Research On The Manufacturer's Operation Models Of Sales And Pay-per-use Rentals Under Sharing Economy

With the development of new generation technologies such as the Internet of things and big data,the sharing economy is gradually popular around the global world,and the pay-per-use rentals models are adopted by more and more manufacturers.The profit logic of pay-per-use rental is that manufacturers provide the access of its own products to renters,and renters use the products in exchange for payment without acquiring the ownership of the item.Although the pay-per-use rentals model promotes the growth of market demand,improves the competitiveness of manufacturers and brings new benefits to manufacturers,the existence of pay-per-use rental service inevitably affects the sales business.Manufacturers should take all factors into consideration to judge whether to adopt the pay-per-use rentals model.Based on the dynamic perceived product value of consumers and the incomplete availability of products,this paper respectively studies the profit maximizing problems of a manufacturer in the sales model,pay-per-use rentals model and hybrid model of sales and rentals under different environments,aiming at the solving the decision on the operation model of a manufacturer in the sharing economy.This paper uses the reverse induction method to determine the demand of products from the perspective of consumers,and analyzes the strategies on product prices and quantity of the manufacturer in each model.By analyzing and comparing the optimal profits of the manufacturer under the three models,this paper confirms the optimal operation model of manufacturer in different environments.The main research results of this paper are as follows:(1)In the situation of considering the dynamic perceived product value of consumer,the manufacturer should always adopt hybrid model when the product cost is relatively low.If the pooling effect is weak,then the manufacturer should adopt the sales model when the cost is high.If the pooling effect is strong,then the manufacturer should adopt the pay-per-use rentals model when the cost is high.(2)In the situation of incomplete service availability,when the pooling effect is weak,if the per-unit operational and production costs are low,then the firm should adopt the hybrid model of sales and rentals,and ensure that the availability of products for rentals is below a threshold.Under the strong-pooling case,the firm should always adopt the hybrid model.In addition,the paper also compares the manufacturer's decisions on the product prices and quantity under different models.This paper enriches the research on pay-per-use rentals model in the current literature and provides important insights for managers.