This thesis addresses three problems where a focal agent's operational policies (inventory and capacity allocation) interact with marketing decisions. The first chapter studies how wholesale all-unit discounts may lead to products being shifted from authorized retailers to discounted gray market channels. Such discounts lead to discontinuous ordercosts which may induce buyers to order up to a threshold where they receive a greater discount. The buyer in this chapter is a reseller who makes purchasing decisions while taking into account inventory holding costs, how their resale price affects consumer demand and whether or not they divert inventory to the gray market. I analyze factors which determine how the reseller balances between lowering resale prices and diverting to the gray market, both of which lower costs by shortening the time inventory is held. Modelling the decisions as a Stackelberg game, the welfare of the authorized channel participants is analyzed. Of import, consumer welfare may decrease if a gray market emerges when holding costs are low. In the latter two chapters, the supplier sells a congested service. For example, this supplier may be a courier facing stochastic buyer arrivals. Buyers vary in their value for the service and how patient they are, so the supplier may improve outcomes by providing a menu of delay levels and prices. The system is modelled as a priority queue where congestion constrains the arrival rates at each delay level. In the first study, the supplier has aggregate market data. I model the problem as an optimization subject to incentive and congestion constraints. The novel contributions include a precise description of the optimal menu as a function of the supplier's capacity (the rate at which buyers can be served). Findings include existence of distinct capacity regions where the supplier utilizes service pooling and strategic delay. In the final chapter the related welfare maximization problem is considered. Sufficient conditions for optimal pricing are derived which depend only on operational information: the current revenue must be equal to the best-case revenue subject to current prices and congestion constraints. An associated performance measure is shown to bound deviation from maximum welfare and is used as a heuristic within an adaptive pricing protocol. This protocol is shown to converges to near welfare maximizing outcomes.

This thesis addresses three problems where a focal agent's operational policies (inventory and capacity allocation) interact with marketing decisions. The first chapter studies how wholesale all-unit discounts may lead to products being shifted from authorized retailers to discounted gray market channels. Such discounts lead to discontinuous ordercosts which may induce buyers to order up to a threshold where they receive a greater discount. The buyer in this chapter is a reseller who makes purchasing decisions while taking into account inventory holding costs, how their resale price affects consumer demand and whether or not they divert inventory to the gray market. I analyze factors which determine how the reseller balances between lowering resale prices and diverting to the gray market, both of which lower costs by shortening the time inventory is held. Modelling the decisions as a Stackelberg game, the welfare of the authorized channel participants is analyzed. Of import, consumer welfare may decrease if a gray market emerges when holding costs are low. In the latter two chapters, the supplier sells a congested service. For example, this supplier may be a courier facing stochastic buyer arrivals. Buyers vary in their value for the service and how patient they are, so the supplier may improve outcomes by providing a menu of delay levels and prices. The system is modelled as a priority queue where congestion constrains the arrival rates at each delay level. In the first study, the supplier has aggregate market data. I model the problem as an optimization subject to incentive and congestion constraints. The novel contributions include a precise description of the optimal menu as a function of the supplier's capacity (the rate at which buyers can be served). Findings include existence of distinct capacity regions where the supplier utilizes service pooling and strategic delay. In the final chapter the related welfare maximization problem is considered. Sufficient conditions for optimal pricing are derived which depend only on operational information: the current revenue must be equal to the best-case revenue subject to current prices and congestion constraints. An associated performance measure is shown to bound deviation from maximum welfare and is used as a heuristic within an adaptive pricing protocol. This protocol is shown to converges to near welfare maximizing outcomes.

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因服務商品的天然特性，使服務業者即使在均衡時仍常存在結構性的剩餘產能而造成了社會資源的浪費。 　　本論文旨在研究以類似經濟學中的差別訂價（Price-Discrimination）概念，配合網際網路的載體平台，業者使用多種不同的價格方案銷售同一服務商品的策略。 　　多種不同的價格方案因為滿足了多種不同需求強度的消費者，而能擴大交易量，並增加了業者的收益。然而這些價格方案中所附加的條件與限制，透過預期及學習，最後可能改變了消費者的偏好與行為模式，而出現業者原本計算以外的結果。 　　本論文首先歸納各種現有的多重訂價方式，以此為基礎發展一個具有訂購時間順序及典型供需關係的市場模型，邀請受測者扮演消費者在其中模擬消費，而由實驗者扮演業者，在市場模型中實施不同的多重訂價策略，藉此觀察消費者實際採購的結果與實驗者預期的異同，記錄並採討其中的現象與發現。 　　實驗的最終總結：（一）各種以訂購時間進行差別訂價的策略對消費者行為及業者收益產生的影響；（二）如何改善多重訂價實際應用的效果；（三）對多重訂價策略擬定流程的建議；及（四）在網路平台上實施多重訂價策略的展望。

