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Media type:
E-Article
Title:
Optimal Pricing and Replenishment of an Expiring Inventoried Product under Heterogeneous Consumer Sensitivities
Contributor:
Herbon, Avi
Published:
Wiley, 2018
Published in:
Decision Sciences, 49 (2018) 3, Seite 522-552
Language:
English
DOI:
10.1111/deci.12276
ISSN:
0011-7315;
1540-5915
Origination:
Footnote:
Description:
<jats:title>ABSTRACT</jats:title><jats:p>Efficient pricing and replenishment decisions have the potential to yield significant increase in revenues. A widespread assumption in existing models of expiring inventories is that consumers are homogeneous in their sensitivities towards the factors that influence demand. Yet, there are numerous scenarios in which consumers may vary in terms of their sensitivities. In addition, most of the current literature addresses expiring inventories for which the perceived quality deteriorates over time, while models of perishables for which the quality remains stable over time (e.g., electronic devices) or increases (e.g., green bananas, or wine) have rarely been suggested. We analyze a joint pricing and replenishment optimization model that aims to maximize the retailer's profit and is general enough to consider these three types of expiring inventories, as well as heterogeneity in consumer sensitivities. In particular, our model considers the effects of remaining shelf‐life, price and perceived quality on demand. We obtain the optimal price given any cycle length and derive the FOC (first order condition) for obtaining the optimal cycle length. By numerical study, we show that the seller might gain significant profits in cases where consumers are highly heterogeneous either in their sensitivity to price or in their sensitivity to perceived quality. In contrast, the results indicate that the seller might lose significant profits (up to 16%) when consumers are highly heterogeneous in their sensitivity to expiration. Unexpectedly, the optimal price consumers pay is, in general, only moderately affected by the heterogeneity in consumer sensitivity.</jats:p>