Multi-Stage Dynamic Dual-Channel Supply Chain with Sales Efforts

The dynamic decision in a multi-stage dual-channel supply chain involving one manufacturer and one retailer is carried out in this paper. Stackelberg game models dominated by manufacturer under decentralized and centralized scenarios are established. Backward induction is applied to derive the optimal solutions, based on which exploring the influence of previous-stage pricing on pricing, sales efforts and profit of current stage. The comparison between the proposed multi-stage pricing model and conventional constant pricing model is conducted to demonstrate that multi-stage dynamic pricing contributes to promoting profits. Besides, supply chain system without sales effort is also studied to verify the necessity of considering sales efforts into supply chain management for manufacturer and retailer. Finally, sensitivity analysis and numerical simulations are carried out to confirm the obtained results.