Traditionally, group buying is a way to lower down the price due to the group based collective bargaining power. In the Internet age, because the Internet provides more efficient communication tools, it is much easier to recruit more participants to join the group buying to increase the bargaining power and then to lower down the buying price. Hence, in 1998, Mercata proposed an innovative website using group buying as its business model. Since then, there is more and more group buying websites with different group buying models. For single product group buying, there are two most often used models, price acceptance model and free pricing model. The purpose of this thesis is to probe the performance of these two models. First, whether there is difference between the final transaction volumes of these two models and how the difference will be intervened by different price level of product are explored. The next concern is to find what kinds of personal factors of participants will affect their choice of group buying model. The result is that the performance and participants¡¦ satisfaction of free pricing model are better than those of price acceptance model. In addition, the choice of group buying models will be influenced by the ideal price, group size expected by the participants and their motivations.

In this thesis we analyze the procurement process of buyers and supply decisions of manufacturers. Companies are looking for ways to decrease their procurement costs, which account for a large percentage of the supply chain costs. We study the effects of demand aggregation and collaborative procurement on buyers' profitability. First, we make a high-level analysis and consider a market with multiple buyers and suppliers where multi-unit transactions for multiple items take place. The procurement costs are effected by economies of scale in the suppliers' production costs and by economies of scope in transportation. We design buyer strategies that model different collaboration levels and assess the role of collaboration under varying market conditions. Next, we analyze the procurement process at a lower level and identify benefits of inter-firm collaboration among buyers who are potential competitors in the end market. We adopt a game-theoretic approach to explore the economics of the basic mechanism underlying collaborative procurement, and determine the conditions that makes it beneficial for the participants. Besides low procurement costs, important considerations in supplier selection are responsiveness and the reliability of the suppliers in meeting demand. Hence, manufacturers face the pressure for quoting short and reliable lead times. We cover several aspects of the manufacturer's problem, such as quoting reliable due-dates based on current workload in the system, maximizing profit considering the lateness cost incurred due to late deliveries, and deciding on the level of inventory to increase responsiveness. We employ a model where demand arrival and manufacturing processes are stochastic, and obtain insights on the optimal due-date quotation policy and on the optimal inventory level.

網路團購已是目前台灣電子商務重要趨勢之一，不僅消費者積極參與、供應商也希望能尋求新的獲利來源，連接兩者提供交易平台的團購網站，更有國內外廠商均積極投入、競爭。之前的文獻研究中，大多是針對網路團購模式建立的探討，包含定價策略、營運模式…等，由消費者角度出發，針對網路團購行為之研究較少。 本研究係以曾參與網路團購之消費者作為研究對象，探討「知覺風險」、「品牌知名度」、「網站服務品質」、「顧客滿意度」及「顧客忠誠度」彼此的關係與影響因素，並以研究結論為基礎，提供網路團購業者後續行銷策略之建議。 本研究採量化之「問卷調查」與質化之「深度訪談」方式進行研究。量化調查方面，共取得303 份有效問卷，運用敘述性統計、t 檢定、ANOVA檢定、Pearson 相關分析法、迴歸分析法，將資料進行統計分析與假設驗證；質化研究方面，透過深度訪談國內三家知名團購網站經營者，了解網路團購之經營模式與現況，並藉由他們的觀察，洞悉主要消費族群之輪廓及意向，最後，並探討團購網站未來可能的挑戰與機會。 本研究的研究結果如下： 1.性別、年齡、學歷、職業、婚姻狀態與收入不同的消費者，對網路團購之知覺風險、品牌知名度、網站服務品質、顧客滿意度與忠誠度，確實存有差異性。 2.知覺風險與顧客滿意度、顧客忠誠度間具顯著相關性。 3.品牌知名度與顧客滿意度具顯著相關性，與顧客忠誠度則無相關。 4.網站服務品質與顧客滿意度、顧客忠誠度間具顯著相關性。 5.顧客滿意度與顧客忠誠度具顯著正向關係。 網路團購行銷策略建議： 1.知覺風險構面：持續加強隱私安全保障機制，並優化商品呈現方式，避免消費者購買到與網頁呈現不符之商品，降低消費者認知的隱私濫用與品質績效風險，提升顧客滿意度與忠誠度。 2.品牌知名度構面：持續開發具有高知名度的商品或服務，運用行銷合作方式說服更多高知名度廠商參與網路團購，以提升顧客滿意度。 3.網站服務品質構面：網站必須持續優化其網頁視覺與動線設計，並提供多元化的商品選擇，以提升顧客滿意度與忠誠度。 / Online group purchasing grows very fast and has become a trend of e-commerce in Taiwan. Not only the consumers are very interested in but also the supplers would like to start the business and create more profit from the new modle. The competition between group-purchasing sites is strong, too. But the previous studies were more focus on pricing strategy, business modle, and lacked of the study of sonsumer behaviors of online group purchasing. The consumers who have participated online group purchasing are taken as the object of the research. The purpose of this research is to define the relationship and influence between the perceived risk, brand awareness, website service quality, consumer satisfaction and loyalty, and to provide the suggestions of marketing strategy for online group purchasing industry base on the results and findings. This research adopts both quantitative and qualitative approaches. In terms of quantitative approach, 303 effective questionnaires are obtained for statistical analysis includes descriptive statistic, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation analysis, regression are utilized to verify the hypothesis and assumptions. As to qualitative approach, there are three experts from the management level of the well-known group-purchasing sites in Taiwan shared the business modle, status, consumer insights and purchasing intention, challenge and opportunities therough in-depth interviewing The result of this research includes: 1.Interviewees with different sex, age, education, profession, married status and income show significant differences. 2.Perceived risk has a dramatic correlation with customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. 3.Brand awareness has a dramatic correlation with customer satisfaction, but shows no correlation with customer loyalty. 4.Website service quality has a dramatic correlation with customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. 5.Customer satisfaction and customer loyalty have a positive relationship. The suggestions of marketing strategy for online group purchasing are as below: 1.In perceived risk aspect: Keep enhancing the security system and optimizing the instruction of product to alleviate perceived risk. It is helpful to improve the customer satisfaction and loyalty. 2.In brand awareness aspect: Provide the products or services which are popular and famous to the customer to improve the customer satisfaction. 3.In website service quality aspect: Keep optimizing the visual and process of the website, and providing customers with various product choices to improve the customer satisfaction and loyalty.