Page 21 - Azerbaijan State University of Economics

THE JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC SCIENCES: THEORY AND PRACTICE, V.80, # 1, 2023, pp. 21-34

LOCATING THE SALE AGENTS IN SPOKE MODEL
THROUGH UNIFORM DISTRIBUTION OF CONSUMERS

SALAH SALIMIAN , KIUMARS SHAHBAZI , MAHDI MOVAHEDI BEK NAZAR 3
2
1*

1 * Department of Economics, Urmia University, & MA Student of Philosophy,
Tabriz University & LTU Master Auditor, Iran (Corresponding Author),
Email: [email protected]
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4938-950X

2 Urmia University, Department of Economics, Urmia, Iran
Email: [email protected]

3 Member of the Scientific Shahed University, Department of Humanities & Head of
Education, Research and Planning, Iranian National Tax Administration, Tehran, Iran
Email: [email protected]

Received: January 06; accepted May 26, 2023; published online June 26, 2023

ABSTRACT
Most manufactures sell their products through sale agents and are not directly engaged
with consumers. Therefore, determination of optimal location and optimal number of
sale agents is highly significant in their planning. The main objective of this paper is
theoretical modeling of sale agents and expansion of location models through a
method in such a way that the assumptions are closer to reality and could provide the
required conditions for selection of optimal location and optimal number of sale
agents. To this end, Spoke model of Chen & Riordan (2007) and Lijesen & Reggiani
(2013) has been used. In each street n consumers have been uniformly located. The
results showed under what conditions is the city center the optimal location of sale
agents and when the city margin is the optimal location and indicated that the cost of
launching sale agents is the main factor in making such decision. Moreover, the results
showed that the optimal number of sale agents is a function of the number of streets,
the customers' valuation of each unit of product, the price of sale agents, the number
of consumers on each street, the earned profit by the sale agents and the cost of
launching sale agents.

Keywords: Locating, Sale Agents, Uniform Distribution, Spoke Model.

JEL Classification: L11, L81, C16, C02

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