管科系系列讲座第156期预告

时间：2016年4月5日（周二）13:30

地点：史带楼301室

主持人: 徐以汎教授

演讲嘉宾：Lin Tian, School of Management, Fudan University

Title： Effects of Demand Uncertainty and Production Lead Time on Product Quality and Firm Profitability

Abstract：In many distribution channels, the brand-owning retailer designs product quality and decides the retail price, but often outsources the production of its product to suppliers on wholesale price contracts. For products with a short selling season, long production lead time in the supply chain requires the supplier to carry out the production before the selling season, and the uncertain market demand creates risks of stock-out or excess inventory. This paper studies the impact of the supplier’s lead time and its Just-in-Time (JIT) production capacity on product quality and pricing decisions under pull contracts in the supply chain. Our analysis shows that a reduction in the supplier’s lead time or an increase in its JIT production capacity can lead to higher or lower equilibrium product quality, benefiting the retailer but potentially reducing the supplier’s profit. This implies that the supplier may have no incentive to improve its lead time or JIT capacity even if it is costless to do so, unless it can keep such improvement a secret from the retailer. Interestingly, better market conditions (i.e., a higher probability of the market having a large fraction of high-valuation consumers) may actually reduce the profits for both the retailer and the supplier, and lead to lower product quality.

管理科学系

2016-3-17