Title
How Precious Are Scarce Products? An Experimental Study On A Turn-And-Earn Allocation Mechanism
Abstract
In this study, we conduct laboratory experiments to analyze a turn-and-earn allocation mechanism by which a single supplier allocates scarce products to two identical retailers. Under this mechanism, the supplier uses past sales to dynamically allocate scarce capacity among downstream retailers. The experimental data show that retailers strategically and systematically order more than predicted by standard theory. We find that the psychological scarcity effect is an important phenomenon. Using cognitive hierarchy theory, we develop a behavioral model to consider the scarcity effect, which causes retailers to place additional value on the allocations in a supply-shortfall period. Using structural estimation, we show that retailers perceive scarce products as being more precious than the standard theory predicts, and exhibit an average of 2.7 reasoning steps during strategic interactions. Moreover, the retailers exhibit social rejoice preference. They are more likely to make myopic decisions when the degree of scarcity is relatively low. Comparing with the proportional allocation mechanisms by an additional experiment, we find that the turn-and-earn mechanism is more beneficial to the supplier but less to the retailers.
Year
DOI
Venue
2019
10.1111/deci.12358
DECISION SCIENCES
Keywords
Field
DocType
Capacity Allocation, Cognitive Hierarchy, Scarcity Effect, Supply Chain, Turn-and-Earn Mechanism
Economics,Supply chain,Industrial organization,Cognitive Hierarchy Theory,Management science
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
50
5
0011-7315
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
0
0.34
5
Authors
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Yefen Chen100.34
Xiaobo Zhao211716.07
Wanshan Zhu351.59
Jinxing Xie428521.29