Game Theory - Auctions at HelpWithAssignment.com

Auctions are among the oldest methods of selling items, with recorded occurrences as early as 500 BC. While historically not as common as sale by fixed price or bargaining, the development and proliferation of the internet and information technology has made auctions into a common means of selling and buying items, both large and small. At its most basic, an auction is a set of rules by which an item is sold to one of several potential buyers. In this set of rules by which an item is sold to one of the several potential buyers. There are different types of auctions available.

• The First Price Auction: In a first price auction, each bidder simultaneously writes down his name and a number on a slip of paper and submits the paper to the auctioneer. The auctioneer turns over all the of the papers, the bidder who wrote down the highest number is given the item and pays the amount that is written on his slip. Under certain assumptions, this procedure is identical to the so-called Dutch auction, or descending price auction. The price begins at some incredibly high amount and drops at a predetermined rate, for example 10 cents per second. The auction ends when one of the bidders presses a button which keeps the price from falling further and pays an amount of money, equal to the posted price when he stopped the clock. The other bidders receive nothing and pay nothing.
• The second price auction: In second price auction, each bidder simultaneously writes down his name and a number on a slip of paper and submits the papers to an auctioneer. The auctioneer turns over all the papers and the bidder who wrote down the highest number is given the item and pays the second highest amount that was written by other bidders. Under certain conditions and assumptions the auction is similar to that of Button auction and auction of fish in Japan. The bidders will have their names on a board with lights next to their names. The auction begins with zero and ascends at a predetermined rate. As long as the lights next to the name of a bidder is still on, the participant is still in the auction. Each bidder can press a button which will turn off the lights. The last bidder to be in the auction with lights on will win the item and pays the price at which his previous bidder dropped out. This is similar to the selling procedure on eBay.
• The All-Pay Auction: In all-pay price auction, each bidder simultaneously writes downs his name and a number on a slip of paper and submits the papers to an auctioneer. The auctioneer turns over all of the papers, the bidder who wrote down the highest number is given the item but all bidders who wrote down the highest number is given the item but all bidders have to pay their bids.
• The Lottery: In a lottery, each bidder can write down only one of the two bids, “In” or “Out”. All those players that are “in” are required to pay a price p, and have an equal chance of winning the item. Those that are “out” pay nothing and do not have the potential to win anything. We can think of these situations as Bayesian Games. In these games, the set of players will consist of a number of bidders, usually two. Given their type, each player chooses a bid, that is what to write down on the slip of paper and submit to the auctioneer. Given this outcome, each player’s payoff is

Ui (Qi, Pi/ V1, V2) = ViQi – Pi

Thus, each player’s payoff is his or her value for the good multiplied by the quantity of the good that he or she receives, minus any payment she has to make. Crucially, each buyer’s payoff only on his or her own value, any other bidder’s value for the item is irrelevant to each bidder. If two buyers are interested in acquiring a new painting from a young artist. If one art dealer has a very high valuation, it may mean, for example, that he or she has a client lined up for this piece, and although the other dealer may not know the identity of the client for certain, the fact that the other dealer places a high value on the painting may be important to a given art dealer’s assessment of its value.

This article is in continuation with our previous articles on Economics and Game Theory which include Prisoners' Dilemma, Battle of the sexes, Cutting a Cake, Solow's Growth Model

For more details you can visit our website at http://www.helpwithassignment.com/economics-assignment-help and http://www.helpwiththesis.com

Game Theory - Repeated Games at HelpWithAssignment.com

Repeated Games are an important and simple category of dynamic games. As the name suggests, repeated games are dynamic games generated by the repetition of some static game a certain number of times, either finite or infinite. On the other hand, repeated games are a simple class of dynamic games because the actions and payoffs to players stay the same over time, at the same time, this feature makes repeated games interesting. Any differences between the equilibrium outcomes of the static game must be coming from the fact that there are multiple periods in the interaction.

The General Setup of the Game:

Starting with static game G, called the “stage game” one can construct a new game which is the repetition of G game with T rounds, where T can be either finite or infinite. In each round, all players simultaneously choose actions from their sets of possible actions inherited from game G. A player observes the outcome of the stage game before the next round of play. Players can thus observe all of the past outcomes of the stage game when they choose their action in any particular round. All of the past outcomes are referred to as ‘history of the game’. Players can choose different actions in the stage game depending on the history of play up to that point in the repeated game. A strategy for a player is therefore a plan which specifies a particular action of the stage game for each possible history of play. Taking account of all players’ strategies determines a sequence of outcomes associated with a payoff for each player. Suppose it is period k ≤ T. The strategies chosen by all players lead to a sequence of payoffs for a given player. The player’s payoff in the repeated game in period

k = U_k + EU_k+1 + E²U_k+2 +…+ E^T-k U_T

In other words, a player’s payoff is discounted sum of the stream of payoffs from the stage game, with payoffs that are received in the future reduced by a factor of E<1. There are two equivalent ways to think of E, as a representation of impatience. Typically, if one is willing to pay some money to get some benefit in the future, one would be willing to pay more for that benefit today. Conversely, a monetary payoff today can be invested at the risk free interest rate until next year. Therefore, the same amount of money received next year is worth less than today than the same amount of money received today.

