Search

Improving logistics levels requires mobilizing more resources, resulting in more carbon emissions. We consider a manufacturer selling its products through an e-commerce platform that sells them to customers (reselling) or directly accessing customers viathe platform by paying a proportional fee (agency selling). Under reselling, the manufacturer first sets a wholesale price and then the platform sets a retail price and a logistics level. Under agency selling, if using third-party logistics, the manufacturer sets the retail price and logistics level. When using the platform logistics, the manufacturer sets the retail price and the platform sets the logistics level; moreover, the manufacturer bears part of the logistics cost. This study examines the manufacturer’s sales model and logistics selection and its impact on the platform’s profit and consumer surplus. We find that if the logistics-improving efficiency is sufficiently high (low), the manufacturer should employ reselling (agency selling and third-party logistics) when the manufacturer bears a sufficient small or large part of the logistics cost. However, regardless of the size of the logistics-improving efficiency, the manufacturer should adopt agency selling and platform logistics when the logistics cost borne by the manufacturer is intermediate. If consumers become more sensitive to carbon emission levels, the manufacturer is less (more) likely to adopt the reselling model and platform logistics (agency selling model and platform logistics). Choosing reselling or agency selling and platform logistics, or agency selling and third-party logistics could benefit both the platform and consumers, generating a “win-win-win” outcome.

In the context of China’s vigorous implementation of mixed-ownership reforms, mergers between state-owned enterprises and private enterprises have become more frequent. This paper examines the impact of these horizontal mergers between enterprises of different ownership on carbon emissions, profits, social welfare, and consumer surplus. Before the merger, a private enterprise and an state-owned enterprise that invest in green technology to produce two products and compete on prices and carbon reductions are considered. The private (state-owned) enterprise aims to maximize profit (social welfare). After the merger, the private and state-owned enterprises merge into one firm. Due to economies of scale, the post-merger enterprise can enjoy cost savings from green technology investment. In line with the practice that merger sponsors may be different, two scenarios where the post-merger enterprise is still either a PE or an SOE are considered. The study shows that, prior to the merger, the state-owned enterprise contributes more (less) carbon emissions reduction than the private enterprise if the green technology investment cost is high (low). Moreover, if the cost saving is small (large), the merger always lowers (increases) the emission reduction. Additionally, when the post-merger enterprise is an state-owned enterprise (private enterprise), the post-merger profit is always lower (higher) than the total premerger profits. Nevertheless, if either the post-merger is an state-owned enterprise or private enterprise, the post-merger social welfare and consumer surplus could be higher than those of their premerger counterparts. We conduct a large number of numerical experiments to verify the robustness of our results and find that the proportion of environment, economy and society in sustainability will affect the performance of different merger models. Finally, we conduct a case study to prove the practicality of our results.

This study examines a retailer’s decision to share market demand information in a supply chain wherein a supplier sells a product with a certain level of quality to a retailer, who then resells it to the end consumer. It also considers whether a supplier should establish a direct selling channel by incurring a fixed entry cost to compete with the retail channel. Although conventional wisdom indicates that a retailer may voluntarily disclose information under ex-ante supplier encroachment, our results show how and why a retailer may share information with the supplier who encroaches on the retail market with a decision on quality. Specifically, our findings reveal that information sharing is beneficial to the retailer when the quality cost coefficient is low and entry cost is relatively low, even under encroachment by the supplier. Moreover, the retailer may prefer to disclose demand information to the supplier if the quality cost coefficient is low, even when the entry cost is high, under non-encroachment. Interestingly, we found that the supplier prefers to encroach if the retailer shares demand information when the entry cost is moderate. Further, we found that the retailer has a higher incentive to share information under supplier encroachment compared with non-encroachment. These results are in sharp contrast with the extant literature.

In recent years, two pricing policies are commonly adopted by on-demand delivery service platforms (e.g., Meituan PaoTui and Costco) that provide delivery services to heterogeneous customers via self-scheduling providers. One called “transaction-based” pricing policy (TBPP) allows the platforms to determine a per-service wage paid to providers and a price charged to customers for each transaction. The other one called “membership-based” pricing policy (MBPP) also allows the platforms to announce a wage paid to providers but charge customers a membership fee for using an unlimited number of the services in a certain period (e.g., one month). This paper considers an on-demand delivery service platform with self-scheduling providers and two classes of customers (i.e., regular and frequent customers). We aim to analyze and compare the platform’s profits and welfare performances generated by the two pricing policies. If the number of regular customers and their preference for TBPP equal the number of frequent customers and their preference for MBPP, respectively, we show that compared with the MBPP, employing the TBPP is beneficial for the platform but is detrimental for customers and providers. However, adopting the MBPP (TBPP) can simultaneously benefit the platform, customers and providers if frequent customers’ preference for MBPP is higher (lower) than regular customers’ preference for TBPP or the number of frequent customers is larger (less) than regular customers.

