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Virginia Tech

Optimal dynamic pricing for two perishable and substitutable products

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

This thesis presents a dynamic pricing model where a seller offers two types of a generic product to a random number of customers. Customers show up sequentially. When a customer arrives, he will ---depending on the prices---either purchase one unit of type 1 product or one unit of type 2 product, or will leave empty-handed. The sale ends either when the entire stock is sold out, or when the customers are exhausted. The seller's task is to post the optimal prices for the two product types to each customer to maximize the expected total revenue. We use dynamic programming to formulate this problem, and derive the optimal policy for special cases. For general cases, we develop an algorithm to approximate the optimal policy and use numerical examples to demonstrate the efficiency of the algorithm. Finally, we apply the results to a continuous-time model where customers arrive according to a Poisson process. We develop a heuristic policy and use numerical examples to show the heuristic policy is very effective.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Master of Science
Level thesis:degree_level
masters
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Industrial and Systems Engineering
Department dc:contributor.department
Industrial and Systems Engineering
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Tech
Year dc:date.issued
2003

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Li, Feng
Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Lin, Kyle Y.
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Bish, Ebru K.
  • Fraticelli, Barbara M. P.

Subjects

dc:subject × 4

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
etd-12032003-154353
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/9630

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Li, Feng. Optimal dynamic pricing for two perishable and substitutable products. masters thesis, Virginia Tech, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/9630