• Title/Summary/Keyword: Profit cost

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Dynamic Limit and Predatory Pricing Under Uncertainty (불확실성하(不確實性下)의 동태적(動態的) 진입제한(進入制限) 및 약탈가격(掠奪價格) 책정(策定))

  • Yoo, Yoon-ha
    • KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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    • v.13 no.1
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    • pp.151-166
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    • 1991
  • In this paper, a simple game-theoretic entry deterrence model is developed that integrates both limit pricing and predatory pricing. While there have been extensive studies which have dealt with predation and limit pricing separately, no study so far has analyzed these closely related practices in a unified framework. Treating each practice as if it were an independent phenomenon is, of course, an analytical necessity to abstract from complex realities. However, welfare analysis based on such a model may give misleading policy implications. By analyzing limit and predatory pricing within a single framework, this paper attempts to shed some light on the effects of interactions between these two frequently cited tactics of entry deterrence. Another distinctive feature of the paper is that limit and predatory pricing emerge, in equilibrium, as rational, profit maximizing strategies in the model. Until recently, the only conclusion from formal analyses of predatory pricing was that predation is unlikely to take place if every economic agent is assumed to be rational. This conclusion rests upon the argument that predation is costly; that is, it inflicts more losses upon the predator than upon the rival producer, and, therefore, is unlikely to succeed in driving out the rival, who understands that the price cutting, if it ever takes place, must be temporary. Recently several attempts have been made to overcome this modelling difficulty by Kreps and Wilson, Milgram and Roberts, Benoit, Fudenberg and Tirole, and Roberts. With the exception of Roberts, however, these studies, though successful in preserving the rationality of players, still share one serious weakness in that they resort to ad hoc, external constraints in order to generate profit maximizing predation. The present paper uses a highly stylized model of Cournot duopoly and derives the equilibrium predatory strategy without invoking external constraints except the assumption of asymmetrically distributed information. The underlying intuition behind the model can be summarized as follows. Imagine a firm that is considering entry into a monopolist's market but is uncertain about the incumbent firm's cost structure. If the monopolist has low cost, the rival would rather not enter because it would be difficult to compete with an efficient, low-cost firm. If the monopolist has high costs, however, the rival will definitely enter the market because it can make positive profits. In this situation, if the incumbent firm unwittingly produces its monopoly output, the entrant can infer the nature of the monopolist's cost by observing the monopolist's price. Knowing this, the high cost monopolist increases its output level up to what would have been produced by a low cost firm in an effort to conceal its cost condition. This constitutes limit pricing. The same logic applies when there is a rival competitor in the market. Producing a high cost duopoly output is self-revealing and thus to be avoided. Therefore, the firm chooses to produce the low cost duopoly output, consequently inflicting losses to the entrant or rival producer, thus acting in a predatory manner. The policy implications of the analysis are rather mixed. Contrary to the widely accepted hypothesis that predation is, at best, a negative sum game, and thus, a strategy that is unlikely to be played from the outset, this paper concludes that predation can be real occurence by showing that it can arise as an effective profit maximizing strategy. This conclusion alone may imply that the government can play a role in increasing the consumer welfare, say, by banning predation or limit pricing. However, the problem is that it is rather difficult to ascribe any welfare losses to these kinds of entry deterring practices. This difficulty arises from the fact that if the same practices have been adopted by a low cost firm, they could not be called entry-deterring. Moreover, the high cost incumbent in the model is doing exactly what the low cost firm would have done to keep the market to itself. All in all, this paper suggests that a government injunction of limit and predatory pricing should be applied with great care, evaluating each case on its own basis. Hasty generalization may work to the detriment, rather than the enhancement of consumer welfare.

