Group buying on the web团购外文文献.docx

1、Group buying on the web团购外文文献Group-Buying On The Web: A Comparison Of Price Discovery Mechanisms Krishnan S. Anand1 and Ravi Aron2 OPIM department, The Wharton School University of Pennsylvania. Abstract: Web-based Group-Buying mechanisms, a refinement of quantity discounting, are being used for bot

2、h Business-to-Business (B2B) and Business-to- Consumer (B2C) transactions. In this paper, we survey currently operational online Group-Buying markets, and then study this phenomenon using analytical models. We surveyed over fifty active Group-Buying sites, and provide a comprehensive review of Group

3、-Buying practices in the B2B, B2C and non-profit sectors, across three continents. On the modeling side, we build on the coordination literature in Information Economics and the quantity-discounts literature in Operations to develop an analytical model of a monopolist who uses web-based Group-Buying

4、 mechanisms under different kinds of demand uncertainty. We derive the monopolists optimal Group-Buying schedule, and compare his profits with those that obtain under the more conventional posted-price mechanism. We also study the effect of heterogeneity in the demand regimes, in combination with un

5、certainty, on the relative performance of the two mechanisms. We further study the impact of the timing of the pricing decision (vis-vis the production decision) by modeling it as a two-stage game between the monopolist and buyers. Finally, we investigate how Group-Buying schemes compare with posted

6、 price markets when buyers can revise their prior valuation of products based on information received from third parties (infomediaries). In all cases, we characterize the conditions under which one mechanism outperforms the other, and those under which the posted price and Group-Buy mechanisms lead

7、 to identical seller revenues. Our results have implications for firms choice of price discovery mechanisms in electronic markets and scheduling of production and pricing decisions in the presence (and absence) of scale economies of production. 1 Email: *.edu; Tel: (215) 898 1175. 2 Email: *.edu; Te

8、l:(215) 573 5677. 1 1. Introduction Group-Buying schemes have been in vogue for very many years, particularly in the context of selling on television via the popular Home Shopping Network. Web-based variants of Group-Buying have received a lot of attention recently as part of the wave of innovative

9、online market-based mechanisms such as auctions, reverse auctions and Pricelines name-your-own-price scheme. Nevertheless, unlike in the case of auctions (which has a rich history of analytical research over more than forty years), Group- Buying sorely lacks a theoretical framework. This paper devel

10、ops analytical models of Group-Buying, building on extant academic research in the disciplines of Operations Management, Economics and Information systems. As we demonstrate, two streams of research the quantity- discounts literature in Operations Management and the literature on price discovery und

11、er demand uncertainty in Information Economics serve as building blocks to develop a theory of Group-Buying. We compare the performance of Group-Buying with that of the market mechanism most widely used in electronic markets simple posted prices and identify the conditions under which each dominates

12、. The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. In the next Section, we lay out our research objectives. In Section 3, we provide a comprehensive review of the current state of praxis, by surveying a variety of Group-Buying practices, world-wide, in the B2B, B2C and non-profit sectors. In Sec

13、tion 4, we review the relevant prior research and comment on important results that are relevant to our research. In Sections 5, 6 and 7 we develop three different analytical models of demand uncertainty and compare the performance of the two market mechanisms (Group-Buying and posted pricing) in ea

14、ch case. In Section 8, we discuss the managerial implications of our research and highlight possible extensions. Section 2: Research Objectives Our objective is to study the phenomenon, widely seen in current practice, of web-based Group-Buying. This is a specific instance of the proliferation of co

15、mplex price-discovery mechanisms enabled by the Internet and the World-Wide-Web. Electronic Group-Buying market mechanisms seek to aggregate a variety of disparate buyers via the web remotely and asynchronously essentially by providing them price-based incentives to participate in the market and buy

16、 the good. In what is a classic volume-discounting scheme, the market operator offers buyers lower prices for higher volumes procured collectively. The Group-Buying markets that we surveyed were all characterized by prices declining in sales volumes. Further, web-based Group-Buying was almost entire

17、ly asynchronous users have to work against some deadlines imposed by the seller, but have considerable leeway to make their bids via the internet within the week(s) during which the object is on sale. We provide a detailed exposition of several kinds of electronic Group-Buying markets in Section 3.

