IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/navres/v55y2008i7p704-721.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Competitive location and capacity decisions for firms serving time‐sensitive customers

Author

Listed:
  • Anthony M. Kwasnica
  • Euthemia Stavrulaki

Abstract

In this article we explore how two competing firms locate and set capacities to serve time‐sensitive customers. Because customers are time‐sensitive, they may decline to place an order from either competitor if their expected waiting time is large. We develop a two‐stage game where firms set capacities and then locations, and show that three types of subgame perfect equilibria are possible: local monopoly (in which each customer is served by a single firm, but some customers may be left unserved), constrained local monopoly (in which firms serve the entire interval of customers but do not compete with each other), and constrained competition (in which firms also serve the entire interval of customers, but now compete for some customers). We perform a comparative statics analysis to illustrate differences in the equilibrium behavior of a duopolist and a coordinated monopolist. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2008

Suggested Citation

  • Anthony M. Kwasnica & Euthemia Stavrulaki, 2008. "Competitive location and capacity decisions for firms serving time‐sensitive customers," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 55(7), pages 704-721, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:navres:v:55:y:2008:i:7:p:704-721
    DOI: 10.1002/nav.20316
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/nav.20316
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/nav.20316?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lederer, Phillip J & Hurter, Arthur P, Jr, 1986. "Competition of Firms: Discriminatory Pricing and Location," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 54(3), pages 623-640, May.
    2. Kelvin Lancaster, 1990. "The Economics of Product Variety: A Survey," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 9(3), pages 189-206.
    3. Haim Mendelson & Seungjin Whang, 1990. "Optimal Incentive-Compatible Priority Pricing for the M/M/1 Queue," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 38(5), pages 870-883, October.
    4. Suwala, Wojciech & Labys, Walter C., 2002. "Market transition and regional adjustments in the Polish coal industry," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 285-303, May.
    5. Lode Li & Yew Sing Lee, 1994. "Pricing and Delivery-Time Performance in a Competitive Environment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 40(5), pages 633-646, May.
    6. Albert Y. Ha, 1998. "Incentive-Compatible Pricing for a Service Facility with Joint Production and Congestion Externalities," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 44(12-Part-1), pages 1623-1636, December.
    7. Anthony Downs, 1957. "An Economic Theory of Political Action in a Democracy," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 65(2), pages 135-135.
    8. Tamer Boyaci & Saibal Ray, 2003. "Product Differentiation and Capacity Cost Interaction in Time and Price Sensitive Markets," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 5(1), pages 18-36, May.
    9. Christopher M. Rump & Shaler Stidham, 1998. "Stability and Chaos in Input Pricing for a Service Facility with Adaptive Customer Response to Congestion," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 44(2), pages 246-261, February.
    10. Shaler Stidham, 1992. "Pricing and Capacity Decisions for a Service Facility: Stability and Multiple Local Optima," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 38(8), pages 1121-1139, August.
    11. H. A. Eiselt & Gilbert Laporte & Jacques-François Thisse, 1993. "Competitive Location Models: A Framework and Bibliography," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(1), pages 44-54, February.
    12. Jan A. Van Mieghem, 2000. "Price and Service Discrimination in Queuing Systems: Incentive Compatibility of Gc\mu Scheduling," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 46(9), pages 1249-1267, September.
    13. Ehud Kalai & Morton I. Kamien & Michael Rubinovitch, 1992. "Optimal Service Speeds in a Competitive Environment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 38(8), pages 1154-1163, August.
    14. Sanjeev Dewan & Haim Mendelson, 1990. "User Delay Costs and Internal Pricing for a Service Facility," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 36(12), pages 1502-1517, December.
    15. A. P. Lerner & H. W. Singer, 1937. "Some Notes on Duopoly and Spatial Competition," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 45(2), pages 145-145.
    16. Phillip J. Lederer & Lode Li, 1997. "Pricing, Production, Scheduling, and Delivery-Time Competition," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 45(3), pages 407-420, June.
    17. Stephen M. Gilbert & Z. Kevin Weng, 1998. "Incentive Effects Favor Nonconsolidating Queues in a Service System: The Principal--Agent Perspective," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 44(12-Part-1), pages 1662-1669, December.
    18. Gérard P. Cachon & Patrick T. Harker, 2002. "Competition and Outsourcing with Scale Economies," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 48(10), pages 1314-1333, October.
    19. Economides, Nicholas, 1984. "The principle of minimum differentiation revisited," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 345-368, April.
    20. Reitman, David, 1991. "Endogenous Quality Differentiation in Congested Markets," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(6), pages 621-647, December.
    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. Hassin, Refael & Nowik, Irit & Shaki, Yair Y., 2018. "On the price of anarchy in a single-server queue with heterogeneous service valuations induced by travel costs," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 265(2), pages 580-588.
    2. Xu Guan & Ying‐Ju Chen, 2016. "Timing of information acquisition in a competitive environment," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 63(1), pages 3-22, February.
    3. Chen, Zhiyuan & Ye, Hanrui & Liu, Bingxi & Xue, Weili, 2021. "Analysis of road capacity and franchise price decision delegation in toll road BOT project," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    4. Jacob, Jagan, 2020. "Should competing firms cooperate to reduce congestion?," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    5. Jianpei Wen & Hanyu Jiang & Jie Song, 2019. "A Stochastic Queueing Model for Capacity Allocation in the Hierarchical Healthcare Delivery System," Asia-Pacific Journal of Operational Research (APJOR), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 36(01), pages 1-24, February.

