eMarkets Projects

Web-Based Dynamic Pricing Game
(Faculty: Itir Karaesmen,
Students: Inbal Yahav, Gisela Bardossi)

In this project a game/simulation was developed where players take the role of a pricing/sales manager at an online retailer and make pricing decisions for a product over time. The game is designed to mimic the sales, operations and decisions of an online retailer, albeit in a simplified setting. The retailer observes the inquiries for the product as well as purchases made. The retailer has the ability to change prices quickly and freely at no cost at any time. The only decision to be made by the players (retailer) is the price of the product at any point in time.

The web-based game is designed such that the instructor controls the input parameters of the game where the main inputs characterize the market demand (which affects both the number of inquiries and also the sales), the amount of supply, and the length of the sales horizon. There are currently four versions of the game. These versions differ based on the amount of demand information disclosed to the players (market information disclosed vs. no market information is provided) and the amount of supply available (finite vs. infinite). In the finite-supply version of the game, the players become familiar with the trade-off between remaining time and amount of stock remaining. Pricing optimization is challenging in this version. In the no-market-information version, the players are faced with the trade-off between experimenting with prices to gather market information and using the gathered information to set an effective (if not optimal) price for the product. The game is currently used in BUDT 775 Pricing and Revenue Management elective. Different versions of the game can be used in Microeconomics, Marketing, Statistics and Operations courses in the MBA curriculum.

The instructor's page for the game is at:
http://bmgt-class6.rhsmith.umd.edu/iyahav/PricingGame/GameSetting.php

A sample game screen is available at:
http://bmgt-class6.rhsmith.umd.edu/iyahav/PricingGame/Game2.php