Research On Pricing And Channel Selection Strategies Combined With Consumer Information And Fairness Concerns

With the development of information technology and the economy,companies have become increasingly skilled in information capture and data processing.Especially in operation and management,enterprises can efficiently collect consumer purchase history,such as web browsing history,IP address,membership records and other information,to implement different pricing for new and old customers.This kind of price discrimination based on consumer information(namely,behavior-based price discrimination)is widely used and has important implications for both consumers and firms.For consumers,the BBP strategy allows old customers who make repeated purchases to be charged higher prices,while new customers who buy for the first time can obtain lower prices.The phenomenon of individuals facing different prices of the same product easily induces unfair aversion,which will affect the shopping behavior of consumers and then affect the pricing and related decisions of firms.For firms,economic fluctuations affect not only pricing adjustments but also complex relationships between firms,such as distribution cooperation and product competition.Taking the supplier encroachment strategy as an example,whether BBP is adopted or not affects the profit distribution between the upstream and downstream of the supply chain,which may also affect the supplier encroachment decision.Moreover,the change in channel structure will affect pricing.In light of this,it makes sense to consider the interplay between pricing and channel selection based on consumer information and consumer fairness concerns.Based on BBP,this dissertation analyzes the mutual influence of fairness concerns on pricing strategies and channel selection in different firm structure,and the research conclusions provide reasonable recommendations for firm pricing and related policies.The main research contents are as follows:First,this dissertation considers the firm pricing research on fairness concerns and consumer information and discusses the impact of consumer fairness concerns on price discrimination strategies and related strategies in the context of price competition between vertically differentiated duopoly firms,with the purpose of finding the optimal pricing for the firm based on the existing technology and consumer fairness bias.The corresponding chapter constructs a two-period model.The two asymmetric competing firms both implement price discrimination in period 2 based on consumers’ purchase behavior in period 1,which may cause fairness concerns for consumers in period 2.At the same time,to complete the research content,this dissertation also considers the changes in product quality decision-making,especially paying attention to the green quality decisions that are in line with the development trends.The results show that when quality is exogenous,fairness concerns and vertical differentiation make the practice of BBP profitable,while when quality is endogenous,fairness concerns will exacerbate the level of vertical differentiation between the products of the two firms.Second,this dissertation considers the supply chain pricing and channel selection of consumer information,studies the supplier encroachment decision in the traditional distribution channel,discusses the strategic interaction between the BBP strategy and the encroachment decision in various situations,and aims to make the optimal strategy for the channel members based on the complex pricing choice and channel structure change.The corresponding chapter analyzes changes in supplier encroachment strategies and channel profits when both retailers and suppliers can choose whether to implement BBP.Price discrimination and channel selection interact with each other.On the one hand,supplier encroachment affects the BBP strategies of suppliers and retailers.On the other hand,different levels of price discrimination have different effects on supplier encroachment strategies.In particular,this dissertation shows that when firms are able to implement behavior-based wholesale price discrimination,it may incentivize supplier encroachment.Last,this dissertation considers the research on supply chain pricing and channel selection based on fairness concerns and consumer information,focuses on the role of consumer cognitive preferences on the basis of the aforementioned research,and analyzes the changes in pricing strategy and channel selection strategy when consumers are concerned about fairness,aiming to find the optimal pricing strategy and channel selection strategy for policy makers based on consumer fairness preferences.To focus on the effect of fairness issues on the results,the model construction in the corresponding chapters aims to consider the changes in retailers’ BBP strategies and supplier encroachment decisions under the fairness concerns scenario.The results show that fairness concerns and channel structure differences lead to changes in retailers’ pricing strategies,while fairness concerns lead to price discrimination that may increase suppliers’ willingness to encroach.In summary,the contribution of this dissertation is as follows:(1)The study of the strategic interactions between BBP strategies and related policies in different competitive environments,specifically considering the role of price discrimination strategies in competitive environments and supplier encroachment environments,complements the theoretical research to some extent.(2)This dissertation studies different forms of BBP implementation strategies in different situations,for example,considering retailers’ retail price discrimination against new and existing customers,suppliers’ price discrimination against consumers in direct selling channels under the premise of supplier encroachment,and suppliers’ price discrimination against retailers in traditional retail channels.(3)It is found that the implementation of BBP has the possibility of increasing firms’ profits under some effects,such as product differentiation,channel structure and so on.(4)This dissertation finds the driving factors that influence suppliers’ willingness to encroach,such as pricing strategy and consumer fairness concerns.