Abstract: In 2017 Chinese consumption structure continued to improve, and there was an increase demand for products with high quality. However, consumers' demand for higher product quality does not mean they have blind faith in product with high price, and they trade off cost and quality with rational consumption.Consumers who may postpone or prepone their purchasing decisions when they anticipate potential price drops or ascends in the future,are termed as strategic consumers. Their waiting behavior will have negative impact on both retailers and manufacturers. Although the importance of strategic consumer behavior is widely acknowledged, there has been little research taking its implications on product quality and supply chain simultaneously. In this paper both strategic consumers' behavior and products' quality design are considered. Firstly, quality and price decision are extended to supply chain with strategic consumers.Four strategies are categorized, different from each other in two dimensions:supply chain type (centralized or decentralized) and consumer type (myopic or strategic). Decisions of price, quantity and quality are analyzed in each strategy. Furthermore, the strategy of quantity commitment is introduced, and compared with the above strategies to analyze whether manufacturers can improve the profit of the supply chain under quantity commitment.Lastly, five different chains are compared through numerical analysis.
Research shows, in decentralized supply chain, when manufacturer decides product quality, optimal quality is related to the bargaining power of retailer and manufacturer. The more power manufacturer has, the higher the quality. When wholesale price is completely decided by manufacturer, strategic consumer behavior may increase unfairness between manufacturer and retailer, and manufacturer can get a larger proportion of the profits. In the face of strategic consumers, quantity commitment can achieve higher profit than centralized supply chain, and with suitable product quality and wholesale price, the desired profit with quantity commitment can be attained through decentralized supply chain.Thus both improving product quality and increasing whole profit of supply chain can be achieved.

Key words: strategic consumer, quality, supply chain channel