Operations & Supply Chain Management

We consider the Kiefer-Wolfowitz (KW) stochastic approximation algorithm and derive general upper bounds on its mean-squared error. The bounds are established using an elementary induction argument and phrased directly in the terms of tuning sequences of the algorithm. From this we deduce the non- necessity of one of the main assumptions imposed on the tuning sequences in the Kiefer-Wolfowitz paper and essentially all subsequent literature.

We address the simultaneous determination of pricing, production, and capacity investment decisions by a monopolistic firm in a multi-period setting under demand uncertainty. We analyze the optimal decision with particular emphasis on the relationship between price and capacity. We consider models that allow for either bi-directional price changes or models with markdowns only, and in the latter case we prove that capacity and price are strategic substitutes.

In this paper we conduct an empirical investigation of a large-scale combinatorial auction (CA); the Chilean auction for school meals in which the government procures half a billion dollars worth of meal services every year. Our empirical study is motivated by two fundamental aspects in the designof CAs: (1) which packages should bidders be allowed to bid on; and (2) diversifying the supplier base to promote competition. We use bidding data to uncover important aspects of the firms’ cost structure and their strategic behavior, both of which are not directly observed by the auctioneer.

We propose and analyze a general periodic-review model in which the firm has access to a set of potential suppliers, each with specific yield and price characteristics. Assuming that unsatisfied demand is backlogged, the firm incurs three types of costs: (i) procurement costs, (ii) inventory-carrying costs for units carried over from one period to the next, and (iii) backlogging costs.

Managing Change: Cases and Concepts, 3e by Todd Jick and Maury Peiperl is comprised of six modules that introduce common threads in the ensuing case studies and readings on organizational change. The materials in this edition — cases and readings — have been chosen and arranged to introduce change as an integrated process. Cases in the text represent a wide variety of change situations. Accompanying many cases are readings, likewise chosen to reflect a broad range of issues.

While millions of products are sold on its retail platform, Amazon.com itself stocks and sells only a very small fraction of them. Most of these products are sold by third-party sellers who pay Amazon a fee for each unit sold. Empirical evidence clearly suggests that Amazon tends to sell high-demand products and leave long-tail products for independent sellers to offer.

We propose a message-passing paradigm for resource allocation problems. This serves to connect ideas from the message-passing literature, which has primarily grown out of the communications, statistical physics, and artificial intelligence communities, with a problem central to operations research. This also provides a new framework for decentralized management that generalizes price-based systems by allowing incentives to vary across activities and consumption levels.

In many service industries, companies compete with each other on the basis of the waiting time their customers experience, along with other strategic instruments such as the price they charge for their service. The objective of this paper is to conduct an empirical study of an important industry to measure to what extent waiting time performance impacts different firms' market shares and price decisions.