Channel Members Research Articles

Controlling Measure for Distortional Buckling of Cold-formed Thin-walled Steel Lipped Channel Members

This paper proposed a structural measure according to add batten sheets between two lips to controlling distortional buckling of cold-formed thin-walled steel members with lipped channel section, and the effectiveness was verified through existing tests. At the same time, the stiffness requirements of batten sheets were presented. The structural measures of adding batten sheets between two lips can effectively prevent the rotation of partially stiffened elements, and the distortional buckling load and bearing capacity of the members have been greatly improved. The test shows that the batten sheets with a certain distance and stiffness can improve the bearing capacity of the member or avoid the occurrence of distortional buckling.

Overall Buckling Performance of Cold-Formed Steel Axial Compression Lipped Channel Members with Circle Holes

The relationship between the stability coefficient φ and slenderness for axial compression perforated members was studied using finite element software ABAQUS in this paper. The overall buckling of members with unperforated, circular and multi-circular holes was described. The influence on the members of hole position, hole size, hole spacing and plate size was analysis. According to the main parameters affecting the overall buckling of the perforated members, results show that φ will decrease with the increase of hole size. for multi-circular holes members, the smaller the hole spacing is, the more likely φ will be affected. When the hole spacing is wide enough, φ will become stable.

Networking-bonding actions, quality of ties, and channel member collaboration: Evidence from U.K.-based small firms

ABSTRACT We aim to deepen our understanding of the processes through which network-bonding actions affect channel member collaboration in the small firm context. We develop a framework to highlight the mediating roles of quality of ties and moderating role of control mechanisms in such processes. We test our framework using the quantitative method, by analyzing survey from 385 U.K.-based small firms. We find that social interaction tends to affect operation synchronization via goal congruence, though affects intelligence generation via relational embeddedness. Furthermore, contractual governance has a negative moderating effect on the relationship between social interaction and goal congruence.

Manufacturer Strategy on Service Provision in Competitive Channels

A manufacturer commonly distributes through a set of retailers who are authorized to sell its product; demand‐enhancing services may also be provided by the manufacturer. These services may be granted to all authorized retailers ( uniform service provision) or to a favored few authorized retailers ( differential service provision). To determine when a manufacturer does—or does not—bestow equal service levels, we develop a model of one manufacturer selling through two competing retailers. We find manufacturer optimality to entail uniform service at some parametric values, while differential service is optimal at other values. Counterintuitively, with differential service, the recipient of lower service may be better off than it would be with higher service. Equally surprisingly, there are conditions for which the high‐service retailer prefers its rival to also receive a high level of service—but only if its rival is sufficiently small. While the three channel members often have different service‐provision preferences, there are also parametric values that place them in harmony with either differential or uniform service provision. Retailers sharing the cost of manufacturer‐provided service need not lessen firms’ preference confliction over the preferred service provision but can improve channel efficiency when the cost‐sharing rate is relatively low. We also investigate the effect of retailer‐provided services and the impact of service asymmetry level.

Agency or Wholesale? The Role of Retail Pass-Through

With the rapid growth of e-commerce, agency selling is currently gaining popularity among online retailers (e-tailers). Prior research implicitly abstracts away cross-brand pass-through under traditional wholesale selling (i.e., how the retail price of another brand adjusts to changes in a given brand's wholesale price) and suggests that a shift to agency selling benefits e-tailers but harms suppliers. As an important counterweight to this result, we discover that an e-tailer's choice regarding selling format is critically moderated by retail pass-through behavior. On the one hand, agency selling can improve channel efficiency compared to wholesale selling. On the other hand, the relative intensity of supplier competition between these two selling formats is ambiguous. We show that the existing result applies only for a nonnegative cross-brand pass-through rate (e.g., under linear demands); otherwise (e.g., under multiplicative or exponential demands), the opposite may hold. Interestingly, we find that the conflict over the preference of selling format may not arise, and that all channel members could be better off with wholesale selling. Compared to the case of Bertrand competition, the e-tailer is even more likely to adopt wholesale selling under Cournot competition. Finally, under agency selling with an endogenous commission fee, we advise caution regarding the seemingly innocuous normalization of suppliers' marginal costs. Surprisingly, suppliers may benefit from higher marginal costs. Overall, our findings not only shed light on the theory of agency selling but also provide a plausible explanation for the observation that wholesale selling continues to prevail in online markets.