Consider the example of Prisoners’ Dilemma once more, this time with a repetition of the game. In this game C is a dominant strategy for both players and this game has a unique Nash Equilibrium (C,C) worse for either player than (S,S).

		Player 2
		C	S
Player 1	C	-5, -5	0, -12
	S	-12, 0	-1, -1

Let’s consider a new game: the repetition of this game two times. A strategy for each player specifies and action in the first period and an action in the second period for each of the four possible outcomes in the first period.

A sample strategy for player 1 is

Period 1: Play S

Period 2: Plays S if (S,S) otherwise C

If both players adopt this strategy, in period one the outcome will be (S, S) leading to a payoff of (-1, -1) for period one. In period 2, the strategy dictates that each player will play S again, leading to a payoff of (-1, -1). The period one payoff to each player is just the payoff in period one, plus N times the anticipated payoff in period 2.

-1 + (-1)N.

This article is in continuation with our previous articles on Economics and Game Theory which include Prisoners' Dilemma, Battle of the sexes, Cutting a Cake, Solow's Growth Model

For more details you can visit our website at http://www.helpwithassignment.com/economics-assignment-help andhttp://www.helpwiththesis.com

Supply Chain Management at HelpWithAssignment.com

Supply Chain Management (SCM) is the management of a network of interconnected businesses involved in the ultimate provision of product and service packages required by end customers.

The philosophy of Supply Chain Management takes a systems approach to viewing the channel as a single entity, rather than as a set of fragmented parts, each performing its own function. There are three concepts in Supply Chain Management. These concepts are tightly interconnected.

Network structure: The Network structure comprises collaboration partners in a supply chain, as well as the relationships between these players. For many businesses it is a novel challenge to choose and work in a structured manner with business relationships. A good way to start is to describe the roles the business fills today and the roles the business wishes to fill in the future in terms of supply chain.

Business Processes: Business Processes encompass the activities and flows of information that are connected with conducting materials, products and services through the supply chain and on to customers. Examples of important business processes include Order Processing, Customer Services, Distribution, Product Development and supply, and

Management: The Management component is the third element in the SCM reference framework. There are a number of management components, which span business processes and the roles of participants in the supply chain. It is of key importance to be aware of these common components in order to secure the successful completion of supply chain project, because they determine how the individual processes are managed and how they are integrated.

There are many different types of supply chains of which four main types are:

Type1: Dynamic/Low level of influence from the company in focus.

This type operates under dynamic conditions while the company in focus has only limited influence on the other participants involved in the supply chain. The dynamic condition can be explained by frequent internal process changes, due to multiple product configurations or external market conditions with a myriad of competitors as well as many new product launches.

Type2: Dynamic/high degree of influence held by the company in focus.

In this type of supply chain the focus company has power/ influence over the other participants. In this situation, the focus company will with its purchasing power or innovative image tends to become important cooperative partner for the other links in the supply chain.

Type3: Static/ focus company has a low level of influence.

This supply chain works under stable conditions, both internally and externally. Total cost effectiveness will often be the primary aspect of competition. Focus will be on increasing effectiveness within the logistics processes, including improving processes, integrating information systems, reducing inventory and making full use of capacity.

Type4: Static/ focus company has high degree of influence.

In this type of supply chain the focus company enjoys a high degree of influence over the other parties involved. This situation indicates that the dominant company can choose its cooperation partners and make the necessary decisions regarding the organization of the supply chain, as well as increasing its effectiveness.

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Understanding Stage-Gate Model at HelpWithAssignment.com

Stage-Gate Model is a product innovation process which is a carefully designed business process. The need for a process like Stage-Gate Process is more than obvious from the fact that in many organizations, the research teams come up with new product ideas every now and then.

In order that an idea actually transforms into a product or service is totally dependent on the workability of the idea itself. If the idea is practical then there is a chance of resource allocation needed for the development of that particular idea into a product. More often, the ideas are dropped halfway through the development process resulting in losses for investing in the development.

Stage-Gate Model on the other hand helps to asses the idea for its workability, avoiding costs in the process. So, organizations can choose between n number of ideas and work on those which really have the potential to become good products.

Stage-Gate Process divides the product or service development process into predetermined set of stages. This provides a structure to the creative process and serves to improve the decision-making process. Each stage consists of a set of prescribed, cross-functional and parallel activities and each gate precedes each stage and serves as the quality control point and the Go/Kill check point.

An example for the Stage-Gate process can be shown in a drug development scenario. In drug development, the regulatory requirements function as the stage-gates. If a drug candidate fails a clinical test or a preclinical test, then the development has to be terminated as the Food and Drug Administration. And a drug cannot be sold without its approval.

Typically a stage-gate model typically has five stages. Sometimes there are several sub-stages in each stage depending upon the complexity of the product.

Stage 1: Initial investigation of the project.

