An Agent-Based Approach to the Newsvendor Problem with Price-Dependent Demand

• 作者: Patrick R. McMullen
• 来源期刊: 美国运筹学期刊(英文)
• 学科: 经济
• 关键词: OPTIMIZATION HEURISTIC SEARCH
• 年，卷（期）: 2020,（4）
• 页码范围: 101-110
• 页数: 10页
• 分类号: F22

摘要

This research presents an agent-based approach to finding near-optimal solutions to the newsvendor problem with price-dependent demand. The classical newsvendor problem is pursued where the decision of order quantity needs to be made in order to maximize expected profit. Here, the additional caveat of price-sensitive demand is included. This means that price (<em>P</em>) and order quantity (<em>Q</em>) are decision variables under the control of the newsvendor, with the intent of maximizing the expected value of the associated profit. The solution approach exploits an agent-based strategy, where an artificial agent traverses a grid-coordinate system of Price and Quantity values, where each unique Price and Quantity combination results in an expected profit. The agent-based approach consistently results in optimal solutions to a problem from the literature.