Facing competition from manufacturers' online direct channels, how retailers make sales channel decisions to increase consumer stickiness has become the core concern of the industry and academia. Empirical research showed that delivery lead time is a key factor that affects consumers' preference for online channels. To analyze the impact of consumer delivery time preference on channel selection and pricing strategy of retailers, consumer delivery lead time preference function was improved from a linear function to an exponential function and consumer demand under the mixed dual-channel supply chain of manufacturer and retailer was derived. Then, the Stackelberg game models under different channel strategies of retailer were established and solved. Results show that consumer preference for delivery lead time has four implications on the channel decision of retailers under manufacturer encroachment in the dual-channel supply chain. First, the dual retail channels strategy is the optimal choice for retailers, and the profit margins that a retailer obtains from dual retail channels supply chain and single online retail channel supply chain will increase as consumers' delivery lead time preference coefficient increases. Second, the optimal pricing of online retail channel and offline retail channel is positively related to consumers' delivery lead time preference coefficient. By contrast, the optimal pricing of online direct channel is negatively related to consumers' delivery lead time preference coefficient. Third, the optimal pricing of online retail channel is higher than that of offline retail and online direct channels. Fourth, a retailer and a manufacturer can adopt a compensation-based whole price contract to address the conflict brought about by the optimal channel choice of the retailer. This study introduces consumer delivery lead time preference into retailer channel decision making and provides a theoretical reference for retailer's mixed channel construction in practice.

In a supply chain, customers have heterogeneity preferences due to channel stickiness and brand stickiness. The complicated behaviors of different customers (i.e., target customers and experience customers) results can lead to channel cannibalization, which increases the difficulties of manufacturers choosing between traditional channel and dual-channel supply chain. Therefore, to examine this claim more carefully, we develop Stackelberg game models to analyze channel selection decisions under the monopoly competition and the duopoly competition. The equilibrium pricing and quality strategies are compared in the dual-channel supply chain with that in the traditional channel and the single online channel. Results show that the channel cannibalism is mainly brought on by the behaviors of the target customers. The corresponding negative effects will be reduced through the flexible pricing and quality strategies, which depend on the consumer types, channel preferences, and brand preferences. Under the monopoly competition, the single online channel is not the dominant option for the monopolistic manufacturer since the expected profits of the experiential customers cannot be obtained to the utmost. When the commissions of the e-commerce platform commissions are low, the manufacturer prefers to the low-quality strategy to prevent the experience customers hemorrhaging from the physical retail channel. With the commissions increasing, the manufacturer adopts the high-quality strategy to attract the customers to the e-commerce platforms, and decrease the channel cannibalization. When the efficiency of the direct online sale is high or the commissions of the e-commerce platforms are lower than the given threshold, the manufacturer prefers to the dual-channel supply chain. Moreover, the less customers the brand stickiness, the greater the value of profits of the manufacturer in the dual-channel supply chain.

No abstract

No abstract

Promoting the usage of sustainable commuting modes requires in-depth understanding about residents’ commuting mode choice behavior. This study presents an empirical study to investigate the relationship between the built environment and commuting mode choice using CLDS 2016 cross-city questionnaire data. Several multilevel multinomial logit models including the null model, base model, and moderating effect model are developed to analyze the effects of built environments at both city and neighborhood levels on commuting mode choice. Estimation results of the null model reveal the significant spatial heterogeneities in commuting mode choice across different cities and different neighborhoods within a specific city. We then explore the potential built environment variables yielding the spatial heterogeneity via the base model. Results show that the built environment at the city level (including the urbanization rate, number of public transportation vehicles, metro operating mileage, GDP, city population density, and road area per capita) and neighborhood level (including neighborhood population density, air quality, neighborhood location, and land use diversity) could partially explain the spatial heterogeneities in commuting mode choice. In addition, the moderating effects of these built environments on the link between commuting time and commuting mode choice are examined. Results imply that the urbanization rate and neighborhood population density moderate the effect of commuting time on choosing nonmotorized modes, while neighborhood location moderates the effect of commuting time on choosing public transit. Also, the mode shares of nonmotorized mode and public transit under different levels of commuting time are estimated in different built environment contexts. The findings of this study are expected to provide serviceable support for urban planning and transportation policy making.