IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/transe/v138y2020ics1366554520306098.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Optimal investment strategy of a free-floating sharing platform

Author

Listed:
  • Sun, Xiaojie
  • Tang, Wansheng
  • Chen, Jing
  • Zhang, Jianxiong

Abstract

Recent free-floating platforms offer service to consumers via a sharing model that can substantially increases the service’s circulation and utilization. This paper examines the optimal investment strategy in product quality, input quantity, and dynamic advertising for a free-floating sharing platform that owns a durable product and leases it to consumers. We model the problem as an optimal control problem and solve it via the maximum principle and an algorithm. We discuss four investment strategies, one single-stage strategy and three two-stage strategies (flexible quality, flexible quantity, and dual-flexible). Our findings provide new insights and implications into the sharing platform’s investment strategy.

Suggested Citation

  • Sun, Xiaojie & Tang, Wansheng & Chen, Jing & Zhang, Jianxiong, 2020. "Optimal investment strategy of a free-floating sharing platform," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:transe:v:138:y:2020:i:c:s1366554520306098
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tre.2020.101958
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1366554520306098
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tre.2020.101958?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. Gérard P. Cachon & Kaitlin M. Daniels & Ruben Lobel, 2017. "The Role of Surge Pricing on a Service Platform with Self-Scheduling Capacity," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 19(3), pages 368-384, July.
    2. Chenavaz, Régis, 2012. "Dynamic pricing, product and process innovation," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 222(3), pages 553-557.
    3. Harish Guda & Upender Subramanian, 2019. "Your Uber Is Arriving: Managing On-Demand Workers Through Surge Pricing, Forecast Communication, and Worker Incentives," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(5), pages 1995-2014, May.
    4. Terry A. Taylor, 2018. "On-Demand Service Platforms," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 20(4), pages 704-720, October.
    5. Crettez, Bertrand & Hayek, Naila & Zaccour, Georges, 2018. "Brand imitation: A dynamic-game approach," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 139-155.
    6. Albiński, Szymon & Fontaine, Pirmin & Minner, Stefan, 2018. "Performance analysis of a hybrid bike sharing system: A service-level-based approach under censored demand observations," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 59-69.
    7. Krishnamoorthy, Anand & Prasad, Ashutosh & Sethi, Suresh P., 2010. "Optimal pricing and advertising in a durable-good duopoly," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 200(2), pages 486-497, January.
    8. S. P. Sethi & A. Prasad & X. He, 2008. "Optimal Advertising and Pricing in a New-Product Adoption Model," Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, Springer, vol. 139(2), pages 351-360, November.
    9. Saif Benjaafar & Guangwen Kong & Xiang Li & Costas Courcoubetis, 2019. "Peer-to-Peer Product Sharing: Implications for Ownership, Usage, and Social Welfare in the Sharing Economy," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(2), pages 477-493, February.
    10. Cao, Ping & Zhao, Nenggui & Wu, Jie, 2019. "Dynamic pricing with Bayesian demand learning and reference price effect," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 279(2), pages 540-556.
    11. Dai, Rui & Zhang, Jianxiong, 2017. "Green process innovation and differentiated pricing strategies with environmental concerns of South-North markets," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 132-150.
    12. Zhang, Jianxiong & Liu, Guowei & Zhang, Qiao & Bai, Zhenyu, 2015. "Coordinating a supply chain for deteriorating items with a revenue sharing and cooperative investment contract," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 37-49.
    13. Ioannis Bellos & Mark Ferguson & L. Beril Toktay, 2017. "The Car Sharing Economy: Interaction of Business Model Choice and Product Line Design," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 19(2), pages 185-201, May.
    14. Lambertini, Luca & Mantovani, Andrea, 2009. "Process and product innovation by a multiproduct monopolist: A dynamic approach," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 508-518, July.
    15. Roma, Paolo & Panniello, Umberto & Lo Nigro, Giovanna, 2019. "Sharing economy and incumbents' pricing strategy: The impact of Airbnb on the hospitality industry," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 214(C), pages 17-29.
    16. Erickson, Gary M., 2011. "A differential game model of the marketing-operations interface," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 211(2), pages 394-402, June.
    17. Gerald L. Thompson & Jinn-Tsair Teng, 1984. "Optimal Pricing and Advertising Policies for New Product Oligopoly Models," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 3(2), pages 148-168.
