses for the seller. This paper first investigates the effect of the bias on the seller’s optimal pricing. The optimal price is determined always to increase strictly in the valuation bias if and only if the valuation bias does not exceed the consumer’s return cost. This result remains true regardless of whether the seller decides on the stocking quantity. In addition to the valuation bias, we consider strategic consumer reactions to the bias in two selling periods, namely, the advance period and the spot period. Our analysis finds that the seller’s selling strategies (e.g., pre-announcing pricing trends) are significantly affected by the relationship between valuation bias and the strategic consumer’s estimation of the bias. In addition, though the optimal selling period is either the advance selling term or the spot selling term, the seller does not need to provide for both periods sequentially. We also determine that the unannounced pricing trend strategy and the announced non-increasing pricing trend strategy are equivalent when the seller faces strategic consumers.

MSC:

90B50 Management decision making, including multiple objectives
90B60 Marketing, advertising
91B42 Consumer behavior, demand theory
91B24 Microeconomic theory (price theory and economic markets)
Full Text: DOI

References:

[1] Akan, M.; Ata, B.; Dana, J. D., Revenue management by sequential screening, Journal of Economic Theory, 159, 728-774 (2015) · Zbl 1330.91078
[2] Alexandrov, A.; Lariviere, M. A., Are reservations recommended?, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 14, 2, 218-230 (2012)
[3] Aviv, Y.; Pazgal, A., Optimal pricing of seasonal products in the presence of forward-looking consumers, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 10, 3, 339-359 (2008)
[4] Bhargava, H. K.; Chen, R. R., The benefit of information asymmetry: When to sell to informed customers?, Decision Support Systems, 53, 2, 345-356 (2012)
[5] Chen, J.; Bell, P. C., Coordinating a decentralized supply chain with customer returns and price-dependent stochastic demand using a buyback policy, European Journal of Operational Research, 212, 2, 293-300 (2011) · Zbl 1237.90008
[6] Chen, Y. J., Optimal selling scheme for heterogeneous consumers with uncertain valuations, Mathematics of Operations Research, 36, 4, 695-720 (2011) · Zbl 1242.49070
[7] Dasu, S.; Tong, C., Dynamic pricing when consumers are strategic: Analysis of posted and contingent pricing schemes, European Journal of Operational Research, 204, 662-671 (2010) · Zbl 1181.91066
[8] DeGraba, P., Buying frenzies and seller-induced excess demand, The RAND Journal of Economics, 331-342 (1995)
[9] Gefen, D.; Straub, D. W., Consumer trust in B2C e-commerce and the importance of social presence: Experiments in e-products and e-services, Omega, 32, 6, 407-424 (2004)
[10] Guide, V. D.R.; Souza, G. C.; Van Wassenhove, L. N.; Blackburn, J. D., Time value of commercial product returns, Management Science, 52, 8, 1200-1214 (2006) · Zbl 1232.90145
[11] Hu, W.; Li, Y.; Govindan, K., The impact of consumer returns policies on consignment contracts with inventory control, European Journal of Operational Research, 233, 398-407 (2014) · Zbl 1305.90027
[12] Koenigsberg, O.; Muller, E.; Vilcassim, N. J., easyJet pricing strategy: Should low-fare airlines offer last-minute deals?, QME, 6, 3, 279-297 (2008)
[13] Lawton, C., The war on returns, Wall Street Journal, 8, 1 (2008)
[14] Lewis, T. R.; Sappington, D. E., Supplying information to facilitate price 1183 discrimination, International Economic Review, 35, 2, 309-327 (1994) · Zbl 0802.90033
[15] Liu, Q.; van Ryzin, G. J., Strategic capacity rationing to induce early purchases, Management Science, 54, 6, 1115-1131 (2008) · Zbl 1232.91253
[16] Nelson, P., Advertising as information, Journal of political economy, 82, 4, 729-754 (1974)
[17] Rogers, D. S.; Tibben-Lembke, R. S.; Council, R. L.E., Going backwards: Reverse logistics trends and practices (Vol. 2) (1999), Reverse Logistics Executive Council: Reverse Logistics Executive Council Pittsburgh, PA:
[18] Shapiro, C., Consumer information, product quality, and seller reputation, The Bell Journal of Economics, 13, 1, 20-35 (1982)
[19] Shugan, S. M.; Xie, J., Advance pricing of services and other implications of separating purchase and consumption, Journal of Service Research, 2, 3, 227-239 (2000)
[20] Su, X., Intertemporal pricing with strategic customer behavior, Management Science, 53, 5, 726-741 (2007) · Zbl 1232.91435
[21] Su, X., Consumer returns policies and supply chain performance, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 11, 4, 595-612 (2009)
[22] Su, X., Optimal pricing with speculators and strategic consumers, Management Science, 56, 1, 25-40 (2010) · Zbl 1232.91261
[23] Su, X.; Zhang, F., Strategic customer behavior, commitment, and supply chain performance, Management Science, 54, 10, 1759-1773 (2008) · Zbl 1232.91262
[24] Swinney, R., Selling to strategic consumers when product value is uncertain: The value of matching supply and demand, Management Science, 57, 10, 1737-1751 (2011)
[25] Xiao, T.; Shi, K.; Yang, D., Coordination of a supply chain with consumer return under demand uncertainty, International Journal of Production Economics, 124, 171-180 (2010)
[26] Xie, J.; Shugan, S. M., Electronic tickets, smart cards, and online prepayments: When and how to advance sell, Marketing Science, 20, 3, 219-243 (2001)
[27] Xu, L.; Li, Y.; Govindan, K.; Xu, X., Consumer returns policies with endogenous deadline and supply chain coordination, European Journal of Operational Research, 242, 88-99 (2015) · Zbl 1341.90020
[28] Yao, Z.; Leung, S. C.; Lai, K. K., Analysis of the impact of price-sensitivity factors on the returns policy in coordinating supply chain, European Journal of Operational Research, 187, 275-282 (2008) · Zbl 1149.90019
[29] Yu, F., Correlated defaults in intensity-based models, Mathematical Finance, 17, 2, 155-173 (2007) · Zbl 1186.91237
[30] Zhang, J.; Gou, Q.; Liang, L.; Huang, Z., Supply chain coordination through cooperative advertising with reference price effect, Omega, 41, 2, 345-353 (2013)
[31] Zhang, J.; Kevin Chiang, y. W.; Liang, L., Strategic pricing with reference effects in a competitive supply chain, Omega, 44, 126-135 (2014)
This reference list is based on information provided by the publisher or from digital mathematics libraries. Its items are heuristically matched to zbMATH identifiers and may contain data conversion errors. In some cases that data have been complemented/enhanced by data from zbMATH Open. This attempts to reflect the references listed in the original paper as accurately as possible without claiming completeness or a perfect matching.