Research On Manufacturer's Patent Licensing Strategy In Closed-loop Supply Chain

The life cycle of products is greatly shortened because of the rapid development of technology and the improvement of people's living standards.These used products can cause environmental pollution and waste of resources if not treated.Remanufacturing can also bring huge economic benefits to enterprises while reducing environmental pollution and controlling resource loss.Therefore,many companies are engaged in the remanufacturing.Remanufactured products have a certain degree of impact on the original manufacturer's market share due to price advantages.Patent licensing is one of the most used and most effective means for original manufacturers in many ways to address the threat of remanufacturing competition.The remanufacturer can recycle the used product after obtaining the original manufacturer's patent license.The patent license for remanufacturing not only protects the rights of the original manufacturer,but also legalizes the profit channel of the third-party remanufacturer.Based on the theory of patent licensing and remanufacturing closed-loop supply chain,this thesis considers the impact of factors such as the proportion of green consumers,the degree of recycling competition between manufacturers and remanufacturers,and the quality of recycled products on corporate decision-making.The pricing strategies of original manufacturers and remanufacturers under different factors were studied,and the original manufacturer's remanufacturing patent licensing strategy in the closed-loop supply chain was analyzed.The content of this thesis is divided into three parts.In the first part,in the context of recycling competition,the original manufacturer and third-party remanufacturers engaged in competitive recycling activities were discussed.It is also compared with the case where the manufacturer does not carry out patent license,and the manufacturer licenses the patent and does not engage in remanufacturing.By comparing and analyzing the equilibrium solutions of parameters such as old product recovery rate and manufacturer profit under three kinds of decisions,the critical conditions for manufacturers to engage in remanufacturing and select patent licensing strategies are obtained.The results show that:(1)manufacturers engaged in remanufacturing are always dominant decisions.(2)when the degree of competition is small,the manufacturer should authorize the remanufacturer to engage in remanufacturing,at which point the manufacturer can get the most profit and is most beneficial to consumers and the environment.The second part considers that with the development of society,more and more green consumers appear on the market.Therefore,based on the market segmentation into the green consumer market and the general consumer market,the pricing strategies of remanufacturers under different patent licensing strategies and the optimal patent licensing strategies of the original manufacturers are studied.The results show that:(1)the fixed fee patent licensing strategy is most beneficial to environmental protection and consumers.(2)there is a threshold when the remanufacturer chooses the pricing strategy,when the proportion of green consumers in the market is greater than the threshold,the remanufacturer should choose the high price strategy;otherwise,the low price strategy should be selected.(3)there is a threshold when the original manufacturer chooses the patent licensing strategy,when the fixed patent fee is greater than the threshold,the original manufacturer should choose the fixed fee patent licensing strategy;otherwise,the royalty patent licensing should be selected.The third part considers the impact of quality uncertainty on the manufacturer's optimal patent licensing strategy when recycling products.The results show that:(1)the remanufacturer has the best quality of recycling when recycling used products,and the best recycling quality is independent of the manufacturer's patent licensing strategy.(2)consumers and environmental protection benefit the most when the original manufacturer chooses the fixed fee patent licensing strategy and the remanufacturer recycles the used product with the best recycling quality.(3)there is a threshold when the original manufacturer chooses the patent licensing strategy,when the fixed patent fee is greater than the threshold,the original manufacturer should choose the fixed fee patent licensing strategy;otherwise,the royalty patent licensing should be selected.Moreover,the threshold first increases and then decreases with the increase of the recycling quality and reaches the maximum at the best recycling quality.