    18. Lin Tian & Baojun Jiang, 2018. "Effects of Consumer†to†Consumer Product Sharing on Distribution Channel," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 27(2), pages 350-367, February.
    19. Alavi Fard, Farzad & Sy, Malick & Ivanov, Dmitry, 2019. "Optimal overbooking strategies in the airlines using dynamic programming approach in continuous time," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 384-399.
    20. De Giovanni, Pietro, 2011. "Quality improvement vs. advertising support: Which strategy works better for a manufacturer?," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 208(2), pages 119-130, January.
    21. Choi, Tsan-Ming & He, Yanyan, 2019. "Peer-to-peer collaborative consumption for fashion products in the sharing economy: Platform operations," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 49-65.
    22. Baojun Jiang & Lin Tian, 2018. "Collaborative Consumption: Strategic and Economic Implications of Product Sharing," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(3), pages 1171-1188, March.
    23. Karray, Salma & Zaccour, Georges, 2006. "Could co-op advertising be a manufacturer's counterstrategy to store brands?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 59(9), pages 1008-1015, September.
    24. Hongfu Huang & Yong He & Dong Li, 2018. "Coordination of pricing, inventory, and production reliability decisions in deteriorating product supply chains," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(18), pages 6201-6224, September.
    25. Yuan, Quan & Shen, Bin, 2019. "Renting fashion with strategic customers in the sharing economy," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 218(C), pages 185-195.
    26. Zhang, Jianxiong & Li, Sa & Zhang, Shichen & Dai, Rui, 2019. "Manufacturer encroachment with quality decision under asymmetric demand information," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 273(1), pages 217-236.
    27. Kung, Ling-Chieh & Zhong, Guan-Yu, 2017. "The optimal pricing strategy for two-sided platform delivery in the sharing economy," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 1-12.
    28. Liu, Guowei & Zhang, Jianxiong & Tang, Wansheng, 2015. "Strategic transfer pricing in a marketing–operations interface with quality level and advertising dependent goodwill," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 1-15.
    29. Sorger, Gerhard, 1989. "Competitive dynamic advertising : A modification of the Case game," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 55-80, January.
    30. El Ouardighi, Fouad & Kim, Bowon, 2010. "Supply quality management with wholesale price and revenue-sharing contracts under horizontal competition," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 206(2), pages 329-340, October.
    31. Zhang, Yiwen & Feng, Zhuo & Zhang, Shuibo & Song, Jinbo, 2018. "The effects of service level on BOT transport project contract," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 184-206.
    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. Yan, Nina & Liu, Yang & Chen, Jing, 2022. "Competitors or frenemies? Strategic investment between competing channels," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    2. Wang, Yi-Jia & Kuo, Yong-Hong & Huang, George Q. & Gu, Weihua & Hu, Yaohua, 2022. "Dynamic demand-driven bike station clustering," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    3. Guo, Dongliang & Fan, Zhi-Ping & Sun, Minghe, 2022. "B2C car-sharing services: Sharing mode selection and value-added service investment," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    4. Bian, Yiwen & Cui, Yitong & Yan, Shuai & Han, Xiaohua, 2021. "Optimal strategy of a customer-to-customer sharing platform: Whether to launch its own sharing service?," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    5. Xiaojie Sun, 2023. "Strategy analysis for a digital content platform considering perishability," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 320(1), pages 415-439, January.
    6. Yang, Xiaolin & Gou, Qinglong & Wang, Xin & Zhang, Juzhi, 2022. "Does bonus motivate streamers to perform better? An analysis of compensation mechanisms for live streaming platforms," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    7. Golalikhani, Masoud & Oliveira, Beatriz Brito & Carravilla, Maria Antónia & Oliveira, José Fernando & Antunes, António Pais, 2021. "Carsharing: A review of academic literature and business practices toward an integrated decision-support framework," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    8. Xiaotong Guo & Yong He, 2022. "Mathematical Modeling and Optimization of Platform Service Supply Chains: A Literature Review," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(22), pages 1-19, November.
    9. Zuzana Soltysova & Vladimir Modrak, 2020. "Challenges of the Sharing Economy for SMEs: A Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-14, August.
    10. Gu, Wei & Li, Meng & Wang, Chen & Shang, Jennifer & Wei, Lirong, 2021. "Strategic sourcing selection for bike-sharing rebalancing: An evolutionary game approach," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).

