An efficient multi-attribute multi-item auction mechanism with ex-ante and ex-post satisfaction for 4PL transportation service procurement

Na Yuan, Xiaohu Qian, Min Huang (Corresponding Author), Haiming Liang, Andrew Wai Hung Ip, Kai Leung Yung

Research output: Journal article publicationJournal articleAcademic researchpeer-review

Abstract

Reverse auction is an effective tool for a 4PL to purchase transportation services. This paper investigated a new transportation services procurement problem for 4PL, which involves three features: the 4PL’s loss-averse behavior, price and non-price attributes, and multiple transportation requests. An efficient multi-attribute multi-item reverse auction mechanism considering the 4PL ex-ante and ex-post satisfaction (EES-MMRA) is proposed to purchase transportation services for the 4PL. In the EES-MMRA, integrating the allocation rule with the 4PL ex-ante satisfaction, a 0-1 programming model is constructed to determine winning 3PLs and obtain efficient allocations. Then, a payment rule considering the 4PL ex-post satisfaction is established to ensure truthful bidding of 3PLs. And we discuss some desirable properties (e.g., incentive compatibility, individual rationality, efficiency, and budget balance properties) to justify the EES-MMRA mechanism, subsequently. Next, several numerical experiments are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness and applicability of the EES-MMRA mechanism. Furthermore, sensitivity analysis presents the influences of the weights of the non-price attributes, risk attitude coefficients, and loss aversion coefficients. Finally, we conduct comparison analysis to show the advantages of the EES-MMRA mechanism over the known Vickrey–Clark–Groves (P-VCG) mechanism.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)571-588
Number of pages18
JournalInternational Journal of Industrial Engineering Computations
Volume14
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jun 2023

Keywords

  • auction
  • Efficient multi-attribute reverse
  • Ex-ante and ex-post satisfaction
  • Mechanism design
  • procurement
  • Transportation service

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

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