IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ejores/v258y2017i2p581-589.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

To join or not to join group purchasing organization: A vendor's decision

Author

Listed:
  • Yang, Yu-Chen
  • Cheng, Hsing Kenneth
  • Ding, Chao
  • Li, Shengli

Abstract

A group purchasing organization (GPO) is an entity that utilizes collective buying power to obtain significant discounts from vendors, which can be suppliers, distributors and manufacturers. In the healthcare sector, it is reported that about 72% of hospital purchases are settled through GPO contracts. This paper seeks to examine two critical questions that vendors face: (1) business strategy: does partnering with a GPO to offer quantity discounts make strategic sense? And, if so, (2) pricing policy: what price will yield optimal, maximum profits in such a relationship? Using a linear quantity discount scheme, we find that the size of GPO members strongly influences the vendor's decision to contract (or not) with the GPO. Furthermore, we show that vendors should price their products close to the reservation prices of the GPO members if the vendors indeed wish to pursue such partnerships.

Suggested Citation

  • Yang, Yu-Chen & Cheng, Hsing Kenneth & Ding, Chao & Li, Shengli, 2017. "To join or not to join group purchasing organization: A vendor's decision," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 258(2), pages 581-589.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:258:y:2017:i:2:p:581-589
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2016.08.069
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0377221716307081
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ejor.2016.08.069?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kevin Weng, Z., 1995. "Modeling quantity discounts under general price-sensitive demand functions: Optimal policies and relationships," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 86(2), pages 300-314, October.
    2. Carl Shapiro, 1983. "Optimal Pricing of Experience Goods," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 14(2), pages 497-507, Autumn.
    3. Varian, Hal R, 1980. "A Model of Sales," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(4), pages 651-659, September.
    4. James P. Monahan, 1984. "A Quantity Discount Pricing Model to Increase Vendor Profits," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(6), pages 720-726, June.
    5. Shin, Hojung & Benton, W.C., 2007. "A quantity discount approach to supply chain coordination," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 180(2), pages 601-616, July.
    6. Scott A. Neslin & Caroline Henderson & John Quelch, 1985. "Consumer Promotions and the Acceleration of Product Purchases," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 4(2), pages 147-165.
    7. Li, Xiuhui & Wang, Qinan, 2007. "Coordination mechanisms of supply chain systems," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 179(1), pages 1-16, May.
    8. Dennis E. Smallwood & John Conlisk, 1979. "Product Quality in Markets Where Consumers are Imperfectly Informed," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 93(1), pages 1-23.
    9. Sarmah, S.P. & Acharya, D. & Goyal, S.K., 2006. "Buyer vendor coordination models in supply chain management," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 175(1), pages 1-15, November.
    10. Grieger, Martin, 2003. "Electronic marketplaces: A literature review and a call for supply chain management research," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 144(2), pages 280-294, January.
    11. Elena Belavina & Karan Girotra, 2012. "The Relational Advantages of Intermediation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(9), pages 1614-1631, September.
    12. Viswanathan, S. & Wang, Qinan, 2003. "Discount pricing decisions in distribution channels with price-sensitive demand," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 149(3), pages 571-587, September.
    13. Krishnan S. Anand & Ravi Aron, 2003. "Group Buying on the Web: A Comparison of Price-Discovery Mechanisms," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 49(11), pages 1546-1562, November.
    14. Qiaohai (Joice) Hu & Leroy B. Schwarz & Nelson A. Uhan, 2012. "The Impact of Group Purchasing Organizations on Healthcare-Product Supply Chains," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 14(1), pages 7-23, January.
    15. Gary Biglaiser, 1993. "Middlemen as Experts," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 24(2), pages 212-223, Summer.
    16. Elodie Adida & Nitin Bakshi & Victor DeMiguel, 2016. "Supplier Capacity and Intermediary Profits: Can Less Be More?," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 25(4), pages 630-646, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Oktay Karabağ & Barış Tan, 2018. "Analysis of a group purchasing organization under demand and price uncertainty," Flexible Services and Manufacturing Journal, Springer, vol. 30(4), pages 844-883, December.
    2. Bruno Alves-Maciel & Ruben A. Proano, 2024. "Enhancing affordability and profit in a non-cooperative, coordinated, hypothetical pediatric vaccine market via sequential optimization," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 27(3), pages 436-457, September.
    3. Lang Xiong & Tingting Xiao & Fuhai Nie, 2022. "Group Buying of Competing Retailers with Strategic Inventory," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-18, October.
    4. Dongshuang Hou & Aymeric Lardon & Hao Sun, 2020. "On the Internal and External Stability of Coalitions and Application to Group Purchasing Organizations," Working Papers halshs-02860639, HAL.
