讲座主题：The Enemies from Within: When your Supplier Produces a Copycat of Your Product

　　主讲人：潘兆铭

　　讲座时间：12月24日(周一)上午10:00

　　讲座地点：yL23411永利官网登录A208

　　主办单位：yL23411永利官网登录管理科学与工程系

　　主持人：戴宾

　　讲座摘要：When a manufacturer outsources the production of a product, it distributes its intellectual property (IP) into a supply chain that it may not be able to fully control. The goal of this paper is to examine the impact of copycat products on a supply chain. The problem of a supplier producing a copycat product has recently been reported in numerous news outlets. However, papers that study the impact of copycat products do not consider the possibility that a supplier is the copycat. We use a game-theoretic approach that examines a system where a manufacturer outsources to a supplier. The supplier and a third-party firm decide whether or not to enter the market with a copycat product while the manufacturer selects the level of investment. The manufacturer can eliminate the threat of a copycat product from its supplier by signing an IP agreement. Interestingly, we find that the manufacturer can be worse off from signing an IP agreement with its supplier, even if the IP agreement is costless and perfectly enforceable. Our results also show that the supplier can benefit from a high cost to enter the market with a copycat product. Lastly, we show that the consumers can be better off in a regulated market where producing copycat products is not an option, than in a free market where firms have the possibility of copying popular products. Therefore, our results provide justification for governments to strengthen regulations against copycat products.

　　主讲人简介：潘兆铭博士任教于加拿大西安大略大学毅伟商学院管理科学系。潘博士在香港出生，于加拿大卑诗省大学获得工程系学士学位。工作数年后，受聘于委内瑞拉一企业的业务发展部门，从2003到2005年期间，全力为该公司发展于哥伦比亚、墨西哥、巴拿马和美国等地的业务。2010年，潘博士获取美国印第安纳大学运营管理和管理科学系博士学位，其后于毅伟商学院任教本科、MBA和博士课程。近年，屡获毅伟院长以及大学学生会的教学表扬奖。潘博士的研究重点包括市场推广与运营的关系、合作性供应链管理和医护运营管理。其研究成果，获行内高度认可，并在各大重点刊物上发表，包括Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Production and Operations Management, Decision Sciences等。此外，由2016至今，受邀为International Journal of Production Research副编辑。