Mergers have become an important means for low-carbon manufacturers to improve their efficiency and competitiveness. This paper studies the impact of horizontal mergers between asymmetric low-carbon manufacturers on product diversity, profits, consumer surplus, and the environment. In the premerger model, we consider two asymmetric manufacturers in terms of market potential that produce two products and compete on prices and carbon emissions. In the postmerger model, the two asymmetric manufacturers merge into one firm. The merged manufacturer can either continue to produce two products and collude on both products’ prices and carbon emissions or enjoy both production and green technology investment cost savings to produce only one product. Our result suggests that when the merged manufacturer produces two products, the merger does not necessarily lead to higher prices, which stands in sharp contrast to the conventional wisdom. Furthermore, the merger always benefits the manufacturer but harms consumers. When the merged manufacturer chooses to produce only one product, however, we confirm that the merger can lead to a win-win-win outcome, i.e., the manufacturer, customers, and environment all become better off if either the production or investment savings are salient. The conventional wisdom shows that salient costing savings lead to price reduction. Nevertheless, we show that the merged manufacturer can charge consumers higher prices to provide lower-emission products. In addition, we show that improving investment (production) cost savings is more effective for the merged manufacturer if these two cost savings are salient (not salient). Finally, the merged manufacturer should not reduce diversity if these two cost savings are relatively low because the profit and consumer surplus may be simultaneously lower. We also extend our base model to the case where there exist three manufacturers in the premerger model and the merged firm still operates in a competitive market.

The conventional predictive torque control (PTC) for three-phase open-end winding permanent magnet synchronous motor (OEW-PMSM) has the following disadvantages: tedious tuning of weighting factors, large ripples of zero-sequence current, electromagnetic torque, and stator flux. To overcome the above problems, a PTC based on weighting factorless and finite control set (FCS) optimization is proposed in this article. First, a deadbeat control strategy is proposed to convert the control of zero-sequence current, electromagnetic torque, and stator flux into the control of stator voltage vector. Since the equivalent control objects have the same unit, the weighting factors are not required. Second, a two-step optimization scheme for FCS is proposed to reduce the ripples of zero-sequence current, electromagnetic torque, and stator flux. Finally, an optimized pulsewidth modulation (PWM) strategy, which can help to reduce the switching frequency, is proposed. The feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed PTC strategy is verified by experiments on a 1-kW OEW-PMSM.

In this article, an improved predictive torque control (PTC) for permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) based on weighting factor elimination and fast voltage vector selection is proposed to improve the problems of tedious tuning of weighting factor and heavy computation burden in the conventional PTC. First, a universal scheme, which can be applicable to both surface-mounted PMSM (SPMSM) and interior PMSM (IPMSM), is proposed to convert the control of electromagnetic torque and stator flux amplitude to the control of stator flux vectors. Since the units of stator flux vectors are the same, the weighting factor in the cost function can be eliminated. Second, the control of stator flux vectors is further converted to the control of stator voltage vectors. On this basis, a fast voltage vector selection scheme based on a graphical analysis method is proposed to pick out the one nearest to the reference stator voltage vector among all the candidate voltage vectors in the finite control set (FCS) directly. Therefore, the computation burden of the proposed PTC strategy can be reduced greatly owing to the elimination of the online rolling optimization. The feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed strategy are verified by simulations and experiments.

In this paper, we investigate two competing pay-tv platforms or free-to-air media platforms that consist of two groups of agents: viewers and advertisers. The pay-tv platforms can receive revenues from charging viewers pay-per-view prices and advertising, while the free-to-air platforms can only obtain all incomes from advertising. We discuss and compare advertising intensities and program content provisions of the two competing media platforms. Our findings show that if the extent to which viewers dislike advertising (the nuisance for advertising) is more massive than the marginal benefit that advertisers receive from an additional viewer, the pay-tv stations tend to maximally differentiate their program content and charge the viewers higher pay-per-view prices. If the nuisance approaches to the marginal benefit, however, both stations should offer similar program content, and charge the viewers lower prices under certain conditions. Particularly, if both platforms provide duplicated content, they should subsidize the viewers. In contrast, we show that the free-to-air media platforms never duplicate program content with a positive nuisance for advertising, and tend to offer maximal differentiated content if the nuisance is sufficiently large. Moreover, we reveal that if the viewers greatly dislike advertising (care less about advertising), the advertising volume of the pay-tv platforms is lower (higher) than that of the free-to-air platforms. Finally, we extend our base model to the case in which a pay-tv platform competes against a free-to-air station, and numerically show that the profit of the pay-tv platform may be larger or smaller than that of the free-to-air station.

