IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/proeco/v213y2019icp97-107.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Joint price and quality decisions considering Chinese customers' variety seeking behavior

Author

Listed:
  • Niu, Baozhuang
  • Chen, Lei
  • Liu, Yaoqi
  • Jin, Yong

Abstract

Variety seeking behavior indicates that customers get boredom of the products they purchased before, and prefer new products when they want to purchase again. Considering this, firms have to adjust their price and quality decisions to keep “old” and find “new” customers. In this paper, we build a two-period stylized model by assuming firms' cost is effort-dependent, which characterizes the tradeoff between managing variety seeking customers and the cost of quality improvement. We show that, customers' variety seeking behavior leads to a mild competition in period 1 but a fierce competition in period 2, and the existence of variety seeking customers reduces firms' incentives to improve the quality levels. Regarding price decision, we find that firms charge a low retail price in period 2, but in period 1 the price depends on the effort cost coefficient. Interestingly, we find that firms may be worse off in a mixed market of both regular and variety seeking customers, when the effort cost coefficient is small. That is, firms' highly efficient quality improvement can be harmful when customers are variety seeking.

Suggested Citation

  • Niu, Baozhuang & Chen, Lei & Liu, Yaoqi & Jin, Yong, 2019. "Joint price and quality decisions considering Chinese customers' variety seeking behavior," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 97-107.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:proeco:v:213:y:2019:i:c:p:97-107
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpe.2019.02.022
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0925527319300854
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ijpe.2019.02.022?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. Kapil Bawa, 1990. "Modeling Inertia and Variety Seeking Tendencies in Brand Choice Behavior," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 9(3), pages 263-278.
    2. S. Sajeesh & Jagmohan S. Raju, 2010. "Positioning and Pricing in a Variety Seeking Market," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 56(6), pages 949-961, June.
    3. Gary H. Chao & Seyed M. R. Iravani & R. Canan Savaskan, 2009. "Quality Improvement Incentives and Product Recall Cost Sharing Contracts," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 55(7), pages 1122-1138, July.
    4. Bin Shen & Qingying Li & Ciwei Dong & Vincent Quan, 2016. "Design outsourcing in the fashion supply chain: OEM versus ODM," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 67(2), pages 259-268, February.
    5. Sam Aflaki & Ioana Popescu, 2014. "Managing Retention in Service Relationships," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(2), pages 415-433, February.
    6. Wang, Yao-Yu & Wang, Jian-Cai & Shou, Biying, 2013. "Pricing and effort investment for a newsvendor-type product," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 229(2), pages 422-432.
    7. Ma, Lijun & Zhao, Yingxue & Xue, Weili & Cheng, T.C.E. & Yan, Houmin, 2012. "Loss-averse newsvendor model with two ordering opportunities and market information updating," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(2), pages 912-921.
    8. Xue, Weili & Ma, Lijun & Shen, Houcai, 2015. "Optimal inventory and hedging decisions with CVaR consideration," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 70-82.
    9. Xue, Weili & Choi, Tsan-Ming & Ma, Lijun, 2016. "Diversification strategy with random yield suppliers for a mean–variance risk-sensitive manufacturer," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 90-107.
    10. Song, Fangqing & Hess, Stephane & Dekker, Thijs, 2018. "Accounting for the impact of variety-seeking: Theory and application to HSR-air intermodality in China," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 99-111.
    11. Hsieh, Chung-Chi & Chang, Yih-Long & Wu, Cheng-Han, 2014. "Competitive pricing and ordering decisions in a multiple-channel supply chain," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 156-165.
    12. Jingqi Wang & Hyoduk Shin, 2015. "The Impact of Contracts and Competition on Upstream Innovation in a Supply Chain," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 24(1), pages 134-146, January.
    13. P. B. Seetharaman & Hai Che, 2009. "Price Competition in Markets with Consumer Variety Seeking," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 28(3), pages 516-525, 05-06.
    14. Youhua (Frank) Chen & Weili Xue & Jian Yang, 2013. "Technical Note---Optimal Inventory Policy in the Presence of a Long-Term Supplier and a Spot Market," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 61(1), pages 88-97, February.
    15. Hua, Guowei & Wang, Shouyang & Cheng, T.C.E., 2010. "Price and lead time decisions in dual-channel supply chains," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 205(1), pages 113-126, August.
    16. Ding, Qing & Dong, Ciwei & Pan, Zhicong, 2016. "A hierarchical pricing decision process on a dual-channel problem with one manufacturer and one retailer," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 175(C), pages 197-212.
    17. Noah Gans, 2002. "Customer Loyalty and Supplier Quality Competition," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 48(2), pages 207-221, February.
    18. Matsuyama, Keisuke, 2006. "The multi-period newsboy problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 171(1), pages 170-188, May.
    19. Zhang, Dali & Xu, Huifu & Wu, Yue, 2009. "Single and multi-period optimal inventory control models with risk-averse constraints," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 199(2), pages 420-434, December.
    20. Bhattacharjee, Sudip & Ramesh, R., 2000. "A multi-period profit maximizing model for retail supply chain management: An integration of demand and supply-side mechanisms," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 122(3), pages 584-601, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Liyang Xiong & Honglei Yu & Zhanqing Wang, 2021. "Competition in a Variety Seeking Market With Brand Name Awareness," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(2), pages 21582440211, April.
    2. Liu, Jiaguo & Zhao, Huida & Li, Jian & Yue, Xiaohang, 2021. "Operational strategy of customized bus considering customers’ variety seeking behavior and service level," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 231(C).
    3. Jin, Minyue & Zhang, Xueqing & Xiong, Yu & Zhou, Yu, 2021. "Implications of green optimism upon sustainable supply chain management," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 295(1), pages 131-139.
    4. Niu, Baozhuang & Zhang, Nan & Xu, Haotao & Chen, Lei & Ji, Ping, 2022. "Inviting MNFs’ green offshoring: Is it an effective way to coordinate economic and environmental sustainability?," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 254(C).
    5. Xie, Jiaping & Wei, Lihong & Zhu, Weijun & Zhang, Weisi, 2021. "Platform supply chain pricing and financing: Who benefits from e-commerce consumer credit?," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 242(C).
    6. Zhenfeng Liu & Jian Feng & Bin Liu, 2019. "Pricing and Service Level Decisions under a Sharing Product and Consumers’ Variety-Seeking Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-16, December.
    7. Niu, Baozhuang & Xu, Haotao & Dai, Zhipeng, 2022. "Check Only Once? Health Information Exchange between Competing Private Hospitals," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    8. Rui Hou & Zibin Cui & You Zhao, 2022. "Pricing leadership decisions of competing firms with consumer learning," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(6), pages 2326-2346, September.

