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                                                     Seminar

             Department of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management
                                  The Chinese University of Hong Kong

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Title	:	Incentives for Retailer Forecasting: Rebates versus Returns
Speaker	:	Prof. Terry Taylor
		Haas School of Business
		UC Berkeley
Date	:	December 4th, 2007 (Tuesday)
Time	:	4:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.
Venue	:	Room 513
		William M.W. Mong Engineering Building
		(Engineering Building Complex Phase 2)
		CUHK

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Abstract:
　

This paper studies a manufacturer that sells to a newsvendor
retailer who can improve the quality of her demand information by
exerting costly forecasting effort. In such a setting, contracts play
two roles: providing incentives to influence the retailer\'s forecasting
decision, and eliciting information obtained by forecasting to inform
production decisions. We focus on two forms of contracts that are widely
used in such settings and are mirror images of one another: a rebates
contract which compensates the retailer for the units she sells to end
consumers, and a returns contract which compensates the retailer for the
units that are unsold. We characterize the optimal rebates contract, the
optimal returns contract, and the manufacturer\'s preferred contractual
form. We show that the retailer, manufacturer and total system may
benefit from the retailer having inferior forecasting technology. (Joint
work with Wenqiang Xiao.)

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Biography:
　

Terry Taylor is an associate professor at UC Berkeley\'s Haas
School of Business. His research addresses economic issues in supply
chain management including contracting, contract renegotiation,
long-term relationships, and the marketing-operations interface. Prior
to joining Berkeley, he was an associate professor at Columbia
University\'s Graduate School of Business. He is the recipient of several
awards, including Columbia Business School\'s Dean\'s Award for Teaching
Excellence and the Wickham Skinner Early-Career Research Accomplishments
Award. He is an associate editor for Operations Research, Manufacturing
& Service Operations Management, and Production and Operations
Management. Prior to his academic career, he was a consultant for
McKinsey & Company. He received his B.S. and Ph.D. from Stanford
University.

************************* ALL ARE WELCOME ************************

Host	:	Prof. Houmin Yan
Tel	:	(852) 2609 8329
Email	:	yan@se.cuhk.edu.hk
Enquiries	:	Prof. Nan Chen or Prof. Sean X. Zhou
	:	Department of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management
		CUHK
Website	:	http://www.se.cuhk.edu.hk/~seg5810
Email	:	seg5810@se.cuhk.edu.hk

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