Return and refund policy for product and core service bundling in the dual-channel supply chain

Zichen Zhang, Xinggang Luo, Chun Kit Kwong, Jiafu Tang, Yang Yu

Research output: Journal article publicationJournal articleAcademic researchpeer-review

39 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Recently, manufacturers have increasingly begun to sell products bundled with core services. However, customers are inconvenienced by individually returning the product or refunding the service after they have purchased a bundle. This paper presents a return and refund policy under two-stage demand uncertainty (uncertainty at time 0 and inherent uncertainty), for products bundled with core services in the dual-channel supply chain. Consumers can use the direct channel to return the default product-service bundle. In contrast, consumers in the retail channel can unsubscribe from the retailer's diverse core service by first receiving an unused service refund; the retailer then returns the product to the manufacturer. We use an approximate algorithm to solve for the optimal product quantity in the retail channel, demonstrating that the proportional marginal profit has a greater positive influence on the retailer's profit, and especially for the demand with a higher mean and lower variance.
Original languageEnglish
JournalInternational Transactions in Operational Research
DOIs
Publication statusAccepted/In press - 1 Jan 2017

Keywords

  • Bundling
  • Return
  • Uncertainty

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Business and International Management
  • Computer Science Applications
  • Strategy and Management
  • Management Science and Operations Research
  • Management of Technology and Innovation

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