Mixed contracts for the newsvendor problem with real options and discrete demand

In this paper we consider the newsvendor model with real options under discrete demand. We consider a mixed contract where the retailer can order a combination of q units subject to the conditions in a classical newsvendor contract and Q real options on the same items. We provide a closed form solution to this mixed contract when the demand is discrete and study some of its properties. In particular we demonstrate that a mixed contract may be superior to a real option contract when a manufacturer has a bound on how much variance she is willing to accept.

► Explicit algorithms for mixed newsvendor contracts when demand is discrete. ► Mixed contracts are superior to real option contracts under variance constraints. ► Under variance constraints the problem can be reduced to a finite number of LP-problems.