2016 INFORMS Annual Meeting Program

WC51

INFORMS Nashville – 2016

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2 - Pricing Strategies For Sustainable Green Marketing Thunyarat Bam Amornpetchkul, Faculty member, NIDA Business School, Bangkok, Thailand, thunyarat.a@nida.ac.th This study investigates the potential of using pricing strategies to improve the sustainability of businesses, environments, and the society. Different scenarios, in terms of manufacturer’s cost structure and customer valuation of the green product, are analyzed. Under each scenario, we propose an optimal pricing strategy which could bring about a larger profit to the manufacturer as well as reduced consumption of the non-green product. Based on the findings, we suggest measures to help create a market situation where green products are likely to thrive. 3 - Driving Organic Revenue Growth With Ancillaries Dan Iliescu, Revenue Analytics, diliescu@revenueanalytics.com The application of Pricing and Revenue Management principles beyond traditional revenue streams are generating organic revenue growth opportunities for companies. Among recent developments in this area, analytical solutions that incorporate ancillary offerings were first introduced in industries such as airlines, travel and hospitality, and car rental. This presentation focuses on presenting a high level overview of key design considerations while implementing Ancillary Pricing and Revenue Management solutions. In addition, this presentation outlies practical examples of successful applications, while uncovering and identifying opportunities for future research. 210-MCC Intelligent Applications in Social Media Analytics Invited: Social Media Analytics Invited Session Chair: Victor Benjamin, University of Arizona, 1130 E Helen St, Tucson, AZ, 85719, United States, vabenji@email.arizona.edu 1 - Is Weight Loss Social Contagious? Chunxiao Li, Arizona State University, chunxiaoli@asu.edu, Bin Gu The recent IT innovation invokes the emergence of weight intervention mobile apps, in which massive users share their weight loss achievements to their peers. Except for monetary incentive, the social networking may provide extra incentive for weight loss behavior, and therefore results in better outcomes. This paper studies how users’ weight loss behavior can be affected by both monetary reward and behavior of their followees, controlling for personal characteristics and experience with the app. Moreover, we examine the interplay between the two incentives. We suggest that app designers should better use social contagion together with monetary incentive to motivate health related behavior. 2 - A Sentiment Breakdown Approach For Dissecting The Dna Of Medical Social Media Posts Anwar Chutoo, University of Utah, anwar.chutoo@utah.edu, Olivia R Liu Sheng Many medical social forums allow a user to rate their experience with a drug according to different criteria. While these ratings have high correlations, we propose to dissect differences between them according to the sentiments in different types of sentences within the post. We test a series of hypotheses regarding the relationships between sentiments of different types of sentences and ratings. We also demonstrate that the texts in user reviews can successfully explain the variations between the ratings. We introduce a novel method to describe qualitative aspects of drugs using texts from user reviews and sentiments rather than ratings. 3 - Understanding Malicious Tools In Underground Hacker Communities Sagar Samtani, University of Arizona, sagars@email.arizona.edu As many modern facilities are becoming reliant upon computing technology, cybersecurity is becoming a societal concern. Many cyber-attacks are executed using tools like Zeus Trojans or Point of Sale Malware. These tools, also known as hacker assets, are often accessible in online, hacker forums. However, collecting and analyzing such tools is a non-trivial task. This study demonstrates a web, data, and text mining framework leveraging techniques such as SVM, LDA, and social network analysis to analyze and identify hacker assets and key hackers in underground hacker forums. The results of this study indicate that emerging forum assets are consistent with root causes of recent cyber-attacks. WC48

211-MCC Teaching Analytics Sponsored: Education (INFORMED) Sponsored Session Chair: Thomas G Groleau, Carthage College, Kenosha, WI, United States, tgroleau@carthage.edu 1 - Topics And Goals For An Introductory Business Intelligence Course Offered To Business Majors Wendy Swenson-Roth, Georgia State University, wroth@gsu.edu Analytics skills are in demand by business. Business schools are seeking to provide classes to address this need. In an introductory course for business students, what topics need to be covered to provide a foundation in this field. Also, what methods can be used to improve student understanding. 2 - Back To Basics: Framing The Foundations Of Analytics Patrick S. Noonan, Goizueta Business School, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United States, patrick.noonan@emory.edu Analytics represents substantial new opportunities for INFORMS researchers & educators. The good news: “Analytics” remains hot. The bad news: Few people can explain exactly what it is. The worse news: Opinions vary widely, so the word is becoming meaningless mush. By asserting a better framework for “analytics,” INFORMS educators can create wins all around: sharpening the definition for researchers and practitioners; increasing the impact of our courses on student understanding, skill, and ability to apply to real problems; and heightening visibility for our fields in the analytics boom. The keys to coherent integration of the modeling & data science worlds: decision-making & decision analysis. 3 - Alternate Framework For Analytics Education Thomas G Groleau, Carthage College, tgroleau@carthage.edu The Descriptive, Predictive, and Prescriptive Analytics framework for analytics has become widely accepted. At the same time, the terms “analytics” and “data analytics” are often used interchangeably and students can get the impression that all analytics is based on data. For educational purposes, we should consider an alternate framework that simply distinguishes between data based and model based analytics so that students get a more accurate view of the field. Chair: Narasimhan Ravichandran, Indian Institute of Management- Ahmadabad, Wing 2 D, Vastrapur, Ahmedabad, 380015, India, nravi@iimahd.ernet.in 1 - Tailgating Games As Teaching Tools Matthew Bailey, Associate Professor, Bucknell University, School of Management, Taylor Hall, Lewisburg, PA, 17837, United States, matt.bailey@bucknell.edu Many students are familiar (some too much so) with common tailgating and backyard games such as cornhole and ladderball. I will present an activity to exploit this experience and solidify student understanding of data collection and analysis, modeling, and Monte Carlo simulation. This activity is sufficiently flexible and scalable to be used as a single project or as a set of small scaffolding activities culminating in a comprehensive project. The presenter will share his experience with this activity in an undergraduate business analytics course with associated student feedback. 2 - Understanding The Impact Of In-class Undergraduate Research In Engineering Education For Non-traditional Students: An Adaptive Guide Justin Yates, Assistant Professor, Francis Marion University, PO Box 100547, Florence, SC, 29501, United States, jyates@fmarion.edu, Lorna Cintron-Gonzalez, Rahul Renu Engineering students with non-traditional backgrounds face significant challenges during their early years in engineering. This talk discusses the adaptation of Freshman-Sophomore curriculum to include early and frequent exposure to research-based course assignments and examines the impact of these practices on student efficacy and academic performance. The model used is adapted from colleagues in Sociology who have implemented such practices for 14 years in a rural, public university in South Carolina and consistently see 30% or higher graduate school enrollment within their Senior class. WC51 213-MCC Education II Contributed Session

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