Optimal Pricing Strategies In Distribution Channel With Different Information Structure And Pricing Power

For the information structure of the sales channel,besides the symmetric information,there is always typical information asymmetric:compared with the manufacturer,the retailer contacts with the final customers directly and has a better understanding of the market demand.Therefore,compared with the symmetric information,under the condition of asymmetric information,the retailer may lie and hide the information for its own interests.At the same time the actual operation of sales channel is closely related with the channel power structure.When the manufacturer's power is limited,he can only make the decision on the wholesale price;When the manufacturer's power prevails,he can not only determine the wholesale price but also extend the pricing power--to calibrate the retail price of the product.Due to the actual operation of sales channel often contains information structure and the channel power,to solve these problems,in this paper,we use Stackelberg theory as a tool to study the following aspects:Firstly,we study models and pricing strategies in the symmetric information when the manufacturer's power is limited and dominant using three pricing strategies:the wholesale price strategy,two-part tariff,revenue sharing strategy.Secondly,we study the asymmetric information when the manufacturer's power is limited and dominant.Finally,an example is given to analyze the price of products,the profit of the manufacturer and the retailer in three different pricing strategies,and gives the optimal decision.Based on the research,we find:(1)Under symmetric information,regardless of whether the manufacturer's power is dominant or not,two-part tariff and revenue sharing strategy can coordinate the supply chain.While the wholesale price strategy can only achieve supply chain coordination when the manufacturer's power prevails.(2)Under symmetric information,regardless of whether the manufacturer's power is dominant or not,the manufacturer often prefers two-part tariff and revenue sharing strategy.(3)When the information is symmetric and the manufacturer's power prevails,the three different combination pricing strategies have the same effect and the supply chain can be coordinated.(4)Under asymmetric information,the wholesale price strategy,two-part tariff and revenue sharing strategy can't achieve the supply chain coordination regardless of whether the manufacturer's power is dominant or not.(5)Under asymmetric information,the manufacturer prefers two-part tariff when the power of the manufacturer is dominant.When the power is limited,it prefers revenue sharing strategy.Regardless of whether the manufacturer's power is dominant or not,two-part tariff and revenue sharing strategy are better than the wholesale price strategy.(6)When the manufacturer's power is limited,two-part tariff and revenue sharing strategy can achieve the supply chain coordination under the condition of information symmetry;while both of them can no longer coordinate the supply chain in asymmetry information.As for the wholesale price strategy,supply chain coordination can't be achieved no matter whether the information is symmetric or not.(7)Regardless of information structure and power structure,the manufacturer's profit and retailer's profit under the three pricing strategies are all affected by retailer's keep utility.The manufacturer's profit decreases with the retailer's keep utility,and the retailer's profit increases with his own keep utility.Therefore,the retailer's keep utility must be within a certain range to achieve cooperation.At the same time,this paper also pointed out further research direction.