Research On Supply Chain Pricing Strategy Considering Online Gray Market Speculation

With the deepening of the e-commerce model,lowered global trade barriers and efficient online sales networks have further driven the development of the online gray market.In addition,the continuous improvement of sales information and leaner functions of major e-commerce platforms have improved consumers’ ability to access a wide range of product information,making free-riding based on information services more common in authorized channels.At this stage,domestic and foreign research on gray market has basically formed a theoretical system centered on the competition of gray market and authorized market under the traditional sales method.Based on the realistic background of e-commerce,this thesis analyzes the pricing decision problem of online gray market supply chain of platform traders speculation by cutting into the study from different operation models.First,the basic models under different operation modes are constructed separately to compare the changes in the returns of each member of the supply chain before and after the participation of platform traders in online gray market speculation,and the following management conclusions are obtained through numerical arithmetic simulation for verification and supplementation: Regardless of the operating model,gray market speculation by platform traders inevitably leads to impaired returns for manufacturers.In the captive model,the variability of the platform provider’s revenue depends mainly on the degree of consumer preference for gray market products.In the platform model,the ability of the platform provider itself to earn higher revenue from gray market speculation also needs to consider the impact of the commission rate.Compare the equilibrium outcomes of different operation models,the platform model is more conducive to the market expansion of the products from the demand perspective.From a revenue perspective,manufacturers and the supply chain as a whole gain higher revenue under the captive model.The platform model can achieve a win-win situation when consumers’ valuation of low-priced products and platform providers’ commission rates are moderate,which helps maintain the cooperative relationship between manufacturers and platform providers.Second,under the premise of the objective existence of the online gray market of platform vendor speculation,the information service advantage of platform vendor online sales model is considered,and the authorized channel free-rider effect is introduced to analyze the impact of this phenomenon on supply chain decision making,which is verified and supplemented by numerical arithmetic simulation.The results of the study show that the information service advantage of the platform provider motivates manufacturers and platform providers to increase the sales prices of high-priced and gray-market products.Although the information service and free-rider effects increase consumer valuation of both products,the price increases by manufacturers and flattops only yield short-term gains and are not conducive to increasing the market share of their products.When comparing the two operating models horizontally,the degree of free-riding has a more significant impact on product prices in the platform model and a greater impact on the revenue of platform operators in the self-operated model.The platform model enables manufacturers and the supply chain as a whole to achieve higher returns.There is a threshold value for the impact of the degree of free-riding on the returns of platform traders,below which the returns of platform traders are higher under the platform model,when a win-win situation for both manufacturers and platform traders is achieved;when the degree of free-riding is higher than this threshold,the revenue of the platform merchant under the self-operated model exceeds the level under the platform model.Taking the different operation modes of platform providers as the entry point,we analyze the operational decision problem of online gray market supply chain,which not only fills the gap of studying the supply chain of online gray market in the context of e-commerce,but also enriches the research on the strategy of authorized channels to cope with the competition of gray market.At the same time,analyzing the impact of the authorized channel free-rider effect on the pricing decisions of supply chain members can provide management information regarding the work of a certification authority.This thesis includes a total of 15 figures,8 tables,and 63 references.