An Optimal Control Method to Coordination of Pricing and Advertising for a Supply Chain: The Consignment Mode

This paper addresses the channel coordination problem under the consignment mode based on the optimal control method. Considering the impacts from the advertising and platform goodwill onto the market demand, the equilibrium strategies regarding the pricing and the advertising are computed within the centralized and decentralized settings by applying the optimal control theory. Moreover, this paper compares the optimal control strategies in the two decision structures, where the comparison shows that the channel players invest more in advertising under the centralized case only when the share of the revenue exceeds a certain threshold. In addition, a contract scheme including the platform use fees and the cooperative advertising is proposed, which leads to profit Pareto improvements for the channel members. Finally, some simulations are provided to illustrate the impacts of the systems parameters onto the platform goodwill and coordination.

Comprehensive engineering of the tarantula venom peptide huwentoxin-IV to inhibit the human voltage-gated sodium channel hNav1.7

Comprehensive engineering of the tarantula venom peptide huwentoxin-IV to inhibit the human voltage-gated sodium channel hNav1.7

Interactive Decisions Analysis in an Online Shopping Service Supply Chain Considering Reciprocal Altruism

Cooperative relationships and interactive decision behaviors between online stores and third-party logistics (TPL) have attracted increasing attention from academics as well as practitioners with the development of the online retailing industry. However, the decisions and performance of each member in a decentralized supply chain are not in line with the actual performance and decision behaviors of them, especially when taking individual altruism preference into account. Hence, without considering the truism of channel members will lead to unrealistic decisions and obtain anamorphic performance of firms and the entire system based on conventional self-interested models. This paper develops an evolutionary bilateral decision-making model to characterize the effects of all members’ altruism in an online shopping service supply chain (OSSSC). The model considers different altruism of each member in the supply chain and their changes at various intervals. The decision equilibrium and interactive rules of all members are deeply analyzed based on the evolutionary bilateral decision-model as the change of altruism of each party. Our results identify that: altruism preference impacts the decisions of all participants in the OSSSC system. When the TPL and the online store have high altruism and low altruism, respectively, both retail price and logistics service price tend toward low levels and all participants have high utilities. However, this situation is more favorable for the online store. In this case, changes in the altruism level of either party will adversely impact the utilities of all parties and the performance of the whole system; specially, when the online stores are self-interested while the TPL has altruism that fluctuates within a specific range, improving logistics service level will help to lower the retail price and increase market shares. Numerical experiments are conducted to examine and verify the results and some optimal managerial insights for online retailers and TPLs are provided.

Analysis of Factors Affecting the Profits of Closed-Loop Supply Chain Members Under Different Subsidy Objects

Based on the research hypothesis in a fully competitive closed-loop supply chain for mixed recycling channels, different closed-loop supply chain pricing models are established for the government’s strategy of adopting different subsidies (consumers, retailers, manufacturers or third-party recyclers). In this work, we use game theory to establish a price formula, and identify the factors affecting the profit of five closed-loop supply chain members. Through solution verification, the sales channel pricing, the recycling channel pricing and the channel member profit change of the closed-loop supply chain under different subsidy objects are compared after changing only one influencing factor. By providing a reference and suggesting how the government can control these factors, this study can assist the government to put subsidies in place, and optimize the operations of the closed-loop supply chain.

