IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/oropre/v61y2013i6p1321-1332.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Saving Seats for Strategic Customers

Author

Listed:
  • Eren B. Çil

    (Lundquist College of Business, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403)

  • Martin A. Lariviere

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

Abstract

We consider a service provider in a market with two segments. Members of the first request a reservation ahead of service and will not patronize the firm without one. Members of the second walk in and demand service immediately. These customers have a fixed cost of reaching the firm and may behave strategically. In equilibrium, they randomize between walking in and staying home. The service provider must decide how much of a limited capacity to make available to advance customers. When the advance demand segment offers a higher per customer margin, the firm may opt to decline some reservation requests in order to bolster walk-in demand. When walk-in customers are more valuable, classical revenue management models would dictate that at least some capacity be set aside for high-value later arrivals. Here it is possible that the optimal policy saves no capacity for walk-ins. Thus, it may be better to ignore rather than pamper walk-in customers. This outcome is robust to changes in the model.

Suggested Citation

  • Eren B. Çil & Martin A. Lariviere, 2013. "Saving Seats for Strategic Customers," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 61(6), pages 1321-1332, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:oropre:v:61:y:2013:i:6:p:1321-1332
    DOI: 10.1287/opre.2013.1218
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/opre.2013.1218
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/opre.2013.1218?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. Gérard P. Cachon & Robert Swinney, 2009. "Purchasing, Pricing, and Quick Response in the Presence of Strategic Consumers," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 55(3), pages 497-511, March.
    2. Martin A. Lariviere & Jan A. Van Mieghem, 2004. "Strategically Seeking Service: How Competition Can Generate Poisson Arrivals," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 6(1), pages 23-40, January.
    3. Dimitris Bertsimas & Romy Shioda, 2003. "Restaurant Revenue Management," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 51(3), pages 472-486, June.
    4. Alexei Alexandrov & Martin A. Lariviere, 2012. "Are Reservations Recommended?," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 14(2), pages 218-230, April.
    5. Gérard P. Cachon & A. Gürhan Kök, 2007. "Implementation of the Newsvendor Model with Clearance Pricing: How to (and How Not to) Estimate a Salvage Value," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 9(3), pages 276-290, October.
    6. James D. Dana, Jr. & Nicholas C. Petruzzi, 2001. "Note: The Newsvendor Model with Endogenous Demand," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 47(11), pages 1488-1497, November.
    7. William L. Cooper & Tito Homem-de-Mello & Anton J. Kleywegt, 2006. "Models of the Spiral-Down Effect in Revenue Management," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 54(5), pages 968-987, October.
    8. Xuanming Su & Fuqiang Zhang, 2008. "Strategic Customer Behavior, Commitment, and Supply Chain Performance," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 54(10), pages 1759-1773, October.
    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. Liu, Yan & Shi, Hongyan & Petruzzi, Nicholas C., 2018. "Optimal quality and quantity provisions for centralized vs. decentralized distribution: Market size uncertainty effects," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 265(3), pages 1144-1158.
    2. Mustafa O. Kabul & Ali K. Parlaktürk, 2019. "The Value of Commitments When Selling to Strategic Consumers: A Supply Chain Perspective," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(10), pages 4754-4770, October.
    3. Jaelynn Oh & Xuanming Su, 2022. "Optimal Pricing and Overbooking of Reservations," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 31(3), pages 928-940, March.
    4. Wang, Haiyan & Olsen, Tava Lennon & Shalpegin, Timofey, 2022. "Demand Postponement with Strategic Service Customers," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    5. Dwivedi, Abhishek, 2015. "A higher-order model of consumer brand engagement and its impact on loyalty intentions," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 100-109.
    6. Susanta Kumar SETHY & Phanindra GOYARI, 2022. "Measuring financial inclusion and its present status in South Asian countries. Evidence from a multidimensional Financial Inclusion Index," Theoretical and Applied Economics, Asociatia Generala a Economistilor din Romania - AGER, vol. 0(3(632), A), pages 131-150, Autumn.
    7. Gérard P. Cachon & Pnina Feldman, 2015. "Price Commitments with Strategic Consumers: Why It Can Be Optimal to Discount More Frequently … Than Optimal," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 17(3), pages 399-410, July.
    8. Zhong-Ping Li & Jian-Jun Wang & Ai-Chih Chang & Jim Shi, 2021. "Capacity reallocation via sinking high-quality resource in a hierarchical healthcare system," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 300(1), pages 97-135, May.