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Employees' Preferences on Various Types of Matching Grants (매칭그랜트 기부방식에 대한 기부자 선호도)

  • Lee, Yeong-Ran;Park, Sang-June
    • Journal of the Korean Operations Research and Management Science Society
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    • v.38 no.1
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    • pp.15-27
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    • 2013
  • Because consumers tend to have negative opinion about a company that neglects social issues like poverty or pollution while it focuses on its own profit, a lot of companies have invested their resources in Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR). CSR has merits of image improving and profit gaining, on the other hand, it has also many shortcomings. First, the cost of CSR may become a heavy financial burden. Specifically, CSR tends to be implemented by a company's unilateral backup, and then this may impose a heavy burden on the company. Second, one cannot expect effects of CSR in a short-term. Because of these shortcomings, the unilateral CSR has gone into alteration of the type of CSR since 1980's. Instead of unilaterality, Cause-Related Marketing(CRM) began to be used for mutual profits among company, consumers, and society. That is, CRM has become to be spotlighted as a new type of CSR. It focuses on partnership between a company and consumers based on cause and mutual profit pursuing through this partnership. So, many contemporary companies prefer CRM activities that derive their positive corporate image, that increase their sales, and that reduce their financial cost. The IBM Matching Grants Program, which is the largest of the IBM-Employee partnership programs, is a typical CRM. This program enables employees and retirees to increase the value of their donations to educational institutions, hospitals, hospices, nursing homes, and cultural & environmental organizations with a matching gift from IBM. Hundreds of educational institutions and thousands of nonprofit organizations have benefited from the contributions by IBM. There might be various types of matching grants. For example, an employee might choose a lump-sum expense or partitioning a lump-sum into a series of small ongoing expenses for his (or her) donation, and a firm might match the employee's total contribution with a lump-sum expense or might match the employee's total contribution with a series of small ongoing expenses. However, it is not easy to find an academic research on which type of matching grant is preferred by employees. This paper shows that an employee prefers the type of matching grants that consists of a lump-sum expense for his (or her) contribution and a series of small ongoing expenses for a firm's contribution [or the type of matching grants that consists of a series of small ongoing expenses for an employee's contribution and a lump-sum expense for a firm's contribution] to the other types of matching grants.

Comparison Study on the Inventory Management in SCM using Simulation (시뮬레이션을 활용한 공급사슬 내 재고관리 방법 비교 연구)

  • Lee, Jae-Hong;Gu, Seung-Hwan;Noh, Seung-Min;Jang, Seong-Yong
    • Journal of the Korea Society for Simulation
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    • v.24 no.1
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    • pp.1-8
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    • 2015
  • This research focuses on the method of inventory management to find out the best way in various SCM. There are several comparable methods of inventory management like Min-Max, regular interval, fixed target inventory that have different lead-time and demand for each product. Also, the inventory performances between the case of three-stages and two-stages in SCM are analyzed. 8 scenarios for the simulation are suggested considering order ways and stages. Input data for the simulation is from the result of the previous studies and actual data in the market. The performance measurements are selected as sales revenue, total number of sales, total delivery cost, total inventory shortages, the number of inventory shortage occurrence, the loss for inventory shortages, average inventory, handling cost, net profit. According to the results of the simulation, fixed target inventory management is better than existing inventory management method by net profit and inventory and so on. Also, it was confirmed that the increase in profit is obtained when SCM stages is reduced from three-stages to two-stages in existing SCM. The result of the research provides significant meaning that newly introduced target inventory management system shows good performance and SCM performance can be improved by reducing the stages.

Rationality Review of Cost Allocation Methodology at CHP (열병합발전에서 비용배분 방법론의 합리성 검토)

  • Kim, Deokjin;Choi, Byungryeal
    • Journal of Energy Engineering
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    • v.29 no.2
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    • pp.40-60
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    • 2020
  • When various kinds of products are produced from a single energy system, the methodology which allocates the common cost to each product cost is very important because it is directly related with the profit and loss of producer and purchaser. In the cost allocation methodology of electricity and heat for CHP, there are heat method, work method, benefit distribution method, exergy method, and so on. Benefit distribution method is the most widely known worldwide, and exergy method is widely recognized among thermal engineers. As a result of review, it is judged that the rationality of benefit distribution method is low because the result deviates from common sense, and the rationality of exergy method is high because the result consistent with common sense. In accounting, it is calculated as merit methodology and the result is used for negotiations between producer and buyer, but In thermal engineering, the rationality of exergy methodology is described only as a thesis. The purpose of this study is to compare and examine the rationality of merit methodology and exergy methodology, and the aim is to describe in detail in order that producer and buyer can understand the rationality of each methodology.