A collaborative scenario-based decision model for a disrupted dual-channel supply chain

Purpose Distribution systems usually utilize both traditional retailing channels in conjunction with e-channels. The purpose of this paper is to investigate a dual-channel supply chain, comprising a traditional retailing channel and an e-channel under disruption. By benchmarking against the centralized decision structure, the authors intend to propose a collaboration model to achieve channel coordination as well as more reliable decisions. Design/methodology/approach Four different channel disruption scenarios, with customers’ reaction toward disruptions, are examined, and then, optimal pricing decisions for both centralized and decentralized decision-making structures are extracted. Next, a collaboration mechanism based on the dominancy power of channel members is developed to entice all channel members to participate in channel coordination. By benchmarking the proposed collaboration model against both the decentralized/centralized structures a win–win solution is guaranteed for all channel members. In addition, the proposed model ensures more reliable decisions than the centralized structure, as it guarantees less fluctuated income levels. Findings This study shows, as the disruption probability grows, the channel profit decreases while the channel-retailing price increases. Furthermore, the exact alignment of the centralized decision-making approach and the proposed collaboration model is not achievable due to the problem infeasibility. Numerical experiments and sensitivity analyses benchmark the performance of the proposed collaboration mechanism against the centralized structure for the full alignment with centralized decision-making approach. Originality/value This study contributes to the channel conflict literature as jointly considers pricing decisions, disruptions and coordination. Further, consumers’ reaction toward disruption is analyzed through a transshipment agreement.

Coordination by quantity flexibility contract in a two-echelon supply chain system: Effect of outsourcing decisions

This paper investigates a two-echelon supply chain (SC) with one product and two members, including one manufacturer and one retailer under stochastic demand. A quantity flexibility (QF) contract is applied where the retailer is allowed to update its primary order both downwards and upwards to share overstocking and overproduction risks between both channel members. In the proposed QF model, it is possible for the manufacturer to outsource production based on a reservation fee. The manufacturer's decision variable is in-house/outsource amount while the retailer decides on order quantity. Numerical experiments and sensitivity analyses have been implemented on the contract parameters. The results indicate that outsourcing a fraction of production not only increases the profit of the supply chain but can also increase each member's profit.

Experimental investigation of high strength cold-formed channel sections in shear with rectangular and slotted web openings

Cold-formed steel channels with web openings in shear have been thoroughly investigated mainly with circular and square holes. However, web cut-outs are likely to be enlarged along the span length of members due to a limited web depth to provide more access for the building services in practice. The design of cold-formed sections with elongated web holes in shear was investigated and retained in the AISI S100–16 and the AS/NZS 4600:2018 using the empirical approach. This paper presents an experimental investigation of perforated channel sections with rectangular and slotted web openings in shear using a dual actuator test rig to minimise the effects of bending moments and obtain the predominantly shear capacity with an aspect ratio up to 2.0. The commercially available plain C-lipped channel sections with a depth of 200 mm and a thickness of 1.5 mm were chosen with varying sizes of central cut-outs. A new strategy for determination of the shear yield loads (Vy) together with the Vierendeel mechanism approach is presented in this study to propose a modified design for perforated channels with web openings having aspect ratios of holes up to 3.0 for the Direct Strength Method (DSM) of design of channel members in shear with elongated web openings. In addition, as required in the DSM method, the shear elastic buckling loads (Vcr) are extracted from the linear elastic buckling analyses using finite element method in this paper.

Tax or subsidy? An analysis of environmental policies in supply chains with retail competition

This paper investigates the impact of two environmental policies: emissions abatement subsidy and emissions tax, on a three-tier supply chain where the manufacturer distributes through competitive retailers and invests in emissions abatement manufacturing technology. The government pursues social welfare maximization, while the manufacturer and retailers are profit driven. We find that the subsidy policy offers the manufacturer greater incentives to abate pollution and yields higher profits for channel members; however, when emissions abatement is very costly and production emissions are highly damaging, the tax policy should be implemented, as the subsidy policy leads to lower social welfare and environmental performance. Interestingly, we show that the manufacturer has no incentive to improve emissions abatement efficiency if the environmental damage of its production is high under the subsidy policy or low under the tax policy. The manufacturer always welcomes more downstream entry under the subsidy policy but not necessarily under the tax policy; each retailer always fares worse with more competition. More competition enhances social welfare under the tax policy but not necessarily under the subsidy policy. Furthermore, caution should be exercised when adopting the subsidy policy, because a “hazard zone” exists where society suffers but does not under the tax policy.

