Discount Pricing Policies and the Coordination of Decentralized Distribution Systems*
研究将传统基于订单量的折扣扩展为同时考虑订单量和年采购量的折扣政策，发现该政策能有效协调分散式两级分销系统，使系统利润接近最优。
ABSTRACT A challenge of supply chain management is to align the objectives, and hence coordinate the activities, of independent supply chain members. In this study, we approach this problem in a simple way by extending traditional quantity discounts that are based solely on buyers' individual order size to discount policies that are based on both buyers' individual order size and their annual volume. We show that discount policies are able to achieve nearly optimal system profit and, hence, provide effective coordination, for a decentralized two‐echelon distribution system, whereby a supplier sells a product to a group of heterogeneous and independent retailers each facing a downward‐sloping demand curve of its retail price. When buyers are heterogeneous, a critical issue of coordination is to motivate different customers to increase their demand and lot size according to their potential so as to improve profits. We show that market heterogeneity presents an effective discriminating factor for the supplier to segment customers in the design of a coordination mechanism.