| The vast majority the research in Operations Management and Supply Chain Management assume the maximizing objectives, particularly the objective of expected profit (cost) maximization (minimization). In this dissertation, we study the optimal behaviors of individual firms and supply chains under the satisficing objectives and multiple objectives. A satisficing objective is to maximize the probabilities to attain some required target performance levels.;This dissertation consists of five chapters. In Chapter 1, we first provide the background and literature review.;In Chapter 2, we study individual firm(s) under the satisficing objectives. We first derive the optimal order quantity and/or retail price for a newsvendor under three possible objectives. Next we study multiple newsvendors under inventory competition. We obtain analytic results which are quite different from those obtained under the objective of expected profit maximization. Finally, we briefly study the problem of target setting in the framework of newsvendors.;In Chapter 3, we study contract design and supply chain coordination under the satisficing objectives. We first focus on the profit satisficing objective, under which we derive the Pareto-optimal contracts and provide a necessary and sufficient condition for supply chain coordination. Our results provide an important justification of the wide of wholesale price contracts besides their lower implementation cost. We also propose the use of slotting fee contracts to coordinate such a supply chain. Finally in Chapter 3, we extend our study to the case where each agent adopts the profit satisficing and the revenue satisficing objectives simultaneously.;In Chapter 4, we study the supply chain under multiple objectives. We first study quantity flexibility contracts under both the profit satisficing objective and the objective of expected profit maximization. We show that more degrees of freedom benefit the supply chain under multiple objectives. Next we make an initial attempt to study the supply chain where different agents adopt different types of objectives.;Finally in Chapter 5, we summarize our contributions in this study. We also suggest a number of future research projects. |
