2016 INFORMS Annual Meeting Program

WE37

INFORMS Nashville – 2016

WE36 205B-MCC Sustainable Operations for Farmers Sponsored: Manufacturing & Service Oper Mgmt, Supply Chain Sponsored Session Chair: Ming Hu, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, ming.hu@rotman.utoronto.ca 1 - Distressed Selling By Farmers: Model And Analysis Shivam Gupta, University of Texas-Dallas, sxg104920@utdallas.edu, Milind Dawande, Ganesh Janakiraman, Ashutosh Sarkar In many developing countries, farmers sell a significant portion of their produce at prices much lower than the support price offered by the government. Using a dynamic programming model, we identify a near optimal policy to quantify distressed sales and show that the model predictions are reasonably accurate using real data. 2 - Knowledge Sharing And Learning Among Smallholders In Developing Economies: Implications, Incentives, And Reward Mechanisms Shihong Xiao, HKUST, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, sxiaoab@connect.ust.hk, Ying-Ju Chen, Christopher S Tang NGOs and governments are advocating knowledge sharing and learning platforms to improve smallholders’ productivity. Putting altruism aside, we examine the economic implications for heterogeneous farmers to share their private farming knowledge voluntarily with other farmers under competition. By analyzing a multi-person sequential game, we provide a plausible reason for farmers’ sharing motivation. We find that the voluntary knowledge shared level is always lower than or equal to the “first best” knowledge shared level. Upon examining different mechanisms, we establish a quota-based reward mechanism that can entice farmers to share their knowledge up to the first-best level voluntarily. 3 - Altruistic Rationality: The Value Of Strategic Farmers And Social Entrepreneurs In Crop Planting Decisions In Developing Economies Wenbin Wang, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Shanghai, China, wang.wenbin@shufe.edu.cn, Ming Hu, Yan Liu We study how farmers make crop-planting decisions over time. We consider both strategic farmers who rationally anticipate the near-future crop prices as a basis for making planting decisions, and naïve farmers who shortsightedly react to recent prices. The latter behavior may cause recurring over- or under-production which leads to price fluctuations. We examine the roles of the strategic farmers and social entrepreneurs in influencing the farmers’ crop-planting decisions and stabilizing the market price. Surprisingly, we find the self-serving behaviors from a tiny amount of strategic farmers may be enough to reduce price volatility and benefit all the farmers. WE37 205C-MCC Health Care, Other II Contributed Session Chair: Mostafa Hasan, Research Assistant, Wichita State University, 1629 N Fairmount St, Wichita, KS, 67208, United States, mhasann16@yahoo.com 1 - A System Dynamic Approach For Risk Assessment Of Lyme Disease – A Case Study At Binghamton University Campus In Broome County, New York State Nasser Sharareh, PhD, Binghamton University, 4400 Vestal Parkway East, Binghamton, NY, 13902, United States, nsharar1@binghamton.edu, Nasim Sabounchi, Amanda Roome, Ralph Garruto Our objective in this paper is to develop a risk assessment framework of Lyme disease that includes the pathogen, reservoir, vector and environmental factors as well as social, behavioral and demographic risk factors. System Dynamics modeling has been used to develop a simulation tool to evaluate significance of different risk factors on the Binghamton University campus in replicating the historical trend of Lyme disease cases. The data for human behavioral risk, pathway risk, and tick density and infectivity have been gathered by direct observation and laboratory analysis. The model provides recommendations for preventive strategies and control of tick population growth.

5 - Factors Affecting Public Private Partnership Acceptance Vandit Shah, California State University, Fullerton, Fullerton, CA, United States, vandit_2293@csu.fullerton.edu, Deepak Kanhaiyalal Sharma Many highway projects have been successfully implemented as Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects. The PPP projects, also known as toll roads, have been beneficial to the public but have received varying level of acceptance across the US. This research focuses on identifying the factors that differentiates the US States on the basis of PPP acceptance. We have used Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to identify education, gender, congestion (traffic volume) and daily vehicle mile traveled as the most influential factors influencing PPP acceptance. The results of this research will be useful for agencies to develop outreach programs for better PPP project implementation. WE35 205A-MCC On-demand Service Platforms Sponsored: Manufacturing & Service Oper Mgmt, Service Operations Sponsored Session Chair: Itai Gurvich, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 60208, United States, i-gurvich@kellogg.northwestern.edu 1 - On-demand Service Platforms Terry Taylor, University of California - Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, United States, taylor@haas.berkeley.edu An on-demand service platform (e.g., Uber, Instacart) connects waiting-time sensitive customers with independent service providers. This paper characterizes how two defining features of an on-demand service platform – congestion-driven delay and service provider independence—impact the platform’s optimal per-service price and wage. 2 - The Efficacy Of Incentives In Scaling Up Marketplaces Ashish Kabra, INSEAD, Boulevard de constance, Fontainebleau, 77305, France, ashish.kabra@insead.edu, Elena Belavina, Karan Girotra Marketplaces spend billions in incentives to achieve scale, which is key to the efficacy and survival of marketplaces. Using detailed transaction data from a leading transportation marketplace, we estimate and compare the effects of incentives given to the “buyer” side and “seller” side of the marketplace as well as the effect of threshold and linear incentives. 3 - Labor Welfare In The Sharing Economy Guangwen Kong, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States, gkong@umn.edu, Saif Benjaafar, Jian-Ya Ding, Terry Taylor We consider an online service platform that relies on a self-employed and self- scheduled workforce to provide a service. Workers vary in their availability and their valuation of their time. The platform decides on wages and prices. We examine the resulting labor profile and labor surplus. 4 - Perception Of Dynamic Pricing In On-Demand Services Nil Karacaoglu, Northwestern University, Kellogg, Evanston, IL, United States, n-karacaoglu@kellogg.northwestern.edu, Antonio Moreno-Garcia Ride-sharing services such as Uber and Lyft adjust their prices using opaque dynamic-pricing algorithms that take demand and supply into account. In this research, we focus on how customers perceive and react to nontransparent dynamic pricing practices in ride-sharing services.

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