AbstractIn the paper, we consider an on-demand staffing platform that assign temporary workers to employers in need. The employers would inflate the number of their permanent staffs to engage temporary workers from the platform at a lower discount. We design a contract for the platform to make the employer reflect his real quantity information. Specifically, we investigate a platform who provides on-demand staffing services and an employer (or a company) with some permanent staffs and uncertain demand for workers. Our results reveal that the trade between the platform and the employer takes place if and only if the number of permanent workers reported by the employer is lower than a threshold. In particular, the optimal contract can make the platform and the employer reach the first-best coordination when the employer reports that there are no permanent workers.

Nowadays, more and more transactions or interactions like online dating and shopping are completed on two-sided platforms involving two groups of agents. On these two-sided platforms, there often exist cross-network effects, i.e., the benefits that agents at one side receive are positively related to the number of agents at the other side, and vice versa. This paper considers such two-sided platforms, where the platforms offer a certain service to attract agents of both sides to join the platforms, and then charge agents who join the platforms a lump-sum fee to gain the profit. We present service and pricing strategies for both monopolistic and duopolistic platforms, respectively. We also investigate the impact of platforms’ life cycle on their service and pricing strategies. Some managerial implications are shown.

Cancer cells in different phases of the cell cycle result in significant differences in light scattering properties. In order to harvest cancer cells in particular phases of the cell cycle, we cultured cancer cells through the process of synchronization. Flow cytometric analysis was applied to check the results of cell synchronization and prepare for light scattering measurements. Angular-dependent light scattering measurements of cancer cells arrested in the G1, S, and G2 phases have been performed. Based on integral calculations for scattering intensities from 5° to 10° and from 110° to 150°, conclusions have been reached. Clearly, the sizes of the cancer cells in different phases of the cell cycle dominated the forward scatter. Accompanying the increase of cell size with the progression of the cell cycle, the forward scattering intensity also increased. Meanwhile, the DNA content of cancer cells in every phase of the cell cycle is responsible for light scattering at large scatter angles. The higher the DNA content of cancer cells was, the greater the positive effect on the high-scattering intensity. As expected, understanding the relationships between the light scattering from cancer cells and cell cycles will aid in the development of cancer diagnoses. Also, it may assist in the guidance of antineoplastic drugs clinically.

The light scattering characteristic plays a very important role in optic imaging and diagnostic applications. For optical detection of the cell, cell scattering characteristics have an extremely vital role. In this paper, we use the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) algorithm to simulate the propagation and scattering of light in biological cells. The two-dimensional scattering cell models were set up based on the FDTD algorithm. The cell models of normal cells and cancerous cells were established, and the shapes of organelles, such as mitochondria, were elliptical. Based on these models, three aspects of the scattering characteristics were studied. First, the radar cross section (RCS) distribution curves of the corresponding cell models were calculated, then corresponding relationships between the size and the refractive index of the nucleus and light scattering information were analyzed in the three periods of cell canceration. The values of RCS increase positively with the increase of the nucleo-cytoplasmic ratio in the cancerous process when the scattering angle ranges from 0° to 20°. Second, the effect of organelles in the scattering was analyzed. The peak value of the RCS of cells with mitochondria is higher than the cells without mitochondria when the scattering angle ranges from 20° to 180°. Third, we demonstrated that the influence of cell shape is important, and the impact was revealed by the two typical ideal cells: round cells and oval cells. When the scattering angle ranges from 0° to 80°, the peak values and the frequencies of the appearance of the peaks from the two models are roughly similar. It can be concluded that: (1) the size of the nuclei and the change of the refractive index of cells have a certain impact on light scattering information of the whole cell; (2) mitochondria and other small organelles contribute to the cell light scattering characteristics in the larger scattering angle area; and (3) the change of the cell shape significantly influences the value of scattering peak and the deviation of scattering peak position. The results of the numerical simulation will guide subsequent experiments and early diagnosis of cervical cancer.