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Asymmetric Information and Economies of Scale in Service Contracting

Author

Listed:
  • Mustafa Akan

    (Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213)

  • Bar{i}c{s} Ata

    (Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208)

  • Martin A. Lariviere

    (Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208)

Abstract

We consider outsourcing in two important service settings: call center and order fulfillment operations. An important factor in both is the inherent economies of scale. Therefore, we advance a unifying model covering both applications and study the associated contracting problem under information asymmetry. At the time of contracting, the outsourcing firm, "the originator," faces uncertainty regarding the demand volume but has private information about its probability distribution. The true demand is quickly observed once the service commences. The service provider invests in capacity before the start of the operation and offers a menu of contracts to screen different types of the originator. Adopting a mechanism design approach, we prove that a menu of two-part tariffs achieves the full-information solution. Hence, it is optimal among all possible contracts (in both settings) because of economies of scale and contractibility of realized demand.

Suggested Citation

  • Mustafa Akan & Bar{i}c{s} Ata & Martin A. Lariviere, 2011. "Asymmetric Information and Economies of Scale in Service Contracting," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 13(1), pages 58-72, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormsom:v:13:y:2011:i:1:p:58-72
    DOI: 10.1287/msom.1100.0303
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    3. Benaroch, Michel & Webster, Scott & Kazaz, Burak, 2012. "Impact of sourcing flexibility on the outsourcing of services under demand uncertainty," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 219(2), pages 272-283.
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    8. Mohammed Alkahtani, 2022. "Mathematical Modelling of Inventory and Process Outsourcing for Optimization of Supply Chain Management," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-27, April.
    9. Qin, Xuwei & Shao, Lusheng & Jiang, Zhong-Zhong, 2020. "Contract design for equipment after-sales service with business interruption insurance," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 284(1), pages 176-187.
    10. Houyuan Jiang & Zhan Pang & Sergei Savin, 2020. "Performance Incentives and Competition in Health Care Markets," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 29(5), pages 1145-1164, May.
    11. Huang, Min & Tu, Jun & Chao, Xiuli & Jin, Delong, 2019. "Quality risk in logistics outsourcing: A fourth party logistics perspective," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 276(3), pages 855-879.
    12. Singham, Dashi I. & Cai, Wenbo & Fügenschuh, Armin, 2021. "Flexible contracting with heterogeneous agents and stochastic demand," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 231(C).
    13. Dong Li & Nishant Mishra & Serguei Netessine, 2023. "Contracting for Product Support Under Information Asymmetry," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(8), pages 4627-4645, August.
    14. Jain, Tarun & Hazra, Jishnu & Cheng, T.C.E., 2018. "Sourcing under overconfident buyer and suppliers," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 93-109.
    15. Osman Alp & Alper Şen, 2021. "Delegation of Stocking Decisions Under Asymmetric Demand Information," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 23(1), pages 55-69, 1-2.
    16. Hao Zhang & Guangwen Kong & Sampath Rajagopalan, 2018. "Contract Design by Service Providers with Private Effort," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(6), pages 2672-2689, June.
    17. Xu, Xiaoyan & Cheng, Xiaoying & Sun, Yanhong, 2015. "Coordination contracts for outsourcing supply chain with financial constraint," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 134-142.
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    20. Xiaoyan Xu & Yanan Ji & Yiwen Bian & Yanhong Sun, 2017. "Service outsourcing under co-opetition and information asymmetry," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 68(6), pages 666-677, June.

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