    5. Grzegorz Zimon & Dominik Zimon, 2020. "Quality Management Systems and Working Capital SMEs in GPO—A Case of Poland," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-13, October.
    6. Peng, Wenli & Merckx, Gilles & Chaturvedi, Aadhaar & Chevalier, Philippe, 2022. "Purchasing together or alone? Tradeoffs for information sharing," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 252(C).
    7. Grzegorz Zimon & Vitalina Babenko & Beata Sadowska & Katarzyna Chudy-Laskowska & Blanka Gosik, 2021. "Inventory Management in SMEs Operating in Polish Group Purchasing Organizations during the COVID-19 Pandemic," Risks, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-16, April.
    8. In, Joonhwan & Bradley, Randy V. & Bichescu, Bogdan C. & Smith, Antoinette L., 2019. "Breaking the chain: GPO changes and hospital supply cost efficiency," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 218(C), pages 297-307.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hsieh, Chung-Chi & Liu, Yu-Te & Wang, Wei-Ming, 2010. "Coordinating ordering and pricing decisions in a two-stage distribution system with price-sensitive demand through short-term discounting," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 207(1), pages 142-151, November.
    2. Beullens, Patrick, 2014. "Revisiting foundations in lot sizing—Connections between Harris, Crowther, Monahan, and Clark," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 68-81.
    3. Mutlu, Fatih & Çetinkaya, Sıla, 2020. "Supplier–carrier–buyer channels: Contractual pricing for a carrier serving a supplier–buyer partnership," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 230(C).
    4. Duan, Lisha & Ventura, José A., 2019. "A Dynamic Supplier Selection and Inventory Management Model for a Serial Supply Chain with a Novel Supplier Price Break Scheme and Flexible Time Periods," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 272(3), pages 979-998.
    5. Salma Karray & Chirag Surti, 2016. "Channel coordination with quantity discounts and/or cooperative advertising," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(17), pages 5317-5335, September.
    6. Chen, Jing, 2011. "Returns with wholesale-price-discount contract in a newsvendor problem," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(1), pages 104-111, March.
    7. Mandal, Prasenjit & Jain, Tarun, 2023. "When do competing retailers benefit from sourcing through an intermediary?," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 266(C).
    8. Yu-Jen Lin & Chia-Huei Ho, 2011. "Integrated inventory model with quantity discount and price-sensitive demand," TOP: An Official Journal of the Spanish Society of Statistics and Operations Research, Springer;Sociedad de Estadística e Investigación Operativa, vol. 19(1), pages 177-188, July.
    9. Sarmah, S.P. & Acharya, D. & Goyal, S.K., 2006. "Buyer vendor coordination models in supply chain management," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 175(1), pages 1-15, November.
    10. Li, Li & Jiang, Li, 2022. "Saving costs and improving selling through competitor cooperation in sourcing," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 302(3), pages 970-982.
    11. Halati, Abolhassan & He, Yuanjie, 2010. "Analysis of supply chains with quantity based fixed incentives," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 202(1), pages 214-222, April.
    12. Sarmah, S.P. & Acharya, D. & Goyal, S.K., 2007. "Coordination and profit sharing between a manufacturer and a buyer with target profit under credit option," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 182(3), pages 1469-1478, November.
    13. Zhou, Maosen & Dan, Bin & Ma, Songxuan & Zhang, Xumei, 2017. "Supply chain coordination with information sharing: The informational advantage of GPOs," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 256(3), pages 785-802.
    14. Chan, Chi Kin & Lee, Y.C.E., 2012. "A co-ordination model combining incentive scheme and co-ordination policy for a single-vendor–multi-buyer supply chain," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(1), pages 136-143.
    15. Ke, Ginger Y. & Bookbinder, James H., 2018. "Coordinating the discount policies for retailer, wholesaler, and less-than-truckload carrier under price-sensitive demand: A tri-level optimization approach," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 82-100.
    16. Yingxiao Li & Jianheng Zhou, 2022. "Sustainable Supplier’s Equilibrium Discount Strategy under Random Demand," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-12, April.
    17. Tsai, Jung-Fa, 2007. "An optimization approach for supply chain management models with quantity discount policy," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 177(2), pages 982-994, March.
    18. Liang, Zhiyuan & Tang, Yili & Yu, Jianing & Wang, Yacan, 2024. "A collective incentive strategy to manage ridership rebound and consumer surplus in mass transit systems," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    19. Chaharsooghi, S. Kamal & Heydari, Jafar, 2010. "Supply chain coordination for the joint determination of order quantity and reorder point using credit option," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 204(1), pages 86-95, July.
    20. Xin Li & Kenan Li & Yongjian Li, 2023. "Platform Operations under Dual-Channel Catering Supply Chain," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-33, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:258:y:2017:i:2:p:581-589. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/eor .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.