2016 INFORMS Annual Meeting Program

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INFORMS Nashville – 2016

WE46 209B-MCC Revenue Management and Pricing with Consumer Choice Models Sponsored: Revenue Management & Pricing Sponsored Session Chair: Ruxian Wang, The Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, 100 International Dr, Baltimore, MD, 21202, United States, ruxian.wang@jhu.edu 1 - Product Line Design And Pricing Under Logit Model Anran Li, Columbia University, al2942@columbia.edu We study a manufacture who wants to design and price products which are feature-level combinations. This allows us to design products of different quality at different prices. We assume that demand for products follows a Logit model (MNL or NL) that measures utility as the aggregate value of the feature-levels and the unit production cost is equal to the sum of the component’s wholesale prices. We show that optimal product configurations give priority to feature levels with high net value. The K best configurations can be obtained through a greedy algorithm derived from the K-shortest path problem. This allows us to find an optimal profit configuration in polynomial time. 2 - Demand Estimation Under The Multinomial Logit Model From Sales Transaction Data Tarek Abdallah, New York University, New York, NY, United States, tabdalla@stern.nyu.edu, Gustavo Jose Vulcano We study an MNL model of demand when customers arrive over time in accordance to a non-homogeneous Poisson process. We characterize conditions under which the model is identifiable and our maximum likelihood estimates are consistent. Then, we propose a maximize-minorize (MM) method for estimating the model parameters. Through an exhaustive set of numerical comparisons we conclude that the MM-based estimates are of similar quality to the ones obtained by state-of-the-art benchmarks, but its computation is orders of magnitude faster. 3 - Pricing And Assortment Management Under New Choice Models Ruxian Wang, Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, Baltimore, MD, 21202, United States, ruxian.wang@jhu.edu When facing multiple products, a consumer chooses the one with the highest utility, which depends on the product attributes, its own price, and perhaps the prices of other products. We characterize the structure of the optimal strategies and provide efficient exact and approximation algorithms. Chair: Lauren Rhue, Wake Forest University, 212 Farrell Hall, Winston-Salem, NC, 27106, United States, rhuela@wfu.edu 1 - Communication Of Collective Action Over Time: The Arousal, Interpretation, And Realization Model Sung Won Kim, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, swk@illinois.edu, Shaila Miranda Social media have recently been used by participants in social movements. Twitter was a key tool in the 2011-2012 protest against the Stop the Online Piracy Act (SOPA). This research develops a theory of the role of affective and cognitive mechanisms in online social movements. Tweets from the protest against SOPA were analyzed using vector autoregression and Granger causality analysis. The results of the Granger causality were used as empirical data points to build a theory of communication of collective action over time. Affect was found not only to spread through the community, but also to influence cognitive mechanisms. Cognitive mechanisms were used to identify problems and their solutions. 2 - Who Gets Started On Kickstarter? Demographic Variation In Crowdfunding Success Rates Jessica Clark, Stern, jclark@stern.nyu.edu, Lauren Rhue This study examines the variance in success rates across racial groups in the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter using two novel data sets: the race of subjects in photos associated with projects (determined using facial recognition software), and linguistic elements of the project descriptions found to be predictive of the race of the project photos’ subjects. Even controlling for observable differences in both project and text characteristics, we find that there are significant racial differences in success rates. The results have managerial implications for individual fundraisers and platform designers. WE48 210-MCC Social Media Collective Invited: Social Media Analytics Invited Session

3 - Watch Where You Eat! Jorge Mejia, University of Maryland, jmejia@rhsmith.umd.edu We focus on how social media analytics can be incorporated into the efforts to reduce foodborne illness, a major public health concern. We demonstrate how machine learning techniques can be used to monitor the hygiene quality of restaurants through social media. Using these techniques, we show evidence of moral hazard in how restaurants achieve high grades in the New York City program.

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211-MCC Teaching OR at Service Academies Sponsored: Education (INFORMED) Sponsored Session

Chair: Richard McGrath, United States Naval Academy, 121 Blake Road, Annapolis, MD, 21402, United States, rmcgrath@usna.edu 1 - Teaching Operations Research At The United States Naval Academy Richard G McGrath, United States Naval Academy, mcgrathrg@alum.mit.edu The United States Naval Academy (USNA), founded in 1845, is the undergraduate college of the U.S. naval service. Midshipmen attend the academy for four years, graduating with Bachelor of Science degrees and commissions as ensigns in the U.S. Navy or second lieutenants in the U.S. Marine Corps. Since 2012, the Mathematics Department has offered an undergraduate major in Operations Research, which has become one of the most popular majors at the academy. In this talk, we will discuss the OR program at USNA. We will describe a typical course of study, as well as how military and security applications are incorporated into the curriculum through coursework, project-based learning, and capstone projects. 2 - Teaching Operations Research At The United States Air Force Academy Gerry Gonzalez, United States Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, CO, United States, gonzalezgo@aol.com, Jesse Pietz The United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) is an undergraduate college and one of three commissioning sources for the United States Air Force. Cadets attend the Academy for four years, graduating with Bachelor of Science degrees and commissions as second lieutenants in the United States Air Force. USAFA has offered an undergraduate major in Operations Research since 1966. In this talk, we will discuss the OR program at USAFA. We will describe a typical course of study, as well as how operational military applications are incorporated into the curriculum through coursework, project-based learning, and capstone projects. 3 - Teaching Operations Research At The United States Coast Guard Academy Melinda D. McGurer, Head, Department of Mathematics, United States Coast Guard Academy, 15 Mohegan Avenue, New London, CT, 06320, United States, melinda.d.mcgurer@uscg.mil, Eric C. Johnson The United States Coast Guard Academy (USCGA), founded in 1876 as the Revenue Cutter School of Instruction, is the undergraduate college of the U.S. Coast Guard in the Department of Homeland Security. Cadets attend the academy for four years, graduating with Bachelor of Science degrees and commissions as ensigns in the U.S. Coast Guard. Since 1997, the Mathematics Department has offered a degree in operations research. This talk discusses the OR program at the USCGA including a typical course of study and the incorporation of USCG applications. The talk emphasizes the senior capstone course in which the cadets serve as OR consultants for the USCG and broader military and homeland security communities.

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