一、报告时间

2026年6月14日（星期日）10:00

二、报告形式

腾讯会议：857-783-956

三、报告人

关旭  华中科技大学

四、报告主题

Contract Observability and Learning-by-Doing in Supply Chains

五、报告摘要

While it is widely acknowledged that contract unobservability harms manufacturers by inducing more aggressive wholesale price competition, contract opacity remains prevalent in practice. This paper examines whether the cost-learning effect, which is widely observed in manufacturing industry, can serve as a new mechanism to rationalize the persistence of unobservable contracts. We develop a game-theoretic model in which a manufacturer sells to two competing retailers over two periods. The wholesale price can be observable or unobservable to the retailers, and the manufacturer's second-period production cost is determined by and decreases with the first-period order quantity. We show that although unobservable contracts reduce margins in the short run, they can induce larger first-period orders that generate substantial future cost reductions, potentially making unobservability more profitable for the manufacturer. Under observable contracts, a higher magnitude of the learning effect consistently leads to lower wholesale prices and higher order quantities, benefiting all firms in the supply chain. In contrast, under unobservable contracts, a stronger learning effect may weaken retailers' ordering incentives and reduce the effectiveness of wholesale price adjustments, thereby lowering manufacturer profit. Our findings provide a novel explanation for the persistence of contract opacity and highlight that the desirability of contract transparency depends critically on the strength of cost learning, both generating useful guidance for the regulation of contract transparency.

六、报告人简介

关旭，华中科技大学管理学院教授，华中卓越学者首席教授，供应链管理与系统工程系主任，国家优秀青年和杰出青年科学基金获得者。主要研究方向为供应链管理、运营与市场结合、信息设计和平台经济。在Management Science, Marketing Science, Manufacturing and Service Operations Management, Information Systems Research, Production and Operations Management等商学院权威期刊发表多篇论文。现任中国运筹学会博弈论分会副理事长，中国管理现代化研究会生产与运作管理专业委员会副主任委员，中国管理科学与工程学会青年工作委员会秘书长；担任Decision Sciences，Service Science期刊副主编（Associate Editor）和Management Science等国际权威期刊审稿专家。