Using Activity-Based Cost in Menu Engineering for Restaurant Menu Analysis (활동기준원가와 메뉴엔지니어링을 이용한 외식업체 메뉴 분석)

  • Lee, Bong-Shik;Shin, Seo-Young;Choi, Mi-Kyung
    • Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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    • v.11 no.5
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    • pp.642-649
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    • 2006
  • The purposes of this study were to investigate methods of applying activity-based cost to menu engineering and to examine the feasibility. A total of 6 menu items of XYZ restaurant in Seoul were selected and the ledger of September 2005 was used for menu analysis. The menu mix percent of beef sirloin steak (61.95%) and beef tenderloin steak (17.13%) were labeled as high, whereas BBQ pork ribs (4.94%), salmon fillet (2.66%), seafood platter (5.77%), and teriyaki chicken (7.56%) showed low menu mix percent. In addition, the contribution margin for BBQ pork ribs (29,000 won), salmon fillet (25,810 won), seafood platter (22,400 won), and teriyaki chicken (22,000 won) were higher than the average contribution margin (21,957 won), and those for beef sirloin steak (21,200 won) and beef tenderloin steak (21,900 won) were lower than average. When popularity and contribution margin were applied in menu engineering, BBQ pork ribs, salmon fillet, seafood platter and teriyaki chicken were classified as puzzles and beef tenderloin steak and beef sirloin steak as plowhorses. Menu engineering using popularity and operating profit, which was calculated from activity-based cost, also gave the same results, whereas the additional label for activity cost placed BBQ pork ribs and salmon fillet in the brain teaser category. Ranking analysis on variables estimating menu profitability using Spear-man's ${\rho}$ revealed that there were no significant correlation between variables, which means the estimation of menu item profitability could differ by methods of analysis. With these results, it was concluded that activity-based cost would help to establish more detailed marketing strategy for a restaurant.

The Analysis of Contract-Foodservice Operational Efficiency using Data Envelopment Analysis and Efficiency-Profit Matrix (다점포 운영 푸드서비스 기업의 효율성 측정에 관한 연구 - DEA 및 효율, 수익 매트릭스 분석을 중심으로 -)

  • Kim, Tae-Hee;Park, Ju-Yeon
    • Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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    • v.20 no.5
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    • pp.823-835
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    • 2010
  • The research aimed to measure the efficiency of using multi stores in a foodservice company using by DEA (data envelopment analysis) which is a new management science technique. The study also attempted to identify relevant variables affecting DEA efficiency in order to suggest methods for improving efficiency. The data were collected from 148 contract foodservice operations, which were operated in similar fashion in October 2009. The DEA efficiency was calculated as an output-oriented BCC Model. Sales, and CSI (customer satisfaction index) were used as output variables whereas food cost, labor cost, and management expense were used as input variables to calculate the DEA efficiency. Operation process variables of the unit consisted of the were consist of ratio of regular employee, ratio of housekeeper, meal counts, meal price, food cost per meal, contract period, number of menu items, forecasting accuracy, order accuracy, inventory turnover, use of processed food, deviation of food cost, number of new menus, and number of events. According to the BCC score and profitability, units were classified into four groups: High efficiency-high profitability (HEHP), High efficiency-low profitability (HELP), Low efficiency-high profitability (LEHP), and Low efficiency-low profitability (LELP). The HEHP group contained 54 units, which mostly contracted management fee type and had a high meal price. The units were also very large and, served three meals. Twenty of the units were operated with high labor cost: most of these were factories and hospitals. The LEHP group contained 20 units, that were mainly office stores of large scale and medium price. Fifty-four LELP group had a low meal price. A high performance group must have high efficiency, profitability, and satisfaction. The BCC score was over 0.969, the meal price was over 4,116 won, the food cost was over 2,077 won, and meal counts per month were over 10,212 meals.