    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. Gérard P. Cachon & Pnina Feldman, 2015. "Price Commitments with Strategic Consumers: Why It Can Be Optimal to Discount More Frequently … Than Optimal," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 17(3), pages 399-410, July.
    2. Gérard P. Cachon & Robert Swinney, 2009. "Purchasing, Pricing, and Quick Response in the Presence of Strategic Consumers," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 55(3), pages 497-511, March.
    3. Arian Aflaki & Pnina Feldman & Robert Swinney, 2019. "Becoming Strategic: Endogenous Consumer Time Preferences and Multiperiod Pricing," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 68(4), pages 1116-1131, July.
    4. Fei Gao & Xuanming Su, 2017. "Manufacturing & Service Operations Management," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 19(1), pages 84-98, February.
    5. Fei Gao & Xuanming Su, 2017. "Omnichannel Retail Operations with Buy-Online-and-Pick-up-in-Store," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(8), pages 2478-2492, August.
    6. Hao, Zhaowei & Qi, Wei & Gong, Tianxiao & Chen, Lihua & Shen, Zuo-Jun Max, 2019. "Innovation uncertainty, new product press timing and strategic consumers," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 122-135.
    7. Cuihong Li & Fuqiang Zhang, 2013. "Advance Demand Information, Price Discrimination, and Preorder Strategies," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 15(1), pages 57-71, September.
    8. Mehmet Sekip Altug & Tolga Aydinliyim, 2016. "Counteracting Strategic Purchase Deferrals: The Impact of Online Retailers’ Return Policy Decisions," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 18(3), pages 376-392, July.
    9. Mingzheng Wang & Mengru Ma & Xiaohang Yue & Samar Mukhopadhyay, 2016. "A capacitated firm’s pricing strategies for strategic consumers with different search costs," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 240(2), pages 731-760, May.
    10. Gérard P. Cachon & Santiago Gallino & Marcelo Olivares, 2019. "Does Adding Inventory Increase Sales? Evidence of a Scarcity Effect in U.S. Automobile Dealerships," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(4), pages 1469-1485, April.
    11. Alexei Alexandrov & Martin A. Lariviere, 2012. "Are Reservations Recommended?," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 14(2), pages 218-230, April.
    12. Du, Jie & Zhang, Juliang & Hua, Guowei, 2015. "Pricing and inventory management in the presence of strategic customers with risk preference and decreasing value," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 160-166.
    13. Xuanming Su & Fuqiang Zhang, 2009. "On the Value of Commitment and Availability Guarantees When Selling to Strategic Consumers," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 55(5), pages 713-726, May.
    14. Ma Changsong & Li Tian & Li Cong & He Hua, 2014. "Pricing Strategy and Governments Intervention for Green Supply Chain with Strategic Customer Behavior," Journal of Systems Science and Information, De Gruyter, vol. 2(3), pages 206-216, June.
    15. Jaelynn Oh & Xuanming Su, 2022. "Optimal Pricing and Overbooking of Reservations," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 31(3), pages 928-940, March.
    16. Mila Nambiar & David Simchi-Levi & He Wang, 2019. "Dynamic Learning and Pricing with Model Misspecification," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(11), pages 4980-5000, November.
    17. Gérard P. Cachon, 2020. "A Research Framework for Business Models: What Is Common Among Fast Fashion, E-Tailing, and Ride Sharing?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(3), pages 1172-1192, March.
    18. Fernando Bernstein & Victor Martínez-de-Albéniz, 2017. "Dynamic Product Rotation in the Presence of Strategic Customers," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(7), pages 2092-2107, July.
    19. Necati Tereyagoglu & Senthil Veeraraghavan, 2012. "Selling to Conspicuous Consumers: Pricing, Production, and Sourcing Decisions," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(12), pages 2168-2189, December.
    20. Wang, Haiyan & Olsen, Tava Lennon & Shalpegin, Timofey, 2022. "Demand Postponement with Strategic Service Customers," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 107(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:inm:oropre:v:61:y:2013:i:6:p:1321-1332. 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.