Tripartite role of communications in channel relationships: Mitigating exchange hazards, reducing opportunism, and curtailing its ill effects on relationship performance

Mitigating channel members' opportunism is critical for supplier firms to maintain superior channel relationships and sustain relationship performance. Research in marketing channels suggests that supplier-channel member communication is vital for reducing information asymmetry and developing relational bonds in channel relationships. Building on that, in this research, we integrate information asymmetry and relationship-based views to articulate how communication, directly and indirectly, influences channel members' opportunism and curtail its ill effects on relationship performance. Based on the matched data from 239 supplier-distributor dyads, we find that communications (instrumental and social) have tripartite effects on channel outcomes, i.e., a) it directly reduces channel members' opportunism, b) weakens (negatively moderate) the positive effects of exchange hazards (antecedents) on opportunism and c) curtail the ill effects of opportunism on relationship performance. Additionally, we find that instrumental and social communications can have nuanced effects on channel members' opportunism. We provide newer insight into the role of communications in managing channel outcomes and present important theoretical and managerial implications.

Employing revenue sharing strategies when confronted with uncertain and promotion-sensitive demand

Revenue sharing (RS) refers to the distribution of income among stakeholders (e.g., manufacturers and retailers) in a business-to-business environment. This method is a widely employed marketing strategy in the video rental, telecoms, computer, sports, and music industries, among others. Promotional activities are also a popular method of stimulating sales. This study considers a decentralized supply chain, in which a manufacturer sells products to a retailer under conditions of uncertain and promotion-sensitive demand, using either a manufacturer or retailer promotion. The study aims to determine how RS affects the decision making and profits of both manufacturers and retailers. It seeks to uncover whether RS benefits channel members in the cases of manufacturer and retailer promotions. The results show that when the manufacturer promotes products to end customers, RS is an effective incentive for increasing the profits of manufacturers and retailers. However, retailers may be unwilling to share revenue when they undertake their own promotional activities based on different demand function settings. The findings add novel insights to the literature of management, which can be used by business decision makers.

Valuable strategy and firm performance in the O2O competition

When the manufacturer opens an online channel to compete with its traditional retailer, what valuable strategy can be utilized to alleviate the O2O (online to offline) competition and conflict and improve the performances of all channel members? Our research addresses this important question by initiating an innovative strategy considering the retailer's sales effort and the manufacturer's support in local advertising simultaneously in a manufacturer – retailer O2O supply chain. Our results show that although the retailer's sales effort helps improve the channel coordination and leads to a win-win solution for both the manufacturer and the retailer, investing in both the retailer's sales effort and manufacturer's support in local advertising is a more effective strategy to be employed to coordinate the O2O distribution and achieve higher profits for all parties in the manufacturer - retailer supply chain. In addition, our results also show that compared to the simultaneous mode, the Stackelberg leader-follower mode provides no competitive advantage to the manufacturer or the retailer when the retailer's sales effort and manufacturer's support in local advertising strategy is implemented to coordinate the O2O distributions.

When manufacturers compete with their channel members: An experiential learning project for marketing channels students

This paper describes an experiential learning project for students enrolled in a Marketing Channels course. Students conducted small scale research studies involving manufacturers and their channel members by investigating behavior related to electronic marketing channels and pricing practices. Students developed hypotheses based on their channel management expertise and then collected primary data to test the hypotheses. The research efforts investigated the use of dual channel pricing by consumer product manufacturers in the U.S. market. The project served as the culminating experience for the course. Assessment feedback received from the students showed that the project was a beneficial addition to the course.

