Pricing decisions for complementary products in a fuzzy dual-channel supply chain

Abstract

The paper considers the pricing problem of complementary products in a fuzzy dual-channel supply chain environment where there are two manufacturers and one retailer. Four different decision models are established to study this problem: the centralized decision model, MS-Bertrand model, RS-Bertrand model and Nash game model, where the consumer demand and manufacturing cost for each product are characterized as fuzzy variables. A closed form solution has been obtained for each model by using game theory and fuzzy theory. Numerical examples are presented to compare the maximal expected profits and optimal pricing decisions, and to provide additional managerial insights. The finding shows that the decision makers are more likely to choose industries with higher self-price elastic coefficient and lower complementarity in the retail channel to cooperate. We can obtain that consumers can benefit from the cooperation of the two manufacturers because of lower prices. We can also find that it might not be bad for retailer because it can expand demand and obtain more maximal expected profits.