Abstract: The ongoing development of the cloud computing technology promotes the maturity and application of SaaS, which makes software vendors who traditionally used retail channels to sell their products begin to consider the introduction of a SaaS channel. This paper explores the optimal channel strategy for software vendors in a supply chain composed of a vendor and a retailer, taking into account consumer disappointment aversion. It compares decentralized and centralized decision-making models, both with and without the SaaS channel. The results show that in low consumer disappointment aversion, if the unfit cost is high, the vendor will not introduce the SaaS channel under centralized decision-making. However, in a decentralized setting, they introduce the SaaS channel as a means of channel. If the unfit cost is low, the vendor will introduce a SaaS channel to compete directly with the retail channel, adopting a competitive strategy. In high consumer disappointment aversion, the vendor will always choose to discontinue the retail channel and sell exclusively through the SaaS channel, adopting a replacement strategy. Interestingly, although consumer disappointment aversion will aggravate the disadvantages of the retail channel and motivate the software vendors to introduce the SaaS channel, when the quality uncertainty is low and the unfit cost is high, the profits of the retailer will actually increase instead of decreasing.

Key words: software selling channel, disappointment aversion, quality uncertainty, unfit cost

摘要： 云计算技术的不断发展推动了SaaS的成熟与应用，使得原本采用传统零售渠道销售企业级软件产品的厂商开始考虑引入SaaS渠道。结合不确定环境下消费者的失望厌恶行为，在软件厂商和零售商组成的供应链中，分别构建（不）引入SaaS渠道下的集中式和分散式决策模型，探究软件厂商的最优SaaS渠道引入策略。结果表明：当消费者的失望厌恶水平较低时，若不匹配成本较高，则集中式决策下厂商不引入SaaS渠道，分散式决策下厂商引入SaaS渠道并将其作为渠道控制手段而不进行实际销售，即采取威慑策略；若不匹配成本较低，则厂商引入SaaS渠道与原有零售渠道进行竞争，即采取竞争策略。当消费者的失望厌恶水平较高时，厂商始终选择关闭原有零售渠道，仅在SaaS渠道销售产品，即采取替代策略。尽管失望厌恶会加剧零售渠道的劣势，增强厂商引入SaaS渠道的动机，但当质量不确定水平较低且不匹配成本较高时，零售商的利润不降反增。

关键词: 软件销售渠道, 失望厌恶, 质量不确定, 不匹配成本