• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.35-69
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• 2014

The impact of competition on pricing has been studied in the context of counterfactual merger analyses where expected optimal prices in a hypothetical monopoly are compared with observed prices in an oligopolistic market. Such analyses would typically assume static decision making by consumers and firms and thus have been applied mostly to data obtained from consumer packed goods such as cereal and soft drinks. However such static modeling approach is not suitable when decision makers are forward looking. When it comes to the markets for durable products with indirect network effects, consumer purchase decisions and firm pricing decisions are inherently dynamic as they take into account future states when making purchase and pricing decisions. Researchers need to take into account the dynamic aspects of decision making both in the consumer side and in the supplier side for such markets. Firms in a two-sided market typically subsidize one side of the market to exploit the indirect network effect. Such pricing behaviors would be more prevalent in competitive markets where firms would try to win over the battle for standard. While such qualitative expectation on the relationship between pricing behaviors and competitive structures could be easily formed, little empirical studies have measured the extent to which the distinct pricing structure in two-sided markets depends on the competitive structure of the market. This paper develops an empirical model to measure the impact of competition on optimal pricing of durable products under indirect network effects. In order to measure the impact of exogenously determined competition among firms on pricing, we compare the equilibrium prices in the observed oligopoly market to those in a hypothetical monopoly market. In computing the equilibrium prices, we account for the forward looking behaviors of consumers and supplier. We first estimate a demand function that accounts for consumers' forward-looking behaviors and indirect network effects. And then, for the supply side, the pricing equation is obtained as an outcome of the Markov Perfect Nash Equilibrium in pricing. In doing so, we utilize numerical dynamic programming techniques. We apply our model to a data set obtained from the U.S. video game console market. The video game console market is considered a prototypical case of two-sided markets in which the platform typically subsidizes one side of market to expand the installed base anticipating larger revenues in the other side of market resulting from the expanded installed base. The data consist of monthly observations of price, hardware unit sales and the number of compatible software titles for Sony PlayStation and Nintendo 64 from September 1996 to August 2002. Sony PlayStation was released to the market a year before Nintendo 64 was launched. We compute the expected equilibrium price path for Nintendo 64 and Playstation for both oligopoly and for monopoly. Our analysis reveals that the price level differs significantly between two competition structures. The merged monopoly is expected to set prices higher by 14.8% for Sony PlayStation and 21.8% for Nintendo 64 on average than the independent firms in an oligopoly would do. And such removal of competition would result in a reduction in consumer value by 43.1%. Higher prices are expected for the hypothetical monopoly because the merged firm does not need to engage in the battle for industry standard. This result is attributed to the distinct property of a two-sided market that competing firms tend to set low prices particularly at the initial period to attract consumers at the introductory stage and to reinforce their own networks and eventually finally to dominate the market.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.377-396
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• 2023

As the cryptocurrency market continues to grow, it has developed into a new financial market. The need for investment strategy research on the cryptocurrency market is also emerging. This study aims to conduct an empirical analysis on an investment methodology of cryptocurrency that combines short-term trading strategy and deep learning. Daily price data of the Ethereum was collected through the API of Upbit, the Korean cryptocurrency exchange. The investment performance of the experimental model was analyzed by finding the optimal parameters based on past data. The experimental model is a volatility breakout strategy(VBS), a Long Short Term Memory(LSTM) model, moving average cross strategy and a combined model. VBS is a short-term trading strategy that buys when volatility rises significantly on a daily basis and sells at the closing price of the day. LSTM is suitable for time series data among deep learning models, and the predicted closing price obtained through the prediction model was applied to the simple trading rule. The moving average cross strategy determines whether to buy or sell when the moving average crosses. The combined model is a trading rule made by using derived variables of the VBS and LSTM model using AND/OR for the buy conditions. The result shows that combined model is better investment performance than the single model. This study has academic significance in that it goes beyond simple deep learning-based cryptocurrency price prediction and improves investment performance by combining deep learning and short-term trading strategies, and has practical significance in that it shows the applicability in actual investment.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.82 no.4
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• pp.396-405
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• 1993

In this paper, a nonlinear programming model to determine the optimal operating policy to minimize production costs for particleboard plants is presented. The model provides optimal values for three decision variables : specific gravity of particleboard, mat moisture content and mat resin content. These decision variables are key factors influencing the cost and quality of particleboard manufacturing processes. In formulating the nonlinear programming model, the minimum quality standards for internal bond strength and modulus of rupture of particleboard are used as industry-wide quality constraints. These quality standards are expressed as nonlinear functions of the decision variables. In order to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed model, the model is applied to solve for optimal solutions of four theoretical problems. The problem scenarios are built to investigate effects of changes in hot-pressing speed and purchase price of chip and resin.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.57 no.5
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• pp.29-35
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• 2015

