IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/soceco/v92y2021ics2214804321000409.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Strategic retailers and myopic consumers: Competitive pricing of perishable goods

Author

Listed:
  • Gisches, Eyran J.
  • Qi, Hang
  • Becker, William J.
  • Rapoport, Amnon

Abstract

We present an experimental study of dynamic pricing in which two retailers compete to sell perishable goods over a finite horizon. Consumers arrive at the market one at a time and remain there for a single period. Each consumer compares the two simultaneously posted prices, one by each retailer, and then decides probabilistically whether to purchase the good from Retailer 1, from Retailer 2, or not purchase it at all. The competing retailers are assigned to one of three between-subject experimental conditions. In one condition they start each session with equal inventories and in two other conditions with unequal inventories. Following a short learning period, equilibrium best-response solutions, which serve as benchmarks for our analysis, account well for the mean posted prices; however, small but systematic deviations from equilibrium play significantly diminish the retailers’ profits. These deviations decrease considerably in size with experience.

Suggested Citation

  • Gisches, Eyran J. & Qi, Hang & Becker, William J. & Rapoport, Amnon, 2021. "Strategic retailers and myopic consumers: Competitive pricing of perishable goods," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:soceco:v:92:y:2021:i:c:s2214804321000409
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2021.101700
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214804321000409
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socec.2021.101700?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Guillermo Gallego & Garrett van Ryzin, 1994. "Optimal Dynamic Pricing of Inventories with Stochastic Demand over Finite Horizons," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 40(8), pages 999-1020, August.
    2. Ming Chen & Zhi-Long Chen, 2015. "Recent Developments in Dynamic Pricing Research: Multiple Products, Competition, and Limited Demand Information," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 24(5), pages 704-731, May.
    3. Prasad, Ashutosh & Venkatesh, R. & Mahajan, Vijay, 2015. "Product bundling or reserved product pricing? Price discrimination with myopic and strategic consumers," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 1-8.
    4. Marshall Fisher & Santiago Gallino & Jun Li, 2018. "Competition-Based Dynamic Pricing in Online Retailing: A Methodology Validated with Field Experiments," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(6), pages 2496-2514, June.
    5. David Besanko & Wayne L. Winston, 1990. "Optimal Price Skimming by a Monopolist Facing Rational Consumers," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 36(5), pages 555-567, May.
    6. Yossi Aviv & Amit Pazgal, 2008. "Optimal Pricing of Seasonal Products in the Presence of Forward-Looking Consumers," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 10(3), pages 339-359, December.
    7. Peter M. Guadagni & John D. C. Little, 1983. "A Logit Model of Brand Choice Calibrated on Scanner Data," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 2(3), pages 203-238.
    8. Benny Mantin & Daniel Granot & Frieda Granot, 2011. "Dynamic pricing under first order Markovian competition," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 58(6), pages 608-617, September.
    9. Raphael Boleslavsky & Christopher S. Cotton & Haresh Gurnani, 2017. "Demonstrations and Price Competition in New Product Release," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(6), pages 2016-2026, June.
    10. Sibdari, Soheil & Pyke, David F., 2010. "A competitive dynamic pricing model when demand is interdependent over time," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 207(1), pages 330-338, November.
    11. Yuri Levin & Jeff McGill & Mikhail Nediak, 2009. "Dynamic Pricing in the Presence of Strategic Consumers and Oligopolistic Competition," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 55(1), pages 32-46, January.
    12. Mak, Vincent & Rapoport, Amnon & Gisches, Eyran J., 2012. "Competitive dynamic pricing with alternating offers: Theory and experiment," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 75(1), pages 250-264.
    13. Jon Kleinberg & Annie Liang & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2017. "The Theory is Predictive, but is it Complete? An Application to Human Perception of Randomness," PIER Working Paper Archive 18-010, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, revised 09 Aug 2017.
    14. Gabriel R. Bitran & Susana V. Mondschein, 1997. "Periodic Pricing of Seasonal Products in Retailing," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 43(1), pages 64-79, January.
    15. Dasu, Sriram & Tong, Chunyang, 2010. "Dynamic pricing when consumers are strategic: Analysis of posted and contingent pricing schemes," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 204(3), pages 662-671, August.
    16. Mirko Kremer & Benny Mantin & Anton Ovchinnikov, 2017. "Dynamic Pricing in the Presence of Myopic and Strategic Consumers: Theory and Experiment," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 26(1), pages 116-133, January.
