Corporate donation strategies considering remanufacturing subsidies and consumer heterogeneity
摘要
Corporate donation is a way for enterprises to exhibit a better market image and fulfill their social responsibilities. In donation activities, remanufactured products, which are subsidized by the government, are often donated. Additionally, an increasing number of environmentally aware consumers come to consider purchasing remanufactured products rather than their new counterparts. Therefore, in this work, we characterize how corporate donations are affected by remanufacturing subsidies and brand effects by developing an optimization model of an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) to characterize the pricing decisions of OEMs that provide heterogeneous consumers with both new and remanufactured products. We find that when the OEM does not donate, government subsidies reduce the prices of new and remanufactured products and increase the OEM’s profits. However, when the OEM donates, government subsidies have no effect on the prices of new and remanufactured products, but they can encourage the OEM to donate more remanufactured products. When the increase in brand value from donations is low and the subsidies are also low or when the increase in brand value is significant, the utility of both loyal consumers and switching consumers is essentially improved by the OEM’s donations. Furthermore, if corporate donations lead to a significant number of loyal consumers (switching consumers) becoming switching consumers (loyal consumers), implementing donations is always beneficial for the OEM. Finally, both low and high subsidies incentivize OEMs to implement donations.