18、2 We know that simple posted prices are widely used in consumer salesin traditional approaches such as retail and catalog selling, for instance, but also in web-based selling. While the web facilitates complex selling mechanisms such as Group-Buying, a larger question is how effective are such compl

19、ex schemes, relative to simple posted prices, and more importantly, under what conditions do they add the most value? Our study is focused on answering two questions, both of immediate concern to current practice: (i) Given that a firm uses the Group-Buying (volume discounting) market mechanism to s

20、ell its product(s), what is its optimal Group-Buying (price-quantity) schedule, and what are its revenues under this schedule? (ii) How does this optimal Group-Buying schedule compare with the other widely used market mechanism, specifically, simple posted prices? Specifically, what market condition

21、s and product characteristics would justify the use of Group-Buying over posted prices? The practical application of insights into these two questions is obvious. To the best of our knowledge, our paper is the first in academia to (i) identify and delineate the Group-Buying market mechanism, (ii) de

22、velop analytical models of this mechanism, (iii) study the optimal such schedule under a variety of parameterized market scenarios, and (iv) analyze its performance relative to the simpler mechanism of posted prices (list prices). 3. Group-Buying: The Current State of Praxis We quote the mission sta

23、tements of two market operators that we surveyed to illustrate that volume discounting and demand aggregation are at the core of Group-Buying. “Co-buying is co-operative shopping for the 21st century. Its a really simple way of getting better value by bringing people together via the Internet. By br

24、inging together as many members as possible, LetsBuyI can negotiate lower prices with merchant partners (also referred to as suppliers) or manufacturers. The more people, the lower the prices.” - L “The more we are, the bigger the negotiation power towards trusted suppliers. The immediate result? Pr

25、ices that fall without having to negotiate on your own. The more we are (many), the happier we are (happy) because everyone pays less and everyone benefits from a better service.” - The HappyMany In our study of currently operational3 online markets, we found that Group-Buying (referred to as co-buy

26、ing in the above quote) is a widely deployed price-discovery mechanism in a variety of markets and contexts. These markets are not limited to a particular geographic region (such as the United States) or a particular product category. We will see that the Group-Buying mechanism is extensively used i

27、n the United States, 3 As of mid-September 2002. 3 Europe (including in Germany, France and the UK) and Asia (including in India, Thailand, Singapore and Egypt). This review discusses representative, interesting examples of this deployment. Given the large number of active Group-Buying sites (well o

28、ver 50), an exhaustive review is beyond the scope of this paper; however, a fairly comprehensive list of 26 representative Group-Buying websites from the B2B, B2C and non-profit sectors is provided in the Appendix at the end of this document. Group-Buying schedules are employed for branded consumer

29、products as well as intangible services such as bandwidth and network security, in both business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) markets, and in public as well as private markets. These markets are characterized by the belief that both suppliers and buyers stand to benefit through G

30、roup-buying. Evidence of this belief is adduced by the web-sites of both buyer IRPG, APPA, TBG, GBP4 and supplier LBI, THM consortia in a variety of markets, that prominently tout the benefits of Group-Buying to their members. While we documented markets in three continents that deploy the group-buy

31、ing mechanism, we have restricted the discussion below to some interesting instances that are representative of several currently operational markets, or that employ theoretically interesting variants of Group-Buying, of relevance to our modeling-based analysis. The Group-Buying site e.conomy, opera

32、ted by PricewaterhouseCoopers, is a successful market based in the US ECON. This B2B market allows buyers to purchase indirect goods and services such as office supplies, temps (temporary staffing services), furniture, commercial print, computer hardware, software, telecommunications & connectivity, and company travel, at substantially reduced prices that result from higher purchase volumes. Members are assured of an initial maximum price (a price ceiling). As they place orders, incrementing the total volume demanded, the resulting price- d