    17. Guillermo Gallego & Ming Hu, 2014. "Dynamic Pricing of Perishable Assets Under Competition," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(5), pages 1241-1259, May.
    18. J. Neil Bearden & Ryan O. Murphy & Amnon Rapoport, 2008. "Decision Biases in Revenue Management: Some Behavioral Evidence," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 10(4), pages 625-636, June.
    19. Lin, Kyle Y. & Sibdari, Soheil Y., 2009. "Dynamic price competition with discrete customer choices," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 197(3), pages 969-980, September.
    20. Eyal Biyalogorsky & Eitan Gerstner, 2004. "Contingent Pricing to Reduce Price Risks," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 23(1), pages 146-155, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dongdong Yu & Miyu Wan & Chunlin Luo, 2022. "Dynamic pricing and dual‐channel choice in the presence of strategic consumers," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(6), pages 2392-2408, September.
    2. Negin Golrezaei & Hamid Nazerzadeh & Ramandeep Randhawa, 2020. "Dynamic Pricing for Heterogeneous Time-Sensitive Customers," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 22(3), pages 562-581, May.
    3. Kuo, Chia-Wei & Huang, Kwei-Long, 2012. "Dynamic pricing of limited inventories for multi-generation products," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 217(2), pages 394-403.
    4. Torsten J. Gerpott & Jan Berends, 2022. "Competitive pricing on online markets: a literature review," Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 21(6), pages 596-622, December.
    5. Gökgür, Burak & Karabatı, Selçuk, 2019. "Dynamic and targeted bundle pricing of two independently valued products," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 279(1), pages 184-198.
    6. Qi Feng & Yuanchen Li & J. George Shanthikumar, 2020. "Competitive Revenue Management with Sequential Bargaining," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 29(5), pages 1307-1324, May.
    7. Adam J. Mersereau & Dan Zhang, 2012. "Markdown Pricing with Unknown Fraction of Strategic Customers," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 14(3), pages 355-370, July.
    8. Christian Borgs & Ozan Candogan & Jennifer Chayes & Ilan Lobel & Hamid Nazerzadeh, 2014. "Optimal Multiperiod Pricing with Service Guarantees," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(7), pages 1792-1811, July.
    9. Ham, Sung H. & He, Chuan & Zhang, Dan, 2022. "The promise and peril of dynamic targeted pricing," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 1150-1165.
    10. Peter Seele & Claus Dierksmeier & Reto Hofstetter & Mario D. Schultz, 2021. "Mapping the Ethicality of Algorithmic Pricing: A Review of Dynamic and Personalized Pricing," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 170(4), pages 697-719, May.
    11. Sato, Kimitoshi, 2019. "Price Trends and Dynamic Pricing in Perishable Product Market Consisting of Superior and Inferior Firms," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 274(1), pages 214-226.
    12. Andrew Sweeting, 2012. "Dynamic Pricing Behavior in Perishable Goods Markets: Evidence from Secondary Markets for Major League Baseball Tickets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 120(6), pages 1133-1172.
    13. Benny Mantin & Daniel Granot & Frieda Granot, 2011. "Dynamic pricing under first order Markovian competition," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 58(6), pages 608-617, September.
    14. Qian Liu & Dan Zhang, 2013. "Dynamic Pricing Competition with Strategic Customers Under Vertical Product Differentiation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 59(1), pages 84-101, August.
    15. Ayelet Israeli & Fiona Scott-Morton & Jorge Silva-Risso & Florian Zettelmeyer, 2022. "How Market Power Affects Dynamic Pricing: Evidence from Inventory Fluctuations at Car Dealerships," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(2), pages 895-916, February.
    16. Vincent Mak & Amnon Rapoport & Eyran J. Gisches & Jiaojie Han, 2014. "Purchasing Scarce Products Under Dynamic Pricing: An Experimental Investigation," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 16(3), pages 425-438, July.
    17. Vincent Mak & Amnon Rapoport & Eyran J. Gisches, 2018. "Dynamic Pricing Decisions and Seller-Buyer Interactions under Capacity Constraints," Games, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-23, February.
    18. Namin, Aidin & Soysal, Gonca P. & Ratchford, Brian T., 2022. "Alleviating demand uncertainty for seasonal goods: An analysis of attribute-based markdown policy for fashion retailers," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 671-681.
    19. Johannes Hörner & Larry Samuelson, 2011. "Managing Strategic Buyers," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 119(3), pages 379-425.
    20. Gonca P. Soysal & Lakshman Krishnamurthi, 2012. "Demand Dynamics in the Seasonal Goods Industry: An Empirical Analysis," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 31(2), pages 293-316, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:soceco:v:92:y:2021:i:c:s2214804321000409. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/620175 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.