| The key factor in competition for traditional manufacturing has changed with the arrival of buyer's market. Especially for the firms which are major in fast moving consumer goods industry, they must not only compete in product quality but also seize the efficient sales channels. Practice shows that today's large supermarkets have become the main sales channel of fast moving consumer goods and have played the essential role in market expansion and profitability increasing for manufacturers. So the status of supermarkets particularly the large supermarkets has been improved and their market forces are also growing in the entire channels. Furthermore, the supermarkets can also affect the purchasing desion and consumer surplus based on the retail price as well as different ways of display and promotions. In short, the large supermarket chains have occupied a key position in the fast moving consumer goods industry. At the same time, the development has also brought the upgrading conflict between the retailers and the manufacturers. The most important dispute lays on the rationality of slotting allowance. In 2003, Shanghai See & Nut Roasters Roasters Association was reported that had a tense relation with Carrefour because of slotting allowance, which attracted the concerns of media and academia. Some people think that it is a reasonable result of competing for the limited shelf space among large number of products, which is conducive to efficiency improvement. While others think that the slotting allowance reflects supermarkets'market forces, which causes the increase of wholesale and retail prices. Ultimately the consumers'welfare is harmed. For the dispute above, the different governments hold different attitudes.In fact, there are objective reasons and economic foundation for slotting allowances. Industrial practice proves it has a variety of charging mechanisms. Besides the wholesales price, retail price, and the coordination between slotting allowance and traditional sales profit, the charging mechanism will also influence the existence conditions and functions of slotting allowances as well as benefits distribution and social welfare.With the research perspective of problem-oriented, this dissertation is focus on the charging mechanism of slotting allowance. Based on the market structure and characteristics of supermarkets, it constructs some reasonable models by appling of standardized modern industrial organization theory, auction theory and information economics to analyze the existence conditions, functions, influencing factors, social welfare of slotting allowance in different charging mechanisms. All in all, this dissertation research two important issues: first is the rationality of slotting allowance; second is that which mechanisms can improve social efficiency.The major work can be summarized as follows:(1) With the changing of market environment and supermarkets'development, defining the charging principal of slotting allowance as large supermarkets; discussing the characteristics of large supermarket through the comparison with department stores, professional stores, general supermarkets and convenience stores; analyzing the reasons and basis of slotting allowance according the practice; classifying its contents, describing and comparing some common charging mechanisms so as to provide the necessary foundation for the subsequent chapters.(2) Researching the existence conditions of slotting allowance through the dual-bargainning model which is based on the factors such as network effects and sales cost; discussing the function and influence from the perspective of profit distribution and consumers welfare; analyzing the relationship between slotting allowance and bargaining power with different bargaining power and sales cost; studying the problem of the manufactures'uneven cost-sharing due to different bargaining power.(3) Researching the impact of rebate proportion on sales effort, price, demand and each market participant based on the sales effort and efficiency; analyzing the influence factors and general function of slotting allowance with rebate mechanism; discussing the endogenous of rebate proportion with different principals; analyzing the choice of charging mechanism for different firms with the comparison of market equilibrium.(4) Analyzing the impact of high-quality shelf on retail price, demand, and profit with demand function which is based on the influence of shelf for consumers'utility; discussing the possibility, existence conditions and functions of slotting allowance in the perspective of the participation constraint as well as the sharing of opportunity cost; comparing the different results of the shelf allocation and its social welfare in charging or not charging slotting allowance through the model expansion.(5) Analyzing the necessity and rationality of slotting allowance from the perspective of manufacturers and supermarket; calculating high-quality shelf's value for different manufacturers to discuss the bid of the manufactures and the allocation results under second-price auction mechanism; comparing the effectiveness of allocation results between the bargaining mechanism and auction mechanism.(6) Proving some findings with the price adjustment of some goods; exploring the slotting allowance dispute through two typical cases; comparing policies in major countries; commenting on the policies themselves and effectiveness; putting forward the premises, principles and some specific recommendations according to the previous conclusions and the existing policies.The main innovations of this dissertation are:(1) Based on bargaining mechanism, this dissertation constructs dual-bargaining model through introducing network effect and sales cost to research the existence conditions, functions and welfare effects of lump-sum charging, which brings the conclusion not fully consistent with the traditional market forces theory: the slotting allowance reflected the market force of supermarket, but lump-sum fee is only the profit-shifting among the channel members, which is similar to fix cost and will not affect the retail prices and consumer welfare.(2) Based on rebate mechanism, this dissertation constructs endogenous model of rebate proportion through introducing markets'sales effort and efficiency to research the function and welfare effects of slotting allowance with rebate mechanism, which brings the conclusion against the traditional market forces theory: the slotting allowance can encourage supermarket to pay more sales effort with rebate mechanism, so the manufacturer is willing to pay the appropriate fee even when the rebate proportion is decided by itself. Furthermore, with the improvement of sales efficiency, the rebate proportion increases, which can enlarge the sales and increase consumer surplus. (3) Based on the auction mechanism and bargaining mechanism, this dissertation constructs incomplete information game model through introducing market effects and competion effects of high-quality shelf, which brings the conclusion not fully consistent with the traditional efficiency theory: in the competition and allocation of shelf, the slotting allowance with bargarning mechanism can not ensure the low-cost manufactures access to high-quality shelf, while the auction mechanism can optimize the scarce resource which is more efficient in shelf allocation.(4) On the basis of comparison among the three charging mechanisms mentioned above, this dissertation puts forward a view which is totally inconsistent with the traditional conclusions: Overall, the slotting allowance will not damage social welfare, to the opposite, it may improve social welfare sometimes. But the rebate mechasim and auction mechanism are more efficient compared with bargaining mechanism, which means that the welfare effect of slotting allowance is mainly decided by its charging mechanism. This finding tells us that the main problem in practice is not the rationality of slotting allowance, but how to charge.
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