With the rise of online retailer giants like Amazon, and enhancements in internet and mobile technologies, online shopping is becoming increasingly popular. This has lead to new opportunities in online price optimization. The overarching motivation and theme of this thesis is to review these opportunities and provide methods and models in the context of retailers' online pricing decisions. In Chapter 2 a multi-period revenue maximization and pricing optimization problem in the presence of reference prices is formulated as a mixed integer nonlinear program. Two algorithms are developed to solve the optimization problem: a generalized Benders' decomposition algorithm and a myopic heuristic. This is followed by numerical computations to illustrate the effciency of the solution approaches as well as some managerial pricing insights. In Chapter 3 a data-driven quadratic programming optimization model for online pricing in the presence of customer ratings is proposed. A new demand function is developed for a multi-product, nite horizon, online retail environment. To solve the optimization problem, a myopic pricing heuristic as well as exact solution approaches are introduced. Using customer reviews ratings data from Amazon.com, a new customer rating forecasting model is validated. This is followed by several analytical and numerical insights. In Chapter 4 a multinomial choice model is used for customer purchase decision to find optimal personalized price discounts for an online retailer that incorporates customer locations and feedback from their reviews. Closed form solutions are derived for two special cases of this problem. To gain some analytical insights extensive numerical experiments are carried followed by several analytical and numerical insights. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / The increase in online retail and the improvements in mobile technologies has lead to advantages and opportunities for both customers and retailers. One of these advantages is the ability to keep and efficiently access records of historical orders for both customers and retailers. In addition, online retailing has dramatically decreased the cost of price adjustments and discounts compared to the brick and mortar environment. At the same time, with the increase in online retailing we are witnessing proliferations of online reviews in e-commerce platforms. Given this availability of data and the new capabilities in an online retail environment, there is a need to develop pricing optimization models that integrate all these new features. The overarching motivation and theme of this thesis is to review these opportunities and provide methods and models in the context of retailers' online pricing decisions.

Dans une économie mondialisée sur un secteur très concurrentiel, ce travail de recherche articulé en cinq parties propose d’étudier de nouveaux schémas de concurrence entre médicaments princeps et génériques au sein de l’Union Européenne, en intégrant les articulations entre régulation publique et incitations à innover. Dans une première partie introductive, les spécificités réglementaires très évolutives des marchés pharmaceutiques sont présentées ainsi que leurs conséquences induites sur les systèmes de prix et l'innovation.La deuxième partie, vise à analyser dans un premier temps l'approche adoptée par la Commission Européenne et les autorités de concurrence des divers Etats membres quant à la définition du marché pertinent de produits sur ces marchés. Plus particulièrement, dans un second temps, une étude empirique des schémas de substitution existants est développée à partir des décisions prises par la Commission Européenne de 1989 à 2011 en matière de fusions dans le secteur concerné. Cet examen des différents critères retenus pour définir la taille du marché pertinent souligne la tendance lourde à définir des marchés pertinents de produits toujours plus étroits, atteignant même le niveau moléculaire.Dans la troisième partie, l’analyse du système de prix de référence mis en place dans de nombreux Etats membres sur ces marchés concurrentiels, montre,en prenant en compte les avantages informatifs des princeps, dans quelle mesure la mise en place d'un tel système, peut favoriser l’innovation.Sous la quatrième partie, la modélisation de l'impact des nouveaux modèles d'accords de partage de risques se propose d’étudier comment de tels accords peuvent résoudre les problématiques d'aléa moral et de sélection adverse sur ces marchés, en incitant les entreprises à investir dans leur produit et à renforcer la qualité des biens fournis.Enfin, la partie cinq conclut le travail en mettant en perspective les résultats obtenus et en analysant les conséquences sous-jacentes pour les politiques publiques. / The aim of this thesis is to examine the competition patterns that exist between originators and generics by focusing on the articulations between regulation and incentives to innovate. Once the characteristics of regulation in pharmaceutical markets is reviewed in the first chapter and an analysis of some current challenges related to cost-containment measures and innovation issues is performed, then in the second chapter, an empirical study is performed to investigate substitution patterns. Based on the EC´s merger decisions in the pharmaceutical sector from 1989 to 2011, this study stresses the key criteria to define the scope of the relevant product market based on substitution patterns and shows the trend towards a narrower market in time. Chapters three and four aim to analyse in depth two widespread measures, the internal reference pricing system in off-patent markets, and risk-sharing schemes in patent-protected markets. By taking into account informational advantages of originators over generics, the third chapter shows the extent to which the implementation of a reference price for off-patent markets can contribute in promoting innovation. Finally, in the fourth chapter, the modeling of risk-sharing schemes explains how such schemes can help in solving moral hazard and adverse selection issues by continuously giving pharmaceutical companies incentives to innovate and supplying medicinal products of a higher quality.

This master thesis analyses factors that determine the prices of prescription medicine. The theoretical part is outlining the fundamentals of pharmaceutical market, identifying the main price components and determinants with main focus on pricing and reimbursement policies in the world. The empirical part is dedicated to the pharmaceutical market in the Czech Republic. It explores the impact of state regulatory measures such as internal and external reference pricing on the prescription medicine prices. A regression analysis was conducted to determine what factors have significant impact on the prices. Furthermore a t-test was performed to discover differences in price levels between regulated and unregulated drugs as well as between originator medicine and generics.