Two-period decision strategies in a dual-channel supply chain considering reference price and online reviews

The rapid development of e-commerce and Internet technology impacts the consumer purchasing practices and the decision-making of the supply chain. In this regard, dealing with online reviews and reference price together for a competitive interaction in a two-period dual-channel scenario is one of the main challenges. To address this interaction, in the present research, we consider a dual-channel supply chain with a two-period. The selling price and the reference price impact on the retailer’s demand in both channels. Whereas, the online reviews influence the demands of the direct channels only. The manufacturer, who announces wholesale prices and direct channel selling prices, is Stackelberg game’s leader and the retailer is the follower. Two different decision-making strategies (I, II) are made by both players: (I) The manufacturer and the retailer both make all their decisions at the beginning of the selling season. (II) Here all decisions are made at the beginning of each selling period. In order to compare these strategies, we create a centralized policy as a benchmark scenario. The optimal solutions of the supply chain and each player are determined and analyzed. The numerical and sensitivity analysis suggests that the responsive pricing can bring additional benefits to both the players.