    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. Gregory Dobson & Euthemia Stavrulaki, 2007. "Simultaneous price, location, and capacity decisions on a line of time‐sensitive customers," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 54(1), pages 1-10, February.
    2. Gérard P. Cachon & Patrick T. Harker, 2002. "Competition and Outsourcing with Scale Economies," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 48(10), pages 1314-1333, October.
    3. Mei Xue & Patrick T. Harker, 2003. "Service Co-Production, Customer Efficiency and Market Competition," Center for Financial Institutions Working Papers 03-03, Wharton School Center for Financial Institutions, University of Pennsylvania.
    4. Ryan W. Buell & Dennis Campbell & Frances X. Frei, 2016. "How Do Customers Respond to Increased Service Quality Competition?," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 18(4), pages 585-607, October.
    5. Weixin Shang & Liming Liu, 2011. "Promised Delivery Time and Capacity Games in Time-Based Competition," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 57(3), pages 599-610, March.
    6. Philipp Afèche & Haim Mendelson, 2004. "Pricing and Priority Auctions in Queueing Systems with a Generalized Delay Cost Structure," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 50(7), pages 869-882, July.
    7. Pangburn, Michael S. & Stavrulaki, Euthemia, 2008. "Capacity and price setting for dispersed, time-sensitive customer segments," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 184(3), pages 1100-1121, February.
    8. So, Kut C. & Song, Jing-Sheng, 1998. "Price, delivery time guarantees and capacity selection," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 111(1), pages 28-49, November.
    9. Krishnan S. Anand & M. Faz{i}l Paç & Senthil Veeraraghavan, 2011. "Quality-Speed Conundrum: Trade-offs in Customer-Intensive Services," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 57(1), pages 40-56, January.
    10. Liming Liu & Mahmut Parlar & Stuart X. Zhu, 2007. "Pricing and Lead Time Decisions in Decentralized Supply Chains," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 53(5), pages 713-725, May.
    11. Philipp Afèche & Opher Baron & Yoav Kerner, 2013. "Pricing Time-Sensitive Services Based on Realized Performance," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 15(3), pages 492-506, July.
    12. Albert Y. Ha & Lode Li & Shu-Ming Ng, 2003. "Price and Delivery Logistics Competition in a Supply Chain," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 49(9), pages 1139-1153, September.
    13. Tamer Boyaci & Saibal Ray, 2003. "Product Differentiation and Capacity Cost Interaction in Time and Price Sensitive Markets," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 5(1), pages 18-36, May.
    14. Kut C. So, 2000. "Price and Time Competition for Service Delivery," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 2(4), pages 392-409, April.
    15. Noah Gans, 2002. "Customer Loyalty and Supplier Quality Competition," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 48(2), pages 207-221, February.
    16. Jalili Marand, Ata & Li, Hongyan & Thorstenson, Anders, 2019. "Joint inventory control and pricing in a service-inventory system," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 209(C), pages 78-91.
    17. Gad Allon & Awi Federgruen, 2008. "Service Competition with General Queueing Facilities," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 56(4), pages 827-849, August.
    18. Erica L. Plambeck, 2004. "Optimal Leadtime Differentiation via Diffusion Approximations," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 52(2), pages 213-228, April.
    19. Jain, Aditya & Bala, Ram, 2018. "Differentiated or integrated: Capacity and service level choice for differentiated products," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 266(3), pages 1025-1037.
    20. Drezner, Zvi & Eiselt, H.A., 2024. "Competitive location models: A review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 316(1), pages 5-18.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:wly:navres:v:55:y:2008:i:7:p:704-721. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1002/(ISSN)1520-6750 .

    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.