A Study On Optimal Ordering And Quality Decision In The Presence Of Heterogeneous Strategic Consumer

Nowadays, the speed of the product replacement is becoming faster and faster, while the consumers are getting more sophisticated and more strategic. The strategic consumers would consider the future utility of the goods, and select the appropriate time to make their purchase. For the emergence of such kind consumer, the supply chain member companies have to take the appropriate measures to response. This thesis studies the retailer's ordering decision and the manufacturer's quality decision problem in the presence of strategic consumers.First of all, we have portrayed the strategic consumers from the perspective of definition, behavior mechanism and the main characteristics. And then, considering the presence of strategic consumers, we develop ordering decision model and quality decision model under two different situations. One situation is second order is not allowed, while the other oneis the quick response system. This study shows that strategic consumers will have an adverse effect on the profits of the retailer and manufacturer, and the power of the effect will grow with proportion of the strategic consumers. The retailer's optimal order quantity and the manufacturer's optimal level of quality will be reduced due to the increase in the proportion of strategic consumers. The introduction of the quick response, on the one hand, can effectively mitigate the adverse effect from the strategic consumers, but this mitigation will be weakened when the proportion becomes bigger. On the other hand, the optimal order quantity will be slightly decreased, but the level of quality of goods provided will be enhanced. In addition, we find that the bargain hunter is not "useless at all". A certain amount of bargain hunter on the market can improve the whole profits, the supply of goods and the level of the product quality level, making the welfare of retailer, manufacturer and consumers be raised.