Speaker：Yulan Wang, Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Time: 10:00—11:30am, Friday, May 10,2019

Site：EMS B249

Abstract：In this study, we consider two platforms, an agency platform that allows suppliers to direct sell the product to customers, and a hybrid platform that acts as both an agency platform and an e-retailer buying products from suppliers and then reselling to customers. A supplier that originally sells its product to the hybrid platform now wants to sell its product direct to consumers on either of the two platforms. To attract the supplier to direct sell on their own platform, both the agency platform and the hybrid platform may share their downstream demand information with the supplier. We then explore the platforms' information sharing decisions and the supplier's platform selection decision by studying a four-stage game under two (wholesale) pricing timing scenarios. That is, the wholesale prices may be determined before (named early pricing) or after (named late pricing) the platforms' strategic information sharing decisions. We show that under both pricing timing scenarios, the agency platform shares demand information voluntarily with the supplier. However, such free information sharing always benefits the supplier under the early pricing but may hurt the supplier under the late pricing. We also show that the double marginalization induced by information sharing dampens the hybrid platform's incentive to share information. When the commission rate charged by the platform is low and demand uncertainty is not so high, the supplier always prefers direct selling on the agency platform under the late pricing but may prefer direct selling on the hybrid platform under the early pricing. When the pricing timing can be determined upfront, we find that the supplier always prefers late pricing while the hybrid platform prefers early pricing when the commission rate is large and the signal accuracy is high.

Introduction to the Speaker：

Yulan Wang is currently an associate professor in the Department of the Logistics and Maritime Studies at the Faculty of Business of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. She received her Ph.D degree in Business Administration from Duke University. She obtained both her BS and MS degrees from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Her research work has been published in leading academic journals such as Management Science, Operations Research, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Production and Operations Management, among others. Her research interests include supply chain management, sustainability operations, and the behavioral issues in operations management. She serves as the senior editor for Production and Operations Management and the associate editor for Omega. She is the editorial review board member of Production and Operations Management and the editorial advisory board member of Transportation Research - Part E.