A Study on Cost Analyses and an Efficient Financial Management in Self-Operated and Contract-Managed Secondary School Foodservices (중.고등학교 급식비용 분석과 효율적 재무관리체계를 위한 연구)

  • 곽동경;장혜자;이나영
    • Journal of Nutrition and Health
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    • v.36 no.10
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    • pp.1083-1093
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    • 2003
  • Efficient financial management is a critical factor in achieving school foodservice goals. The objective of this study was to suggest efficient financial management practices in secondary school foodservices. In pursuit of this objective, we first identified performance indexes for measuring the success of financial management. Second, we suggested financial management standards, financial data classification methods and a report system. Last, we analyzed operating ratios with the financial data of self-operated and contract-managed school food services. The data were collected through an open-ended questionnaire from 10 middle/high school foodservices in Seoul and Kyeonggi Provincial during on-sites visits and interviews with dieticians and managers. Student participation, sales goals, re-contract frequency and number and cost of disaster loss were identified as the performance indexes for financial management. Income statements were compiled by identifying and classifying financial data. Total revenues consisted of subsidies, meal sales, other revenue and interest. Expenditures consisted of purchased food, salaries and wages, utility costs, office supplies, kitchen supplies, purchased services, company overhead indirect costs, facility investment and maintenance, facility usage expenses, employee benefits and miscellaneous. Mean price of a meal was 2,326 won at self-operated foodservices when the subsidies were included as revenues and 2,360 won at contract-managed foodservices. When including the subsidies as revenues, the operating ratios of self-operated foodservice showed that the food cost percentage was 66.9%, labor cost 23.2%, operation cost 9.9% and profit 0%. The correspond figures at contract-managed foodservices were 57.6%, 21.5%, 15.3%, and 5.5%, respectively. Food costs in self-operated foodservices was significantly higher than that for contract-managed foodservices, however, facility investment and maintenance and facility usage expenses at self-operated foodservices was significantly lower than those for contract-managed foodservices. Based on this study, the methodology and classification system of financial data was found to be applicable to assess the financial structure of school foodservices.

The Influence of Low Cost Airline's Flexible Fare Policy on Consumers' Perceptions of Price Fairness (저가항공사의 유동적 요금 전략이 소비자의 가격공정성 지각에 미치는 영향)

  • Hwang, Hee-Joong;Choi, Young-Keun
    • Journal of Distribution Science
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    • v.12 no.10
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    • pp.123-128
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    • 2014
  • Purpose - The purpose of the study is to reexamine the price fairness as practiced by low cost airlines, as a consumer has to experience such inconveniences as inferior airport transportation, extra fees on in-flight meals, and non-negotiable seats, and consumers evaluate such experiences keeping in mind their total costs. This evaluation includes price fairness and allows a reasonable and overall consideration of factors of low cost airlines. It tries to set up a measurement of the indicators consumers' perceptions of price fairness academically as it adapts price fairness to airline services which are renowned for price volatility. Research design, data, and methodology - The research proposes an alternative pricing strategy for the long term profit of low cost airlines after going over conflicts between the traditional theory of consumers' price perception mechanism and flexible fair policy of low cost airlines. It was meaningful when it relates to the early stage of the business, while it enhances the risks relating to the long term survival of low cost airlines. In addition, it is significant as it highlights the negative influences on consumers' perceptions of price fairness, as low cost airlines run on extremely low cost perspectives. Results - The results of the research provide insight into four perspectives, as consumers' perceptions of price fairness are influenced by the frequency and range of price changes and services. The first perspective is that it would lead to positive price evaluation when a low cost airline cuts prices frequently with little changes than one big change. It also would lead to the same result when it comes to necessary services. The second perspective is that one big increase of price would rather undermine the negative aspects of price changes than those of several smaller ones. The third perspective is that additional services would be good to consumers' perceptions of price fairness as compared to discount benefits with respect to the cost. Finally, a low cost airline should consider that consumers will change airlines or defer their flight schedule if the flight fares increase beyond their limits. Conclusions - Low cost airlines should reconsider their pricing policies for services that were provided free earlier. A consumer would not like discount benefits when made to pay for services that were, for long, free of charge. If a low cost airline can provide services with no charge, it should improve volumes if the costs are standardized and, moreover, should consider the charging fees. Alternatively, a consumer can choose between services and fair discount. Low cost airlines are implementing sales promotion strategies, as the competition is more intense than it used to be. In these days, they should regard services over sales promotion, as consumers may prefer to spend money on good premium services. Some differentiation in services could create a good market position for the airlines and, hence, good financial performance.

