Research On The Integration And Pricing Strategies Of Ports Integrating Highway Transportation Service Based On Game Theory

The ports' scope has continuously expanded with the rapid development of ports.Hence the phenomenon of more hinterlands overlapping aggravated the competition for the market share between different port companies located in the same region.With such fierce competition,problems about how to enhance the profit margin of companies with differentiation services,what's more,make proper service pricing under theoretical guidance became critical.To address this problem,this paper analyzed the characteristic of competition between port companies and tendency of port development both in China and abroad,considered the special discrete distribution of hinterlands.Then proposed the research on the integration and pricing strategies of ports integrating highway transportation service based on game theoryFirstly,transportation service choosing behavior of hinterland users are analyzed.Then the total transportation utilities of hinterland users are split into 4 parts based on the utility theory,which are utilities of transportation price,transportation time,service experience and random utilities,respectively.Combined the total transportation utilities and Multinomial Logit model,the model of hinterland users choosing port services are built.Furthermore,three context of competition between port companies are proposed.Which are,single port company provides integrating highway transportation service,both port companies provide integrating highway transportation service,two port companies merged to a regional port group,respectively.Then the corresponding integration and pricing game model of port integrating highway transportation service are built based on the maximum profits of port companies.Which on behalf of contexts of the difference competition,homogeneity competition and cooperation.Then a developed pure strategy nash equilibrium algorithm is proposed to solve the optimized strategies of different game models in order to study the integration strategy and service pricing in different competitive environment considering highway transportation service integration.Finally,based on the real data of container port companies in Dalian port and Yingkou port,this paper solved the optimized pricing strategies and profits of port integrating highway transportation services in three different contexts with the developed pure strategy nash equilibrium algorithm.Then studies the change pattern of strategies in different conditions with the sensitivity analyses.The results shows that differentiation services are powerful measures for port companies to promote profits as well as competitiveness.However,such measures are easy for competitors to copy and fierce the competition again.So cooperation between regional port companies is a more profitable and persistent strategy,yet port companies should also pay attention to the redistribution for profits.The theoretical method proposed by this paper is able to quantify the influence from the differentiation services,what's more,compute the optimized pricing strategies of the services considering the opponents' actions.In a conclusion,the integration and pricing strategies proposed by this paper,which consider port integrating highway transportation services based on game theory,is able to quantify the influence from the differentiation services.What's more,compute the optimized pricing strategies of the services considering the opponents' actions in order to handle the different market conditions and the changeable strategies of competitors.Moreover,such theory could maintain the profit and competitiveness of port companies and offer a reference for the decision-making of port companies in real practical operation.