Stage 2: Detailed investigation of the project. At this stage a business case of the project should be created which includes defining the product, the business jurisdiction and a detailed plan of action for the next stages.

Stage 3: Advanced design and development. It is important to define manufacturing and operating and operating process, marketing launch strategy, and test plans for the next stage.

Stage 4: Testing and Validation. The product is carefully verified and plans for marketing and production are made.

Stage 5: Launch and full-commercialization, production, marketing and selling take place.

Each stage costs more than the preceding stage and so stages are based on incremental commitment. Each stage aims at reducing uncertainties, although the expenditures of each stage increase. The Go/Kill decisions and prioritization points serve as quality control checkpoints.

To use the stage-gate process requires sufficient cross-functional teams and people willing to support each other and above all it requires an effective gate-keeping group. For large organizations managers with resource allocation authority can act as gate-keepers.

This article is in continuation with our previous articles on Marketing which include: Marketing Assignment help, Market Research Techniques, 4Ps of Marketing, 5Cs of Marketing

For more details you can visit http://www.helpwithassignment.com/marketing-assignment-help and http://www.helpwiththesis.com.

Understanding Conjoint Analysis at HelpWithAssignment.com

Conjoint Analysis has become one of the most widely accepted and used quantitative methods in Marketing Research. It is used to measure the various features that people perceive in a product. It is also used to learn how demand for a particular product or service is related to its price and to forecast the likely acceptance of the product in the market.

The objective of conjoint analysis is to determine what combination of a limited number of attributes is most influential on respondent choice or decision making. A controlled set of potential products or services is shown to respondents and by analyzing how they make preferences between these products, the implicit valuation of the individual elements making up the product or service can be determined. These implicit valuations can be used to create market models that estimate market share, revenue and even profitability of new designs.

• The concept is frequently used in customer acceptance for new product design, in assessing the appeal of advertisements and in service design.
• Consumers evaluate a product’s value by combining the separate utilities of each attribute.
• The most desirable product is the one that has the most desirable bundle of benefits and attributes.
• Different segments have different preferences for different attributes- the job is to figure out what these preferences are for the target.
• By constructing a set of hypothetical products by combining the different attributes at different levels will show not just the attributes but also how much of an attribute is desired and how important that attribute is relative to all other possibilities.
• Conjoint analysis is a sophisticated technique and there are technical issues that need to be considered. In particular, the design of attributes is a crucial step in a conjoint project as choices between poorly defined levels can render the exercise meaningless.

This article is in continuation with our previous articles on Marketing which include: Marketing Assignment help, Market Research Techniques, 4Ps of Marketing, 5Cs of Marketing

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Tips for Writing a Good Marketing Plan

A Marketing Plan is a synopsis of what the organization wants to achieve for a particular time period. It provides directions for the marketing activities. It is like a roadmap which not only talks about the destination but also talks on how to get there. It provides the plan and strategies which help drive the marketing activity towards the desired results.

• A Marketing Plan allows the organization to retrospect its past activities so that it can rectify its mistakes and come up with new strategies.
• It also helps the organization to fully understand the external environment. In this case the whole market. This includes conducting a proper market research and conducting a trend analysis of the market and the consumer interests.
• It helps in setting future goals and provides a direction for future marketing efforts that everyone in the organization should understand and support.
• It is a key component in obtaining funding to pursue new initiatives.

A Marketing Plan shall include:

• Summary and Introduction: A Marketing Plan should start with Summary. This summary is a synopsis of what were the organization’s goals in the past, what its goals are in the future and the means to achieve those goals.
• Marketing Objectives: Marketing Objectives must be based on the understanding of the Strengths, Weaknesses and the operating environment of the organization. The objectives must be complimentary to the overall business strategies of the organization.
• Situation or SWOT Analysis: SWOT Analysis means the analysis of SWOT or Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. This SWOT Analysis combines the internal and external analysis to summarize the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that are seen in an organization.
• Target Markets: Target Markets is one of the most important aspects of marketing. Not all of the general public come under the category of target market. This is the reason why people are divided on the basis of demography, gender, interests, hobbies, likes and dislikes. For example: toys are intended for children, apparel are divided on the basis of gender, etc.
• Strategies: Strategies are Plans of Action that detail how the marketing variables of product, price, place and promotion (commonly known as the Four Ps) are used to attain the marketing plan’s annual objectives and overall strategies. The marketing plan is to how to put the strategies into practice. To understand how the market works, the market must be broken down into smaller segments – groups of similar customers. Once it is decided on the target market, the decision regarding the positioning in the market must be considered.
• Tracking and Evaluation: This will include the various strategies used to track each type of marketing activity that is being used. Tracking helps monitor the effectiveness of each marketing activity and is especially helpful with the overall program evaluation. Evaluation is one of the most important activities in a marketing plan. Evaluation will help in determining the return on investments. The methods of tracking will help in evaluation.

This article is in continuation with our previous articles on Marketing Assignment help, 4Ps of Marketing, 5Cs of Marketing

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