讲座主题：Impact of Logistics Capacity on Duopoly Competition: Implications for Firms and Consumers

讲座时间：2024年7月11日（周四） 上午 9:30-11:00

讲座地点：商学院203教室

讲座内容：Price promotion is an effective way to capture market share, as consumer sensitivity to price is universal. Yet, consumer satisfaction with services-such as logistics-plays a critical role. Deep price discounts can indeed spike demand, but they can also congest systems, thus prolonging delivery times and diminishing consumer satisfaction. Despite observed significant effects of logistics capacity on consumer and firm payoffs in logistics systems in recent years, economic and operational analysis of these effects remains under explored. This study theoretically examines the influence of logistics capacity on competition between two firms using a refined Hotelling model that incorporates system congestion via a BPR-type congestion function. Our primary findings include: First, the possibility of multiple equilibria emerges with intermediate product values, fueled by either unilateral price reductions to seize greater market share or price increases to enhance marginal benefits. Moreover, a firm with superior logistics capacity may not always set higher prices at equilibrium. Second, we show that equilibrium pricing exhibits a non-monotonic relationship with logistics capacity and market size. Lastly, we scrutinize firms' long-term strategic reactions to changes in logistics capacity and the implications of marginal capacity costs, symmetric or otherwise. Our findings provide the following insights. We caution that the equilibrium pricing strategy is ambiguous when the product value is not extreme because both firms are more likely to engage in random price wars. Intriguingly, while augmenting logistics capacity might elevate service satisfaction, it could paradoxically reduce firm revenue or consumer surplus. Our analysis also indicates that higher marginal capacity costs could, counter intuitively, benefit firms or consumers.

主讲人：王钟彬，天津大学管理与经济学部英才副教授，特聘研究员。主要研究方向为随机服务运营、排队经济学。主持国家自然科学基金优秀青年基金、青年科学基金，以及中国科协青年人才托举工程项目。以第一作者或通讯作者在国际高质量期刊Operations Research, Management Science、Manufacturing and Service Operations Management、Production and Operations Management等发表多篇学术论文。相关学术成果曾获2022年“全国供应链与运营管理”最佳会议论文一等奖，2021年美国运筹学与管理学研究协会(INFORMS)服务科学最佳论文一等奖。

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主办单位：商学院