UWSpace is currently experiencing technical difficulties resulting from its recent migration to a new version of its software. These technical issues are not affecting the submission and browse features of the site. UWaterloo community members may continue submitting items to UWSpace. We apologize for the inconvenience, and are actively working to resolve these technical issues.
 

Circular economy: Joint dynamic pricing and recycling investments

Loading...
Thumbnail Image

Date

2021-06-01

Authors

Schlosser, Rainer
Chenavaz, Regis Y.
Dimitrov, Stanko

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Elsevier

Abstract

In a circular economy, the use of recycled resources in production is a key performance indicator for management. Yet, academic studies are still unable to inform managers on appropriate recycling and pricing policies. We develop an optimal control model integrating a firm's recycling rate, which can use both virgin and recycled resources in the production process. Our model accounts for recycling influence both at the supply- and demand-sides. The positive effect of a firm's use of recycled resources diminishes over time but may increase through investments. Using general formulations for demand and cost, we analytically examine joint dynamic pricing and recycling investment policies in order to determine their optimal interplay over time. We provide numerical experiments to assess the existence of a steady-state and to calculate sensitivity analyses with respect to various model parameters. The analysis shows how to dynamically adapt jointly optimized controls to reach sustainability in the production process. Our results pave the way to sounder sustainable practices for firms operating within a circular economy.

Description

The final publication is available at Elsevier via http://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2021.108117. © 2021. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Keywords

Dynamic pricing, Recycling investments, Optimal control, General demand function, Circular economy

LC Keywords

Citation