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A game-theoretic optimisation approach to fair customer allocation in oligopolies

Published version
Peer-reviewed

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Authors

Charitopoulos, Vassilis M. 
Dua, Vivek 
Pinto, Jose M. 
Papageorgiou, Lazaros G. 

Abstract

Abstract: Under the ever-increasing capital intensive environment that contemporary process industries face, oligopolies begin to form in mature markets where a small number of companies regulate and serve the customer base. Strategic and operational decisions are highly dependent on the firms’ customer portfolio and conventional modelling approaches neglect the rational behaviour of the decision makers, with regards to the problem of customer allocation, by assuming either static competition or a leader-follower structure. In this article, we address the fair customer allocation within oligopolies by employing the Nash bargaining approach. The overall problem is formulated as mixed integer program with linear constraints and a nonlinear objective function which is further linearised following a separable programming approach. Case studies from the industrial liquid market highlight the importance and benefits of the proposed game theoretic approach.

Description

Keywords

Research Article, Game theory, Supply chain optimisation, Oligopoly, Nash equilibrium, Customer allocation

Journal Title

Optimization and Engineering

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1389-4420
1573-2924

Volume Title

21

Publisher

Springer US