讲座题目：Strategic Analysis of the Agency Model for Digital Goods

时间：2014年12月25日（周四），下午1:30   

地点：同济大厦A楼19楼1922会议室

主讲人：谭寅亮（美国佛罗里达大学）

Title :“Strategic Analysis of the Agency Model for Digital Goods”（电子产品中代理合同的战略分析）
Abstract ：“The advent of digital goods has made a significant impact on the current traditional (physical) goods markets for items such as movies, music, video games, and books. Firms that manage both traditional and digital goods distribution channels are facing many emerging operational challenges. One of the most pivotal problems for these media related industries concerns the supply chain contract model utilized for the distribution of digital goods alongside their traditional counterparts. Recently, the agency model exploited by publishers in the e-book industry has been highlighted in the press as a result of the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) lawsuit against Apple, Inc. Chief amongst the DOJ regulators’ complaints was that e-book prices increased and consumer surplus decreased as a direct result of the agency model. We investigate the strategic impact of the agency model in comparison with the prevalent wholesale and fixed price models by formulating a dual channel model of distribution accommodating sales of both traditional and digital goods. In contrast to the current press concerning the DOJ’s lawsuit, we find that the equilibrium price of digital goods is lower in the agency model than in the conventional wholesale model. Furthermore, the agency model can increase a firm’s profit as well as consumer surplus by mitigating the double marginalization effect within the digital goods supply chain. Finally, we also conceptualize the similarity and differences between the agency model and revenue sharing contracts.”

摘要：电子产品的出现及发展影响了很多传统媒体行业，比如电影，音乐，游戏和出版业。一些同时管理着传统以及电子产品发行渠道的公司面临着新的挑战。其中一个最大的挑战就是供应链的合同设计。最近，出版行业中使用的代理合同由于美国司法部门的指控受到了很多的关注。其中司法部门的检察官主要控告苹果公司联合美国主要的出版商利用代理合同操纵电子书的价格。本文系统的分析了现在传媒行业中常见的三种合同。通过研究我们发现，在市场均衡的情况下，电子书的价格会在代理合同中降低，并且降低了的价格降带给消费者更多的剩余。文章的最后我们还比较了传统的分成合同和代理合同的异同点。