Supporting Customers to Sell Used Goods thru P2P: Profitability and Environmental Implications

【主题】支持顾客通过P2P售卖旧货：对盈利和环境的启示

【时间】12月30日，周五，10:00-12:00

【地点】清华经管学院 伟伦楼453

【语言】中英文

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Youhua Chen, Professor, City University of Hong Kong：Supporting Customers to Sell Used Goods thru P2P: Profitability and Environmental Implications

【Speaker】Youhua Chen, Professor, City University of Hong Kong

【Title】Supporting Customers to Sell Used Goods thru P2P: Profitability and Environmental Implications

【Time】Dec.30, Friday, 10:00am-12:00pm

【Venue】Room 453, Weilun Building, Tsinghua SEM

【Language】English and Chinese

【Organizer】Department of Management Science and Engineering

【Abstract】Several brand name companies have launched online peer-to-peer (P2P) platforms to support their customers to post, sell and buy their used goods. These P2P platforms serve as redistribution/secondhand markets where used or pre-owned goods are passed on from someone who does not want them to someone who does want them. This is another alternative to the more common “reduce, reuse, recycle, repair" methods of dealing with waste. For this reason, these firms typically publicize their campaigns as ``Go Green" programs. However, as commonly perceived, secondhand markets would cannibalize the sales of a firm’s new products and thus compromises its financials. Hence, we aim to address two research questions here: will actions of supporting customers to sell used goods through secondhand markets 1) enhance firm profits and/or 2) be greener than not supporting? If a firm can benefit from more active secondhand trading, then a “Go Green” program will most likely lead to financial sustainability and hence the firm’s long-term voluntary commitment to such effort. We find that whether encouraging secondhand trading is greener and/or more profitable depends largely on the product’s relative values of reuse and newness (for used goods and new products, respectively), the relative environmental impact of the product in its use phase as compared to the production and disposal phases. This work is collaborated with XUE Yu and YU Yugang.

【Bio】Youhua (Frank) Chen [陳友華] is Chair Professor of and Head of Department of Management Sciences at City University of Hong Kong. His current research interests include inventory modeling, analysis of inventory systems, sustainable supply chains, and healthcare management. His recent papers appeared in Operations Research and POM. Prior to joining City University of Hong Kong in 2012, Prof. Chen was on the faculty of NUS Business School at National University of Singapore (1997-2001) and the Department of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (2001-2012). He holds a bachelor degree in Engineering, master degree in Economics, and doctoral degree in Management from Tsinghua University (Beijing), the University of Waterloo, and the University of Toronto, respectively.