The optimal greenhouse scales for controlled tomato should be studied because the increase of oil price and labor costs following the shortage of workforce makes greenhouse cultivation hard to gain profits. The purpose of this study is to estimate optimal production scales by greenhouse types for controlled tomato. The translog cost function is estimated based on the production cost survey data. The results can be summarized as follows: First, the average production cost of controlled tomato per kg decreases as the production scale increases. Second, according to the tomatoes farm of standard farming income data of RDA, the minimum production scale is 23 ton. Third, the estimated output of single-span greenhouse considering production scale with minimum average cost is 345 ton and production cost per kg is 1,476 won. The corresponding figures of multi-span greenhouse are 415 ton and 936 won, respectively. The study results can be used as basic materials for efficient decision making of tomato farmhouses and novice farmers. Also, the study shows that multi-span greenhouse should be encouraged to be built, since it requires lower marginal cost than single greenhouse. The results of this paper will help increase the income of farmhouses and cut expenses for the coming years.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.76-82
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• 2017

Recently, the material industry in the world has started appreciating the value of new materials that can overcome the limitation of steel material. In particular, new materials are expected to play a very important role in the future industry, demonstrating superior performance compared to steel in lightweight materials and ability to maintain in high temperature environments. Carbon materials have recently increased in value due to excellent physical properties such as high strength and ultra lightweight compared to steel. However, they have not overcome the limitation of productivity and price. The carbon materials are classified into various composites depending on the purpose of use and the performance required. Typical composites include carbon-glass, carbon-carbon, and carbon-plastic composites. Among them, carbon-carbon composite technology is a necessary technology in aviation and space, and can be manufactured with high investment cost and technology. In this paper, in order to find the optimal conditions to achieve productivity improvement and cost reduction of carbon material densification process, the correlation between each process parameters and results of densification is first analyzed. The main process parameters of the densification process are selected by analyzing the correlation results. And then a certain linear relationship between major process variables and density of carbon materials is derived by performing a regression analysis based on the historical production result data. Using the derived casualty, the optimal management range of major process variables is suggested. Effective process operation through optimal management of variables will have a great effect on productivity improvement and manufacturing cost reduction by shortening the lead time.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.115-122
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• 2010

The importance of the life cycle cost (LCC) analysis for bridges has been recognized over the last decade. However, it is difficult to predict LCC precisely since the costs occurring throughout the service life of the bridge depend on various parameters such as design, construction, maintenance, and environmental conditions. This paper presents a methodology for the optimal life cycle cost design of a bridge. Total LCC for the service life is calculated as the sum of initial cost, damage cost, maintenance cost, repair and rehabilitation cost, user cost, and disposal cost. The optimization method is applied to design of a bridge structure with minimal cost, in which the objective function is set to LCC and constraints are formulated on the basis of Korean Bridge Design Code. Initial cost is calculated based on standard costs of the Korea Construction Price Index and damage cost on damage probabilities to consider the uncertainty of load and resistance. Repair and rehabilitation cost is determined using load carrying capacity curves and user cost includes traffic operation costs and time delay costs. The optimal life cycle cost design of a bridge is performed and the effects of parameters are investigated.

• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.270-287
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• 2015

According to the increase of the operating cost and material cost of a ship due to the change of international oil price, a demand for the lightening of the ship weight is being made from various parties such as shipping companies, ship owners, and shipyards. To satisfy such demand, many studies for a light ship are being made. As one of them, an optimal design method of an existing hull structure, that is, a method for lightening the ship weight based on the optimization technique was proposed in this study. For this, we selected a hatch cover of a bulk carrier as an optimization target and formulated an optimization problem in order to determine optimal principal dimensions of the hatch cover for lightening the bulk carrier. Some dimensions representing the shape of the hatch cover were selected as design variables and some design considerations related to the maximum stress, maximum deflection, and geometry of the hatch cover were selected as constraints. In addition, the minimization of the weight of the hatch cover was selected as an objective function. To solve this optimization problem, we developed an optimization program based on the Sequential Quadratic Programming (SQP) using C++ programming language. To evaluate the applicability of the developed program, it was applied to a problem for finding optimal principal dimensions of the hatch cover of a deadweight 180,000 ton bulk carrier. The result shows that the developed program can decrease the hatch cover's weight by about 8.5%. Thus, this study will be able to contribute to make energy saving and environment-friendly ship in shipyard.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.1969-1980
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• 2013