The Reduction ways of Medicine Material Costs of Nuclear Medicine In Vitro (핵의학 체외검사의 진료재료비용 절감 방안)

  • Song, Hun-Kang;Seo, Jung-Mi;Yang, Joon-Ho;Kim, Eun-Jung;Kim, Chang-Ho
    • The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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    • v.15 no.2
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    • pp.111-115
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    • 2011
  • Purpose: In vitro uses dose response curve with 6 to 7 standard concentrations in every examination to analyze examination results and this use of dose response curve comprises a large portion of the consumption of medicine material. At this present, some ones of in-hospital examination items have shown mostly low result of distribution in the analyzed features and these examinations have been judged that it would be unnecessary to use the last standard concentration. Hence, this study selects those examination items showing low result of distribution and reviews the cases contributed to less consumption of medicine material and revenue growth of hospital by reduction of medicine material used in the place of the last standard concentration. Materials and Methods: The study was made targeting 11 examination items out of total 43 items of the in-hospital examination and since these examination items were mostly low in the features as the examination results of patients or the examination results were distributed to show lower concentration than the previous last standard concentration, it carried out the examination without using the last standard concentration, which could generate the effect to reduce medicine material (examination tube) used in the last standard concentration as many as the number of examination carried out. For this, it examined the number of medicine material reduction by month during the period from July, 2009 to February, 2011 and estimated the reduction amount of medicine material calculated the number of reduction by the unit cost of medicine material as well as the profit generated by the reduced medicine material to use for the medicine material of patient examination. Results: The total number of medicine material reduced during the period from July, 2009 to February, 2011 was 3,131 pieces, which had the effect to reduce the medicine material equivalent to about 31 kits of reagent. To calculate this by the unit cost of the medicine material, it analyzed to reduce about 6.4 million won of medicine material cost. Also the reduced medicine materials were used for medicine materials of patient examination and this was analyzed to generate about 13.75 million won of profit based on the ABC cost accounting. Conclusion: It showed no problem in the analysis of examination result even without using the last standard concentration regarding those examination items with low distribution of the patient examination result. For these examination items, it was able to reduce medicine material used for the last standard as many as the number of examination carried out. Also, the adjustment of concentration range was found to have no problem in the reliability of examination result. Therefore, this case will be applicable in those occasions of when the analysis of patient examination result is mostly distributed at the lower level or when an examination with the distribution of patient results in the range of lower concentration than the previous last standard concentration is carried out and this is considered to increase the efficiency in the use of medicine material in vitro as well as contribute to the profit of hospitals.

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Incremental Processing Scheme for Graph Streams Considering Data Reuse (데이터 재사용을 고려한 그래프 스트림의 점진적 처리 기법)

  • Cho, Jungkweon;Han, Jinsu;Kim, Minsoo;Choi, Dojin;Bok, Kyoungsoo;Yoo, Jaesoo
    • The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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    • v.18 no.1
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    • pp.465-475
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    • 2018
  • Recently, as the use of social media and IoT has increased, large graph streams has been generating and studies on real-time processing for them have been actively carrying out. In this paper we propose a incremental graph stream processing scheme that reuses previous result data when the graph changes continuously. We also propose a cost model to selectively perform incremental processing and static processing. The proposed cost model computes the predicted value of the detection cost and the processing cost of the recalculation area based on the actually processed history and performs the incremental processing when the incremental processing is more profit than the static processing. The proposed incremental processing increases the efficiency by processing only the part that changes when the graph update occurs. Also, by collecting only the previous result data of the changed part and performing the incremental processing, the disk I/O costs are reduced. It is shown through various performance evaluations that the proposed scheme outperforms the existing schemes.