题目：Online Manufacturer Referral to Heterogeneous Retailers
报告人：蔡港树教授（Santa Clara University）
时间：6月18日上午10:15
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报告摘要： Since the development of the Internet, thousands of manufacturers have been referring consumers visiting their websites to some or all of their retailers. Through a model with one manufacturer and two heterogeneous retailers, we investigate whether it is an equilibrium for the manufacturer to refer consumers exclusively to a retailer or nonexclusively to both retailers. Our analysis indicates that nonexclusive referral is the manufacturer’s equilibrium choice, if the referral segment market size is sufficiently large; otherwise, exclusive referral is the equilibrium choice.  In exclusive referral, the manufacturer would refer consumers to the more cost-efficient and smaller retailer.  In the presence of infomediary referral, it is less likely for both exclusive and nonexclusive referrals to be an equilibrium, as the infomediary referral segment grows. We also show our qualitative results are robust even if there were price discrimination among consumers, referral position disparity, local consumers, and asymmetric referral market sizes.
 Keyword:  manufacturer referral; heterogeneous retailers; channel competition; game theory
 
报告人简历：
Bio: Dr. Gangshu Cai (蔡港树) is a tenured associate professor in Operations Management and Information Systems at Santa Clara University. He is the Faculty Director of Graduate Business Programs of Leavey School of Business. Dr. Cai received his B.S. in physics from Peking University and his M.S. in business statistics and economics from the Guanghua School of Management at Peking University, and earned his Ph.D. in operations research from North Carolina State University. His research has been financially supported by the National Science Foundation of U.S.A. and the National Natural Science Foundation of China. He has published in Marketing Science, Production and Operations Management, Journal of Retailing, and Decision Sciences. He is the recipient of the Best Paper Award of Fifth International Conference on Electronic Commerce, Kansas State University President’s Faculty Development Award, CBA Fellowship, CBA Outstanding Contributions in Research Award, and Santa Clara University Dean's Award for Scholarship Excellence. He has also won a number of teaching awards in both public and private universities, including Ralph Reitz Outstanding Teaching Award in Kansas State University (one per year in the business school) and Leavey Impact Award for Teaching  (at most one per year in the business school) and multiple Dean's Award for Teaching Excellence in Santa Clara University. He is an Associate Editor and guest Senior Editor of Decision Sciences Journal and Editorial Board Member of Production and Operations Management Journal.