The Traffic congestion is caused by the increasing traffic demand. Thus, economic losses have been increasing every year. To solve these problems, car sharing and rental car systems that are equipped with IT technologies emerge. Car sharing has many advantages-the alleviation of the traffic congestion, the saving of maintenance cost for cars, the reduction of car possessiveness, the solution for the hassle of car ownership, for business and personal duty, and the improvement of connectivity between public transportations-. The goal of the car sharing is to achieve low-carbon and eco-friendly transportation. In this study, we review papers related to the car sharing system and the cost system of traffic systems. We estimate the optimal cost of the cloud traffic system that is one of the car sharing services. We suggest a methodology to estimate operational cost and use cost through the analysis of cost system between similar traffic means. The range of the maximum and minimum cost was determined through the comparison and analysis of similar traffic means. Expected demand and the cost that people are willing to pay were estimated through optimized value pricing. The minimum cost per hour that was compared to the cost of rental car was estimated at 5,333 won and the maximum cost per hour that was compared to taxi cost was estimated at 17,700 won. The cost for users was estimated at 6,930 won. The cost of 50% demands was estimated at 6,550won. Future studies should analyze service hours of users, weather, demand pattern and trend and consider them into the cost estimation.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.97-112
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• 2007

Most traditional newspaper publishers provide online editions to counter the competition of online news providers. However, the relationship between the online and print editions of the same newspaper has not been clearly defined. Some see the online newspaper as a substitute, while others consider it a complement. A 2002 NAA online newspaper consumer survey indicated that one-third of its respondents said they were now using the print newspaper less. Others have argued that the online edition will not wipe out print consumption, and may even complement it. While the print edition offers particular advantages such as portability, less eye strain, and the tactile experience of a printed page, the online edition also offers specific advantages such as access to breaking news, continually updated information, access to old archives, etc. All these factors would tend to lower the degree of interchangeability between the products. However, recent empirical studies show that the online edition is a substitute for rather than a complement of the print edition. Still, to some print readers, the online edition provides additional value. In this paper, by capturing the two different aspects of online editions the substitute aspect and the additional value added aspect as well as other available online alternatives, we develop an analytical model to derive the optimal production and distribution strategies of both online and print editions. Confronting the "free versus fee" issue, we show that it is optimal to provide an online version of the print newspaper for free to non-print subscribers. However, the amount of free news content that the publishers need to put on the Web depends on the available alternatives on the online market. The "fee" and "free" options both have merits and demerits as well. If the publisher charges for the online version of the print newspaper, she can generate revenue from the fee charged to online readers. However, doing so will limit the size of the online audience and further reduce online advertising revenue. At the same time, by providing a high-quality online version and charging for it, the price of the print newspaper must stay low in order to lure high valued readers. On the contrary, if the publisher provides an online version of the print newspaper for free, she can obtain a larger audience for the online version. At the same time, by providing a low-quality online newspaper, the publisher can increase the print newspaper price to get more revenue from high valued offline readers, although no revenue is incoming from online version readers. Through systematic measuring of all the pros and cons, our analysis shows that the optimal option is not "fee" but "free."

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.91-101
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• 2000

The optimal congestion charge in transportation economics corresponds to the solution to the welfare maximization Problem for users of a certain road link where congestion takes Place. This congestion charge is in nature the optimal Price of the transportation facility, which is derived by the Partial equilibrium analysis on that facility. Therefore it is not certain that this congestion charge can maximize the well-being of all the users of the total transportation network, since the analysis does not count the impact of the congestion charge on traffic volumes of other links. This study suggests an alternative approach to estimate the optimal congestion charge. The key difference of this study from Previous ones is to derive the solution through the general equilibrium analysis on a market where several transportation facilities as well as Private goods are available to consumers. This approach shows a set of solutions a little different from the Previous one, which are explained below. The optimal congestion charge is derived for two different cases. One is the situation of which the congestion charge is levied on every transportation facility In this case, the optimal solution of each facility should equate the marginal utility of every user to the marginal cost of the corresponding facility. This analysis result in general equilibrium coincides with the Previous analysis result in partial equilibrium. However this result cannot apply to another case of which the charge is imposed only on a certain transportation facility. In this case, the optimal charge on a certain transportation facility should be less than the optimal congestion charge of partial equilibrium analysis.