IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/oropre/v47y1999i3p454-475.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Combined Pricing and Inventory Control Under Uncertainty

Author

Listed:
  • Awi Federgruen

    (Columbia University, New York, New York)

  • Aliza Heching

    (Columbia University, New York, New York)

Abstract

This paper addresses the simultaneous determination of pricing and inventory replenishment strategies in the face of demand uncertainty. More specifically, we analyze the following single item, periodic review model. Demands in consecutive periods are independent, but their distributions depend on the item's price in accordance with general stochastic demand functions. The price charged in any given period can be specified dynamically as a function of the state of the system. A replenishment order may be placed at the beginning of some or all of the periods. Stockouts are fully backlogged. We address both finite and infinite horizon models, with the objective of maximizing total expected discounted profit or its time average value, assuming that prices can either be adjusted arbitrarily (upward or downward) or that they can only be decreased. We characterize the structure of an optimal combined pricing and inventory strategy for all of the above types of models. We also develop an efficient value iteration method to compute these optimal strategies. Finally, we report on an extensive numerical study that characterizes various qualitative properties of the optimal strategies and corresponding optimal profit values.

Suggested Citation

  • Awi Federgruen & Aliza Heching, 1999. "Combined Pricing and Inventory Control Under Uncertainty," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 47(3), pages 454-475, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:oropre:v:47:y:1999:i:3:p:454-475
    DOI: 10.1287/opre.47.3.454
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/opre.47.3.454
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/opre.47.3.454?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sanford J. Grossman & Richard E. Kihlstrom & Leonard J. Mirman, 1977. "A Bayesian Approach to the Production of Information and Learning By Doing," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 44(3), pages 533-547.
    2. E. Zabel, 1970. "Monopoly and Uncertainty," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 37(2), pages 205-219.
    3. Linn I. Sennott, 1989. "Average Cost Optimal Stationary Policies in Infinite State Markov Decision Processes with Unbounded Costs," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 37(4), pages 626-633, August.
    4. 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.
    5. Arvind Rajan & Richard Rakesh, 1992. "Dynamic Pricing and Ordering Decisions by a Monopolist," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 38(2), pages 240-262, February.
    6. Gary D. Eppen & Ananth. V. Iyer, 1997. "Backup Agreements in Fashion Buying---The Value of Upstream Flexibility," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 43(11), pages 1469-1484, November.
    7. Rothschild, Michael, 1974. "A two-armed bandit theory of market pricing," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 185-202, October.
    8. Marshall Fisher & Ananth Raman, 1996. "Reducing the Cost of Demand Uncertainty Through Accurate Response to Early Sales," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 44(1), pages 87-99, February.
    9. McLennan, Andrew, 1984. "Price dispersion and incomplete learning in the long run," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 7(3), pages 331-347, September.
    10. Lode Li, 1988. "A Stochastic Theory of the Firm," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 13(3), pages 447-466, August.
    11. Zabel, Edward, 1972. "Multiperiod monopoly under uncertainty," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 5(3), pages 524-536, December.
    12. T. M. Whitin, 1955. "Inventory Control and Price Theory," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 2(1), pages 61-68, October.
    13. L. Joseph Thomas, 1974. "Technical Note—Price and Production Decisions with Random Demand," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 22(3), pages 513-518, June.
    14. Yakov Amihud & Haim Mendelson, 1983. "Price Smoothing and Inventory," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 50(1), pages 87-98.
    15. Polatoglu, L. Hakan, 1991. "Optimal order quantity and pricing decisions in single-period inventory systems," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(1-3), pages 175-185, October.
    16. David J. Braden & Shmuel S. Oren, 1994. "Nonlinear Pricing to Produce Information," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 13(3), pages 310-326.
    17. Balvers, Ronald J & Cosimano, Thomas F, 1990. "Actively Learning about Demand and the Dynamics of Price Adjustment," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 100(402), pages 882-898, September.
    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. Shiming Deng & Candace A. Yano, 2006. "Joint Production and Pricing Decisions with Setup Costs and Capacity Constraints," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(5), pages 741-756, May.
    2. Awi Federgruen & Aliza Heching, 2002. "Multilocation Combined Pricing and Inventory Control," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 4(4), pages 275-295, March.
    3. Nicholas C. Petruzzi & Maqbool Dada, 2001. "Information and Inventory Recourse for a Two-Market, Price-Setting Retailer," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 3(3), pages 242-263, October.
    4. Zheng Shi & Zheng Wen, 2014. "Optimal Sales Discount Decision Model with Fixed Ordered Quantities," Journal of Systems Science and Information, De Gruyter, vol. 2(4), pages 345-357, August.
    5. Nicholas C. Petruzzi & Maqbool Dada, 2002. "Dynamic pricing and inventory control with learning," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 49(3), pages 303-325, April.
    6. Gal Raz & Evan L. Porteus, 2006. "A Fractiles Perspective to the Joint Price/Quantity Newsvendor Model," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(11), pages 1764-1777, November.
    7. Polatoglu, Hakan & Sahin, Izzet, 2000. "Optimal procurement policies under price-dependent demand," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 141-171, April.
    8. Youhua (Frank) Chen & Saibal Ray & Yuyue Song, 2006. "Optimal pricing and inventory control policy in periodic‐review systems with fixed ordering cost and lost sales," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 53(2), pages 117-136, March.
    9. Fangruo Chen & Awi Federgruen & Yu-Sheng Zheng, 2001. "Near-Optimal Pricing and Replenishment Strategies for a Retail/Distribution System," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 49(6), pages 839-853, December.
    10. Schulte, Benedikt & Sachs, Anna-Lena, 2020. "The price-setting newsvendor with Poisson demand," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 283(1), pages 125-137.
    11. Sen, Alper & Zhang, Alex X., 2009. "Style goods pricing with demand learning," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 196(3), pages 1058-1075, August.
    12. Chew, Ek Peng & Lee, Chulung & Liu, Rujing, 2009. "Joint inventory allocation and pricing decisions for perishable products," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(1), pages 139-150, July.
    13. Karakul, M., 2008. "Joint pricing and procurement of fashion products in the existence of clearance markets," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(2), pages 487-506, August.
    14. Avinadav, Tal & Herbon, Avi & Spiegel, Uriel, 2013. "Optimal inventory policy for a perishable item with demand function sensitive to price and time," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(2), pages 497-506.
    15. Jan A. Van Mieghem & Maqbool Dada, 1999. "Price Versus Production Postponement: Capacity and Competition," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 45(12), pages 1639-1649, December.
    16. Christos Koulovatianos & Leonard J. Mirman & Marc Santugini, 2006. "Investment in a Monopoly with Bayesian Learning," Vienna Economics Papers vie0603, University of Vienna, Department of Economics.
    17. Christos Koulovatianos & Leonard J. Mirman & Marc Santugini, 2006. "Investment in a Monopoly with Bayesian Learning," Vienna Economics Papers 0603, University of Vienna, Department of Economics.
    18. Yong Liu & Michael J. Fry & Amitabh S. Raturi, 2006. "Vertically restrictive pricing in supply chains with price‐dependent demand," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 53(6), pages 485-501, September.
    19. Nicholas C. Petruzzi & Maqbool Dada, 1999. "Pricing and the Newsvendor Problem: A Review with Extensions," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 47(2), pages 183-194, April.
    20. Yossi Aviv & Amit Pazgal, 2005. "A Partially Observed Markov Decision Process for Dynamic Pricing," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 51(9), pages 1400-1416, September.

    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:inm:oropre:v:47:y:1999:i:3:p:454-475. 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: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    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.