1. Introduction
In recent years, the trend for the development of small and medium
enterprises (SMEs) has increased dramatically. One of the fundamental
solutions that has been considered in scientific circles for organizing
SMEs is the aggregation of these firms and their organization in the
form of networks. In other words, by merging companies that operate in
similar or related fields, it may be possible to benefit from synergy
effects, modernization and increasing its competitiveness, attracting
foreign investment and novel technologies. However, the remarkable point
is that many of the new possibilities and advantages for those who take
part in such co-operations are derived from synergy effects
1. In this new era, presence and activity in networks
has become vital for organizations, as co-operation by sharing resources
leads to an increase in the capacity of organizations and this, in turn,
boosts the ability of organizations to achieve common objectives and
interests. Therefore, operation of organizations and companies in the
framework of networked businesses is an important factor in meeting
market demands 2. The numerous benefits of presence
and activity within networks have led organizations to set up network
businesses and we are now witnessing the birth and growth of specialized
and public networks in various industries and business domains.
The increase of expenses in the diagnostic services sector and the
inability of patients to pay for lab services lead to increased pressure
on the government to finance health services. In such a situation,
laboratories have no competitive advantage and need fundamental changes.
Laboratories should significantly lower their expenses and manage their
resources in an efficient way. Therefore, the cooperation of
laboratories within the framework of a network provides the possibility
of lowering the costs (constant and variable), more efficient use of
resources in order to offer optimal services, creating competitive
advantage for the members of the lab network, and consequently an
increase in the income for the whole network and thus for individual
labs. Nowadays, efforts have been made to convert laboratory structures
into networks, and in this paper two examples of laboratories that have
benefited from a network approach are Quest and Dr. Lal. Quest, which is
based in the US and has 2200 branches, is ranked as one of the top
companies by Fortune and is ranked in the top 12 companies offering
laboratory services 3. The lab network Dr. Lal, a
unified lab network with a reference lab in Delhi, has over 190
diagnosis labs in 2017 4. From the standpoint of
operational capacity in 2015, the network has gathered and processed
21.8 million samples from 7.7 million patients, which is a key advantage
for Dr. Lal among its rivals 5.
The variety in laboratory types makes the profitability and allocation
of their resources to face the several challenges that impact the
sustainability of the laboratory and ultimately, the provision of
services. Currently, one of the challenges facing diagnostic networks is
to achieve a collaborative network that allocates fair profit among
network members. As such, all members expect to receive a fair share of
the profits. Therefore, the mechanism of distribution of profits should
be based upon the principle of equality. Each member should be aware
that the profit they receive is determined by the amount of their
contribution. In cooperation networks made up of various players, profit
distribution in the network is often based on factors that build the
common infrastructure. An understanding of the factors effecting profit
distribution leads to the growth of the network and increasing
opportunities for benefit and share-holder satisfaction of network
policies. Therefore, the prognosis labs network must identify the
factors that are necessary to produce a common infrastructure up to the
growth stage. With a fair approach to profit distribution, the profit
assigned to each lab unit within the network is determined by the amount
of cooperation and contribution made by that member.
Inequality in profit distribution has caused some networks to
disintegrate. Thus, the fair, objective, and effective distribution of
profits is a growing concern for managers. It has been established by
numerous studies that profit distribution is in the interests of
partners. Therefore, to the best of our knowledge, modern game theory is
the best option to address this concern. In cooperative games, we need a
solution concept that gives rise to a unique outcome. This endows our
model with predictive power 6. One way of looking for
a unique solution is Shapely value 7 that makes sure
that a fair distribution of benefits will be achieved in accordance with
the contribution of each member, thus encouraging the old-time maxims of
hard work and equality.
This paper presents a game theory model called the Shapley Value Model
to distribute profits among members of the medical diagnostic labs
network. For this purpose, first, the network members are determined by
k-means clustering algorithm as one of the most important and most used
algorithms in literature. Then, the proposed profit-sharing model
calculates the profit of each laboratory and provides decision makers
with more reliable information on the profit share of each member of the
network.
The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. In Section 2, the
research method is explained. Then, in Section 3, a case study is
described. In Section 3, first, how to select the network members is
described, and then a proposed approach is used to divide the profits
among the members of the network. Finally, the analysis of the results
is discussed. Section 4, concludes the paper and introduce some future
research suggestions.