Co-production strategy, retail competition, and market segmentation

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of manufacturers’ co-production strategy on market segmentation and channel performance under retail competition.Design/methodology/approachIt differs from previous empirical studies by primarily focusing on the increment in consumer value accompanying co-production. The authors establish a game-theoretical model to analyze the impact of co-production on market segmentation and the profitability of channel members in a competitive retail environment.FindingsThe results reveal that manufacturers introducing co-production expand market coverage and benefit all channel members, when the intensity of competition is sufficiently high, especially for retailers with low-quality levels, who are out of the market without co-production. Furthermore, with the increase in customer valuation through co-production, employing a co-production strategy is always a dominant strategy for manufacturers.Research limitations/implicationsFirst, although the authors assume a monopoly manufacturer and two duopoly retailers, adding competition between manufacturers should enrich the model. Multiple products with vertical or horizontal differentiation could also be introduced into the model. Second, the authors use the multiplicative utility function to model the value co-creation effect on consumers; however, different utility functions may yield significantly different results and implications. Third, the authors model a one-shot game in a single product selling period; future studies may employ multi-period games to obtain further insight into co-production strategy. Finally, the model assumes that all consumers are homogenous in the extent of value creation and hassle cost. Future research may find it interesting to consider heterogeneity in these characteristics.Practical implicationsThe business world today already sees the power of leadership in a supply chain to have shifted from manufacturers to retail giants such as Walmart, Home Depot and Best Buy. The findings also propose a new route to counteract the emergence and rise of dominant retailers. On the other hand, with the application of new technology in the retail industry such as 3D avatar, AR/VR, Internet of Things, consumers are more likely to participate in various forms of co-production activities, how to execute the co-production strategy has become more and more important for managers.Social implicationsThe conclusion of this study points out the way to achieve a win–win outcome under which both channel members including manufacturer and retailers and consumers can be better off, that is, the channel can reach Pareto improvement, so the social welfare is increased accordingly.Originality/valueThe authors propose an analytical framework to examine the effects of co-production and competition on market segmentation and profitability, and prove that co-production is a powerful marketing tool that can attract consumers and increase profitability, which manufacturers can incorporate into their products even in a competitive environment.

Effect of buyback price on channel’s decision parameters for manufacturer-led close loop dual supply chain

The objective of this study is to evaluate the effect of self and cross channel’s buyback price on demand, optimum selling price and collection rate for different manufacturer-led close loop dual supply chain structures using Stackelberg game approach. This study considers a dual channel made up of an e-tail as well as a conventional retail channel, and both of these channel members are responsible for forward selling and return collecting practices. A linear model is developed for profit maximization under the aim of optimum selling price and collection rate. A backward induction method is used to find out the optimum values of selling price and collection rate as a function of buyback price. Further, a numerical analysis is done to evaluate the effect of self and cross channel’s buyback price on decision parameters (each channel’s demand, optimum selling price and collection rate). The result shows that, the decision parameters are correlated with the buyback price. If a channel member increase the offered buyback price then it will lead to; an increase in demand at self-channel, decline the demand at the cross channel, raise in the optimum selling price at self-channel, and decline in the collection rate at the cross channel. Further, cross channel’s optimum selling price and self-channel’s collection rate is dependent on self-channel’s buyback price, but the change is based on channel structure. In addition, the results help to gauge the effect of buyback on optimum selling price, demand and collection rate. The study assists channel partners to vary the data set values for the prediction of the results and to compare the results without implementation.

Canonical Transient Potential Receptor-3 Channels in Normal and Diseased Airway Smooth Muscle Cells.

All seven canonical transient potential receptor (TRPC1-7) channel members are expressed in mammalian airway smooth muscle cells (ASMCs). Among this family, TRPC3 channel plays an important role in the control of the resting [Ca2+]i and agonist-induced increase in [Ca2+]i. This channel is significantly upregulated in molecular expression and functional activity in airway diseases. The upregulated channel significantly augments the resting [Ca2+]i and agonist-induced increase in [Ca2+]i, thereby exerting a direct and essential effect in airway hyperresponsiveness. The increased TRPC3 channel-mediated Ca2+ signaling also results in the transcription factor nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) activation via protein kinase C-α (PKCα)-dependent inhibitor of NFκB-α (IκBα) and calcineurin-dependent IκBβ signaling pathways, which upregulates cyclin-D1 expression and causes cell proliferation, leading to airway remodeling. TRPC3 channel may further interact with intracellular release Ca2+ channels, Orai channels and Ca2+-sensing stromal interaction molecules, mediating important cellular responses in ASMCs and the development of airway diseases.