This study examines various approaches used by companies providingsoftware-as-a-service (SaaS) in a business-to-business (B2B) environment to find a pricing strategy. To be able to meet competition in a global market, a good pricing strategy is vital. Pricing is an important part of marketing, which must be congruent with the company's overall objectives. Strategic pricing is made up of different factors represented in the strategic pricing pyramid, which is based on a value-based approach. It is paramount to know your customers and their preferences when designing a pricing strategy and selecting pricing models, price metrics, market segmentation, bundling, and price levels. After having estimated how much value a product or service creates for a customer, this must be communicated to potential customers in order to convince them to purchase your offering. Choosing the right pricing strategy is not a onetime occurrence, but an on-going process. In this qualitative study, three case studies are performed to tie theory to real world practise.

Notre travail se situe dans le contexte de partage de réseau mobile actif, ou un nombre d'opérateurs partagent leur accès radio, afin de former un système multi-technologie multi-opérateur. Le but de notre étude est de montrer les avantages de la coopération entre les opérateurs, principalement en ce qui concerne les revenus. De plus, nous cherchons des stratégies pour surpasser les conséquences négatives du partage des ressources, surtout celles touchant la performance des réseaux des opérateurs coopérants. Nous avons montré que les bénéfices de la coopération dépendent fortement du choix de partenaires, la tarification de service ( cout de transfert) entre les partenaires, et combien un opérateur partage de ses ressources. Notre travail consiste, en premier temps, à proposer un algorithme de sélection d'accès applicable dans un réseau multi-opérateurs. Cet algorithme devrait garantir la satisfaction en QoS de l'utilisateur et celle en profit de son opérateur d'accès à l'Internet. Ainsi, un algorithme adoptant une décision hybride, NP-BPA (Nearest Performance and Best Profit Algorithm), est proposé. En deuxième temps, nous étudions la tarification de service entre les opérateurs partenaires, précisément le coût de transfert d'un utilisateur. Ce dernier paye juste le prix du service que son opérateur d'accès à l'Internet détermine, il est inconscient du transfert. Les modèles de tarification proposés relient le coût de transfert d'un opérateur au prix adopté pour le service des clients. Le premier modèle, ACAG (As Client As Guest), suggère que le coût de transfert d'un opérateur soit égal à son prix de service. Le deuxième modèle, MIWC (Maximum Income When Cooperating), suggère que les coûts de transfert des opérateurs coopérants soient identiques, et égaux au prix de service le plus élevé des partenaires. Et, le troisième modèle, MCWC (Minimum Cost When Cooperating), suggère que les coûts de transfert des opérateurs coopérants soient identiques et égaux au plus petit prix de service des partenaires. La décision du meilleur modèle à adopter lors de la coopération, intervient une interaction entre les différents partenaires. Nous avons modélisé cette interaction à l'aide de la théorie de jeux. Nous avons exploité un jeu Stackelberg à deux niveaux, TPA (Transaction Pricing and Access Selection), où les opérateurs de service agissent comme Leaders et les opérateurs d'accès à l'Internet des utilisateurs à transférer agissent comme Followers. Finalement, nous avons considéré le mode d'accès hybride pour la coopération. Ce mode d'accès est proposé comme solution surtout pour les opérateurs partageant la plus grande capacité. La performance du réseau de ces opérateurs est relativement affaiblie suite à la coopération. Nous avons vérifié que le pourcentage de blocage diminue quand l'opérateur, ayant une capacité élevée, réduit le pourcentage de ressources partagées. Pour un même pourcentage de partage, le profit d'un opérateur diffère avec le modèle de tarification adopté. Ainsi, une bonne décision doit être prise, concernant le pourcentage de partage et le modèle de tarification, tout en tenant compte de l'effet de cette décision sur les autres partenaires du système. C'est pourquoi que nous avons proposé un nouvel jeu séquentiel à deux niveaux, afin de modéliser l'interaction entre les opérateurs, pour le partage de ressources et la tarification du coût de transfert. / We consider a roaming-based infrastructure sharing system, where multiple operators share their radio access in a multi-operator environment. Indeed, when the home operator of a user is unable to satisfy its constraints, because of lack of resources or QoS, a transaction event is triggered. It consists in transferring the considered user to another operator in order to access the service. Moreover, when there are more than two operators sharing their access, the user transfer process includes an access selection decision in order to choose the best operator for service. Furthermore, when a user is transferred, its home operator must pay some transaction cost as cooperation fees for the new service operator. This transaction is seamless to the user. Therefore, the inter-operators sharing agreement set for cooperation must include three important issues: the selection decision algorithm, the transaction cost pricing scenario, and the percentage of resources shared by each operator. In the first part, we introduce our selection decision algorithm in a multi-operator environment, NP-BPA (Nearest Performance and Best Profit Algorithm). It is based on a multi-criteria cost function which groups the different parameters that enable a satisfying selection decision, for the operators and users. In the second part, we study the transaction cost. We find rational that an operator sets its transaction cost as a function of its service price. We consider a sharing system of three partners, interacting to decide the best transaction cost. Taking into account that the service of a guest user may affect the probability of acceptance of a client, an operator looks for preserving the expected revenue from its client. Therefore, we propose the first pricing scenario, ACAG (As Client As Guest) that aims to set the transaction cost of an operator equal to its service price. However, every operator seeks to maximize its revenue; therefore it is expected to set a higher transaction cost. How much higher? This must respect the sharing agreement between different partners and the service prices they adopt. To be optimistic, we propose a second pricing scenario MIWC (Max In When Cooperating). With this scenario all partners agree to have a transaction cost equal to the highest service price announced in the system. But, this scenario may cause losses in some cases where an operator setting a low service price performs a lot of transactions. To be fair, we propose a third pricing scenario MCWC (Min Cost When Cooperating). With this scenario all partners agree to have a transaction cost equal to the lowest service price announced in the system. In order to decide the best pricing scenario to adopt in the sharing system, a two stage Stackelberg game, TPA (Transaction Pricing and Access Selection) game, is formulated. In this game, the operators are the players; the service operators are the leaders and the home operator of a transferred user is a follower. In the third part, we consider a three operator sharing system with hybrid access mode. In this system partners decide to share a restricted amount of their capacity. We show how the sharing factor affects the blocking rates and affect the global profits. Further, the achieved profit does not depend only on the sharing factor, but also on the adopted pricing scenario. Therefore an economic framework based on game theoretical analysis is proposed. It models the interaction between the sharing system operators for resource sharing and pricing, in addition to the access selection. A sequential game is formulated, where the players are the operators. In the first stage, the sharing partners decide the proportion of resources they will share and the transaction pricing scenario in order to maximize their own profits. In the second stage, the home operator of a transferred user selects the suitable service operator. A bi-level optimization problem is solved and equilibrium is found.

