Pricing of satellite image data products: Neutrosophic fuzzy pricing approaches under different game scenarios

Abstract

With the gradual commercialization of satellite image data products, their pricing decisions become an important link for providers to achieve profits. This study aims to investigate the pricing problems of data products in a neutrosophic fuzzy environment. A main contribution is that two game scenarios, including the Bertrand and Stackelberg game scenarios, are discussed by considering the specific features of satellite image data products (SIDPs) market. Two main SIDPs providers are regarded as two players in the game. The innovation is that the concept of neutrosophic fuzzy variables is presented to fully express the uncertainty existing in real-world problems. As a result, the truth, indeterminacy and falsity degrees of decision makers for some problem parameters can determined in an intuitive and convenient fashion. Additionally, the expected value of neutrosophic variables is defined to facilitate the establishment of pricing models. After some equilibrium formulas are derived, a numerical example is provided to obtain the optimal pricing and expected profits. The effects of different power structures of providers are also analyzed and some interesting conclusions are made. Last, the advantages of our methods are demonstrated through comparative analyses. Furthermore, sensitivity analyses are conducted to identify the influence of important problem parameters and weight coefficients on final pricing decisions. The results demonstrate that the proposed approaches are feasible and can provide guidelines for the pricing of satellite image data products.