Twosided competition with vertical differentiation in both acquisition and sales in remanufacturing Abstract   We study the competition between two remanufacturers in the acquisition of used products and the sales of remanufactured products. One firm has a market advantage; we consider two separate cases where either firm could have an acquisition advantage. The problem is formulated as a simultaneous game on a market that is vertically differentiated in both acquisition and sales, where both firms decide on their respective acquisition prices for used products, and selling prices for remanufactured products. A key finding is that a market advantage is significantly more powerful than an acquisition advantage. The firm with a market advantage can preempt the entry of the other firm, even if that firm has a significant acquisition advantage, but not the other way around. This is accomplished through an aggressive acquisition strategy, where the firm with a market advantage sets significantly higher acquisition prices.

Used Product Acquisition Control by Financial Incentives in Remanufacturing Uncertainty of the used product acquisition is one of the cost increasing factors in remanufacturing. Since used products are the raw materials in remanufacturing, too much or too little acquisition lower the efficiency of the production. This uncertainty is caused by the fact that remanufacturer does not know the status of the products in the market and the timing when they are replaced. But with the progress in the IoT technologies, monitoring the products and analyzing the captured data becomes feasible. Assuming the use of the IoTenabled products, this study proposes a method to control used product acquisition by offering the financial incentives according to the remaining product lifetime. We evaluate feasibility of our proposal using a multi agent simulation model and show preferable incentive patterns to remanufacturer in the different situations. The practical insights presented in this study would help remanufacturers to run their business efficiently.