One of the key processes of IS/IT service provider is Service Level Management. IT service provider faces a problem how the services should be defined, how a balanced service portfolio should be set up and how the processes covering the service management should be designed to meet strategic goals of the organization. The thesis focuses on IS/IT service portfolio design and management with a particular focus on infrastructure services. General goal of the thesis is to support IS/IT service provider's activities directly linked with service level management, IT financial management and IT service portfolio design. The thesis puts together theoretical sources in the area of IT Governance, generally accepted methodologies and best practices, actual market trends and author's experience. The theoretical part maps current development in the field of IS/IT service management, summarizes relevant theoretical inputs, categorizes IS/IT services, gives an overview of the most commonly used pricing models and presents actual IS/IT market trends, such as SaaS or Utility Computing. The application part, which follows the theoretical part of the thesis, is built upon fundaments of key findings and conclusions of the theoretical part. Application section introduces a method of service level management transformation and a business model suitable for IS/IT service provider. Furthermore a process of IS/IT service portfolio design is introduced. The process is supported by an analytical tool, which enables analysis of provider's financial and infrastructure data. The output of the analysis is a set of scenarios of IS/IT service portfolio including revenue, costs and utilization of resources and technologies. Academic benefit is seen not only in the consolidation of relevant theoretical sources dealing with IT service design and management. The thesis also introduces frameworks for optimization of service level management process and a concept of a IT service provider's business model. A practical contribution of the thesis is seen in a process of IT service portfolio design supported by an analytical tool for provider's real data processing, covering demand, capacity, utilization and financials.