Higher Prices for Larger Quantities? Nonmonotonic Price–Quantity Relations in B2B Markets
研究一家微处理器公司销售短生命周期产品时，发现大订单并不总是带来更大折扣，折扣曲线呈N形，并建立模型解释这一现象源于卖家对不同规模买家产能价值的差异。
We study a microprocessor company selling short-life-cycle products to a set of buyers that includes large consumer electronic goods manufacturers. The seller has a limited capacity for each product and negotiates with each buyer for the price. Our analysis of their sales data reveals that larger purchases do not always result in bigger discounts. Instead, the discount curve is like an “N.” While existing theories cannot explain this nonmonotonic pattern, we develop an analytical model and show that the nonmonotonicity is rooted in how sellers value capacity when negotiating with a buyer. Large buyers accelerate the selling process and small buyers are helpful in consuming the residual capacity. However, satisfying midsized buyers may be costly because supplying these buyers can make it difficult to utilize the remaining capacity, which is often too much for small buyers but not enough for large buyers. We briefly discuss the implications for capacity rationing and posted pricing as well as potential applications to other industries. This paper was accepted by Serguei Netessine, operations management.