    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. Zhang, Yu & Huang, Min & Tian, Lin & Jin, Delong & Cai, Gangshu(George), 2021. "Build or join a sharing platform? The choice of manufacturer's sharing mode," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 231(C).
    2. Feng, Yixuan & Tan, Yinliang (Ricky) & Duan, Yongrui & Bai, Yu, 2020. "Strategies analysis of luxury fashion rental platform in sharing economy," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    3. Wen, Xin & Siqin, Tana, 2020. "How do product quality uncertainties affect the sharing economy platforms with risk considerations? A mean-variance analysis," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 224(C).
    4. Bian, Yiwen & Cui, Yitong & Yan, Shuai & Han, Xiaohua, 2021. "Optimal strategy of a customer-to-customer sharing platform: Whether to launch its own sharing service?," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    5. Meijian Yang & Enjun Xia, 2021. "A Systematic Literature Review on Pricing Strategies in the Sharing Economy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-28, August.
    6. Lin Tian & Baojun Jiang & Yifan Xu, 2021. "Manufacturer’s Entry in the Product-Sharing Market," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 23(3), pages 553-568, May.
    7. Choi, Tsan-Ming & Guo, Shu & Liu, Na & Shi, Xiutian, 2020. "Optimal pricing in on-demand-service-platform-operations with hired agents and risk-sensitive customers in the blockchain era," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 284(3), pages 1031-1042.
    8. Zhang, Yu & Huang, Min & Tian, Lin & Cai, Gangshu George & Jin, Delong & Fan, Zhiping, 2023. "Manufacturer’s product line selling strategy and add-on policy in product sharing," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 308(3), pages 1332-1343.
    9. Zenan Zhou & Xiang Wan, 2022. "Does the Sharing Economy Technology Disrupt Incumbents? Exploring the Influences of Mobile Digital Freight Matching Platforms on Road Freight Logistics Firms," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 31(1), pages 117-137, January.
    10. Saif Benjaafar & Ming Hu, 2020. "Operations Management in the Age of the Sharing Economy: What Is Old and What Is New?," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 22(1), pages 93-101, January.
    11. Huang, Jian & Leng, Mingming & Liang, Liping, 2012. "Recent developments in dynamic advertising research," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 220(3), pages 591-609.
    12. Ye, Fei & Ni, Debing & Li, Kevin W., 2021. "Competition between manufacturers and sharing economy platforms: An owner base and sharing utility perspective," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 234(C).
    13. Vibhanshu Abhishek & Jose A. Guajardo & Zhe Zhang, 2021. "Business Models in the Sharing Economy: Manufacturing Durable Goods in the Presence of Peer-to-Peer Rental Markets," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 32(4), pages 1450-1469, December.
    14. Chen, Mingyang & Zhao, Daozhi & Gong, Yeming & Rekik, Yacine, 2022. "An on-demand service platform with self-scheduling capacity: Uniform versus multiplier-based pricing," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    15. Choi, Tsan-Ming & Guo, Shu & Liu, Na & Shi, Xiutian, 2019. "Values of food leftover sharing platforms in the sharing economy," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 23-31.
    16. Bin Dai & Yu Nu, 2020. "Pricing and capacity allocation strategies: Implications for manufacturers with product sharing," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 67(3), pages 201-222, April.
    17. Jørgensen, Steffen & Zaccour, Georges, 2014. "A survey of game-theoretic models of cooperative advertising," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 237(1), pages 1-14.
    18. Weixiang Huang & Yanzhi Li & Youhua Chen, 2021. "Overage Disutility, User Trading, and Tariff Design," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 30(10), pages 3758-3783, October.
    19. De Giovanni, Pietro & Zaccour, Georges, 2023. "A survey of dynamic models of product quality," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 307(3), pages 991-1007.
    20. Huang, Yeu-Shiang & Fang, Chih-Chiang & Lin, Szu-Yu, 2023. "Pricing and operating strategies for products in the sharing economy," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 266(C).

    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:transe:v:138:y:2020:i:c:s1366554520306098. 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/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600244/description#description .

    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.