The impacts of retailers' regret aversion on a random multi-period supply chain network

Most current studies on the equilibrium decision-makings of a supply chain network (SCN) consider only completely rational retailers who always try to maximize their expected profits under the situations that demands are random. However, many evidences show that a retailer wants to choose the decision-making involving random demand which provides him with minimum regret. In this paper, we consider the impacts of retailers' anticipated regret aversion and experiential regret aversion on the equilibrium decision-makings of a random SCN with multiple production periods. Due to the random demand, the decision-makings of retailers are influenced not only by their anticipated regret, but also by their experiential regret after they have encountered bad or good experiences during past periods. The equilibrium conditions of the model are established. A numerical example is solved to illustrate the benefit of retailers obtained by considering their regret-averse behaviors. Moreover, it is found that retailers should consider their anticipated regret aversion or experiential regret aversion according to different situations of the demand markets.