制造商风险对冲机制对开通直销渠道的影响

Effects of manufacturer′s cash hedging mechanism on launching direct channel

研究了风险对冲机制对制造商开通直销渠道的影响。建立了制造商两种风险对冲机制下不开通与开通直销渠道的供应链决策模型,得到了渠道均衡价格及制造商和零售商最优利润。研究发现:当资金灵活性较小,风险对冲机制不影响制造商的直销渠道选择决策;当资金灵活性较大,不存在风险对冲机制下,生产成本与消费者对直销渠道接受程度都较高或较低时制造商开通直销渠道,存在风险对冲机制下,生产成本较低时制造商始终开通直销渠道,生产成本较高时制造商直销渠道选择决策取决于消费者对直销渠道的接受程度,此时制造商开通直销渠道的意愿可能增大。此外,无论何种风险对冲机制,制造商的直销渠道都可能使零售商受益。

Hedging is a risk management strategy for firms to apply futures,options or other financial tools to deal with different uncertainties,such as foreign exchange fluctuations,tariff policy changes and interruption of raw material supply.There are a large number of existing theories and cases showing us the vital importance and pervasiveness for supply chain members to hedge by using various financial tools.For example,GREE,a large home appliance manufacturer,has carried out the hedging business of raw materials in order to avoid the cost risk caused by the price fluctuation of bulk raw materials,and at the same time has used financial tools to avoid the risk of exchange rate fluctuations.In addition to the internal capital risk,these supply chain members also face the problem of channel choice with the rapid development of e-commerce.Supply chain members like manufactures who hedge,i.e.,Lenovo,Huawei and GREE,not only sell products through retailers,but also launch direct channel through self-built official websites or third-party platforms to directly sell products to consumers.There is no denying that they have solved the problem of capital risk within individual firm through hedging,however,the hedging mechanism makes the supply chain more complex since the price mechanism and competition mechanism of the market have also been changed at the same time,leaving the supply chain exposing to the long-term and overall risks.One may observe that when there is a new choice for manufacturers to sell product directly to consumers,the problem of external capital risk and internal channel conflict of the supply chain coexist,then how will the uncertain capital risk and complex channel relationships affect the manufacture′s choice of launching direct channel?To shed light on this unsolved problem,by using game theory,under two mechanisms,manufacturer hedges or not,respectively,single-channel and dual-channel supply chain decision-making models were built,solved and analyzed,so as to provide theoretical reference for manufacturers to launch direct channel.In the rest of the following paper,first,game theory is used to develop the single-channel and dual-channel supply chain decisionmaking models under manufacturer′s two hedging mechanisms,i.e.,hedges or not.Second,the standard backward induction is used to derive the equilibrium price in each channel and the optimal profits of both manufacture and retailer.Third,by comparing the profit of the manufacturer when not launching and launching the direct channel under the two risk hedging mechanisms respectively,the conditions for manufacture to launch the direct channel in different hedging mechanism are obtained.Last but not the least,the impact of hedging mechanisms on manufacturer′s direct channel launching decision was discussed by comparing the differences between the conditions for manufacturers to launch direct channel under the two hedging mechanisms.Through the analysis above,our research reveals the impact of hedging mechanisms on manufacturer′s direct channel launching decision,giving the manufacture and retailer some theoretical references when confront the coexistent problem of both capital risk and channel conflict.More specifically,our research find that when cash-flow flexibility is less valuable for manufacturer,cash hedging mechanism does not bias the decision of manufacturer′s direct channel strategy.When the cash-flow flexibility is of great value for manufacturer,two possible strategies of manufacturer arise.In the absence of cash hedging mechanism,manufacturer launches direct channel if the production cost and consumer′s acceptance for the direct channel are simultaneously low or high.In the presence of cash hedging mechanism,manufacturer launches direct channel whenever the production cost is low.However,when the production cost is high,whether to launch or not depends on consumer′s acceptance for the direct channel,and manufacturer may be more willing to launch direct channel.In addition,retailer may benefit from direct channel in any cash hedging mechanism.