The Impact of Cost Based Pricing Rules on Capacity Planning Under Uncertainty

This paper analyzes the efficiency of three simple cost-based pricing heuristics in a two-period capacity planning model with uncertain demand. All policies start with full cost introductory prices but differ in second-period pricing. Under "adaptive full-cost pricing", the firm updates second-period prices on the basis of current demand conditions and full unit costs. Under "wait-and-see pricing", the firm sets second-period prices on the basis of updated demand information and current opportunity cost of capacity. Under "myopic full-cost pricing", prices remain constant for both periods. Although we identify one special case for which all three heuristics replicate the optimal solution, we find that "wait-and-see pricing" dominates "adaptive full-cost pricing", which dominates its 'myopic' counterpart. However, we also discuss factors that may justify the use of 'full-cost pricing' in real-world planning environments. We note that if the firm faces significant information and/or communication costs, or if price changes will probably only occur in the far future, even the simple "myopic full-cost pricing" heuristic may be a reasonable policy