IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/oropre/v64y2016i2p290-296.html

Technical Note—Intertemporal Price Discrimination via Reference Price Effects

Author

Listed:
  • Zizhuo Wang

    (Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455)

Abstract

We consider the dynamic pricing problem a monopolistic seller faces when customers arrive in heterogeneous time periods and their purchase decisions are affected by reference prices formed from their past observations of prices. We illustrate that a new form of price discrimination opportunity exists in such situations, where the seller’s optimal pricing strategy is a cyclic one, even when the customers are loss-neutral and their demand functions are identical. This result differs from those of prior studies where the optimal price paths are shown to be asymptotically constant and thus is unique due to the interaction between the heterogeneous arrivals and the reference price effects. We also provide the cycle length of the optimal pricing policy when the demand function is linear and when customers are loss-neutral. In this era when customer information is easier accessible, our results suggest the sellers consider this new dimension of price discrimination in conjunction with the old ones, to take advantage of the full power of customer data.

Suggested Citation

  • Zizhuo Wang, 2016. "Technical Note—Intertemporal Price Discrimination via Reference Price Effects," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 64(2), pages 290-296, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:oropre:v:64:y:2016:i:2:p:290-296
    DOI: 10.1287/opre.2015.1473
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/opre.2015.1473
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/opre.2015.1473?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. Yan Liu & William L. Cooper, 2015. "Optimal Dynamic Pricing with Patient Customers," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 63(6), pages 1307-1319, December.
    2. Gadi Fibich & Arieh Gavious & Oded Lowengart, 2003. "Explicit Solutions of Optimization Models and Differential Games with Nonsmooth (Asymmetric) Reference-Price Effects," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 51(5), pages 721-734, October.
    3. Ioana Popescu & Yaozhong Wu, 2007. "Dynamic Pricing Strategies with Reference Effects," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 55(3), pages 413-429, June.
    4. Praveen K. Kopalle & Ambar G. Rao & João L. Assunção, 1996. "Asymmetric Reference Price Effects and Dynamic Pricing Policies," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 15(1), pages 60-85.
    5. Kopalle, Praveen K. & Kannan, P.K. & Boldt, Lin Bao & Arora, Neeraj, 2012. "The impact of household level heterogeneity in reference price effects on optimal retailer pricing policies," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 88(1), pages 102-114.
    6. Gabriel Bitran & René Caldentey, 2003. "An Overview of Pricing Models for Revenue Management," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 5(3), pages 203-229, August.
    7. Eric A. Greenleaf, 1995. "The Impact of Reference Price Effects on the Profitability of Price Promotions," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 14(1), pages 82-104.
    8. Omar Besbes & Ilan Lobel, 2015. "Intertemporal Price Discrimination: Structure and Computation of Optimal Policies," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 61(1), pages 92-110, January.
    9. Javad Nasiry & Ioana Popescu, 2011. "Dynamic Pricing with Loss-Averse Consumers and Peak-End Anchoring," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 59(6), pages 1361-1368, December.
    10. David Besanko & Wayne L. Winston, 1990. "Optimal Price Skimming by a Monopolist Facing Rational Consumers," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 36(5), pages 555-567, May.
    11. Wedad Elmaghraby & P{i}nar Keskinocak, 2003. "Dynamic Pricing in the Presence of Inventory Considerations: Research Overview, Current Practices, and Future Directions," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 49(10), pages 1287-1309, October.
    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. Zhenyu Hu & Xin Chen & Peng Hu, 2016. "Technical Note—Dynamic Pricing with Gain-Seeking Reference Price Effects," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 64(1), pages 150-157, February.
    2. Zhang, Jie & Chiang, Wei-yu Kevin, 2020. "Durable goods pricing with reference price effects," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    3. Ningyuan Chen & Javad Nasiry, 2020. "Does Loss Aversion Preclude Price Variation?," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 22(2), pages 383-395, March.
    4. Athanasios, Tsakonas & Vasilakis, C. & Charalampakis, D. & Vasilakis, E. & Thomaidis, N. & Dounias, G., 2026. "Decision support for airfare forecasting using an evolutionary approach: Evidence on search engine data from Touristic agency," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    5. Georgia Perakis & Melvyn Sim & Qinshen Tang & Peng Xiong, 2023. "Robust Pricing and Production with Information Partitioning and Adaptation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(3), pages 1398-1419, March.
    6. M. Güler & Taner Bilgiç & Refik Güllü, 2015. "Joint pricing and inventory control for additive demand models with reference effects," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 226(1), pages 255-276, March.
    7. Ilan Lobel, 2020. "Technical Note—Dynamic Pricing with Heterogeneous Patience Levels," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 68(4), pages 1038-1046, July.
    8. Zhenyu Hu & Javad Nasiry, 2018. "Are Markets with Loss-Averse Consumers More Sensitive to Losses?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(3), pages 1384-1395, March.
    9. Ioana Popescu & Yaozhong Wu, 2007. "Dynamic Pricing Strategies with Reference Effects," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 55(3), pages 413-429, June.
    10. Régis Chenavaz, 2017. "Dynamic quality policies with reference quality effects," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(32), pages 3156-3162, July.
    11. Anton, Ramona & Chenavaz, Régis Y. & Paraschiv, Corina, 2023. "Dynamic pricing, reference price, and price-quality relationship," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    12. Malekian, Yaser & Rasti-Barzoki, Morteza, 2019. "A game theoretic approach to coordinate price promotion and advertising policies with reference price effects in a two-echelon supply chain," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 114-128.
    13. Xin Chen & Peng Hu & Zhenyu Hu, 2017. "Efficient Algorithms for the Dynamic Pricing Problem with Reference Price Effect," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(12), pages 4389-4406, December.
    14. Martín-Herrán, Guiomar & Taboubi, Sihem, 2015. "Price coordination in distribution channels: A dynamic perspective," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 240(2), pages 401-414.
    15. Colombo, Luca & Labrecciosa, Paola, 2021. "Dynamic oligopoly pricing with reference-price effects," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 288(3), pages 1006-1016.
    16. Ma, Peng & Gong, Yeming & Mirchandani, Prakash, 2020. "Trade-in for remanufactured products: Pricing with double reference effects," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 230(C).
    17. Yan Liu & William L. Cooper, 2015. "Optimal Dynamic Pricing with Patient Customers," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 63(6), pages 1307-1319, December.
    18. Hyun-soo Ahn & Mehmet Gümüş & Philip Kaminsky, 2007. "Pricing and Manufacturing Decisions When Demand Is a Function of Prices in Multiple Periods," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 55(6), pages 1039-1057, December.
    19. Alfred Taudes & Christian Rudloff, 2012. "Integrating inventory control and a price change in the presence of reference price effects: a two-period model," Mathematical Methods of Operations Research, Springer;Gesellschaft für Operations Research (GOR);Nederlands Genootschap voor Besliskunde (NGB), vol. 75(1), pages 29-65, February.
    20. Tamar Cohen-Hillel & Kiran Panchamgam & Georgia Perakis, 2023. "High-Low Promotion Policies for Peak-End Demand Models," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(4), pages 2016-2050, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:64:y:2016:i:2:p:290-296. 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.