    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. Junhyun Bae & Li Chen & Shiqing Yao, 2022. "Service Capacity and Price Promotion Wars," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(12), pages 8757-8772, December.
    2. Shi, Xiutian & Dong, Ciwei & Cheng, T.C.E., 2018. "Does the buy-online-and-pick-up-in-store strategy with pre-orders benefit a retailer with the consideration of returns?," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 134-145.
    3. Ciwei Dong & Liu Yang & Chi To Ng, 2020. "Quantity Leadership for a Dual-Channel Supply Chain with Retail Service," Asia-Pacific Journal of Operational Research (APJOR), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 37(02), pages 1-32, March.
    4. Guoxuan Huang & Qing Ding & Ciwei Dong & Zhicong Pan, 2021. "Joint optimization of pricing and inventory control for dual-channel problem under stochastic demand," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 298(1), pages 307-337, March.
    5. Rui Hou & Zibin Cui & You Zhao, 2022. "Pricing leadership decisions of competing firms with consumer learning," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(6), pages 2326-2346, September.
    6. Philipp Afèche & Mojtaba Araghi & Opher Baron, 2017. "Customer Acquisition, Retention, and Service Access Quality: Optimal Advertising, Capacity Level, and Capacity Allocation," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 19(4), pages 674-691, October.
    7. Qiu, Ruozhen & Sun, Minghe & Lim, Yun Fong, 2017. "Optimizing (s, S) policies for multi-period inventory models with demand distribution uncertainty: Robust dynamic programing approaches," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 261(3), pages 880-892.
    8. Deligiannis, Michalis & Liberopoulos, George, 2023. "Dynamic ordering and buyer selection policies when service affects future demand," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    9. Liying Mu & Milind Dawande & Xianjun Geng & Vijay Mookerjee, 2016. "Milking the Quality Test: Improving the Milk Supply Chain Under Competing Collection Intermediaries," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(5), pages 1259-1277, May.
    10. Niu, Baozhuang & Xu, Jingwen & Lee, Carman K.M. & Chen, Lei, 2019. "Order timing and tax planning when selling to a rival in a low-tax emerging market," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 165-179.
    11. Faiza Hamdi & Ahmed Ghorbel & Faouzi Masmoudi & Lionel Dupont, 2018. "Optimization of a supply portfolio in the context of supply chain risk management: literature review," Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing, Springer, vol. 29(4), pages 763-788, April.
    12. Qi Chen & Qi Xu, 2022. "Joint optimal pricing and advertising policies in a fashion supply chain under the ODM strategy considering fashion level and goodwill," Journal of Combinatorial Optimization, Springer, vol. 43(5), pages 1075-1105, July.
    13. Prasenjit Mandal & Tarun Jain & Abhishek Chakraborty, 2021. "Quality collaboration contracts under product pricing strategies," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 302(1), pages 231-264, July.
    14. Mika Sumida & Guillermo Gallego & Paat Rusmevichientong & Huseyin Topaloglu & James Davis, 2021. "Revenue-Utility Tradeoff in Assortment Optimization Under the Multinomial Logit Model with Totally Unimodular Constraints," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(5), pages 2845-2869, May.
    15. Niu, Baozhuang & Chu, Lap-Keung & Ni, Jian & Wang, Junwei, 2018. "Buy now and price later: Supply contracts with time-consistent mean–variance financial hedgingAuthor-Name: Li, Qiang," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 268(2), pages 582-595.
    16. Jeong, Yuncheol & Maruyama, Masayoshi, 2018. "Positioning and pricing strategies in a market with switching costs and staying costs," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 47-57.
    17. Xu, Senyu & Tang, Huajun & Lin, Zhijun & Lu, Jing, 2022. "Pricing and sales-effort analysis of dual-channel supply chain with channel preference, cross-channel return and free riding behavior based on revenue-sharing contract," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 249(C).
    18. Jürgen Neumann, 2021. "When Biased Ratings Benefit the Consumer - An Economic Analysis of Online Ratings in Markets with Variety-Seeking Consumers," Working Papers Dissertations 77, Paderborn University, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics.
    19. Qi Chen & Qi Xu, 0. "Joint optimal pricing and advertising policies in a fashion supply chain under the ODM strategy considering fashion level and goodwill," Journal of Combinatorial Optimization, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-31.
    20. T. M. Rofin & Biswajit Mahanty, 2018. "Optimal dual-channel supply chain configuration for product categories with different customer preference of online channel," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 507-536, 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:eee:proeco:v:213:y:2019:i:c:p:97-107. 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/ijpe .

    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.