INFORMS 2021 Program Book

INFORMS Anaheim 2021

MB05

3 - How Local Competition Reshapes Consumers’ Review Behavior: An Empirical Investigation Xinyu Zang, University of Florida Warrington College of Business, Gainesville, FL, United States, Xiang (Shawn) Wan, Naveen Kumar, Liangfei Qiu We examine how local competition of a restaurant might affect its consumers’ propensity to write two types of influential reviews: informative reviews and negative reviews. Building on the antecedents of review contributions and expectation-confirmation theory, we hypothesize as the local competition level increases, the number of informative reviews and the number of negative reviews received by a restaurant will first increase up to a point and then decrease (i.e., inverted U-shaped relationships). We also hypothesize the restaurant’s popularity could moderate such relationships. Leveraging a Yelp dataset, we empirically confirm the existence of inverted U-shaped relationships and the moderating role of the restaurant’s popularity. Taken together, we find the geographic location of a business plays a prominent role in reshaping consumers’ review behavior. 4 - Life-event Targeting and Customer Uncertainty Evidence From Field and Online Experiments Zherui Yang, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, 3062PA, Netherlands, Ting Li Life-event targeting has gained increasing attention that companies target customers for marketing activities based on life-event prediction. However, seldom has study explored its underlying mechanism. We conduct experiments to examine life-event targeting, and dive into literature on information seeking, behavioral targeting and customer uncertainty theory to explore its underlying mechanism. Our findings suggest that customers’ information-seeking need mediates the effect of life-event targeting on customers’ response, which is contingent on different customer uncertainty. Specifically, customers with higher choice uncertainty and those with lower knowledge uncertainty are more likely to respond to life-event targeting. This paper contributes to IS research by adding an information perspective to the growing practice of life-event targeting. MB05 CC Ballroom E / Virtual Theater 5 Hybrid TSL Award Session I Sponsored: Transportation Science and Logistics Sponsored Session Chair: Mike Hewitt, Loyola University Chicago, Glen Ellyn, IL, 60137- 5246, United States MB06 CC Room 303A In Person: Humanitarian Operations and Disaster Management General Session Chair: Ashkan Mirzaee, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, 65201, United States Co-Chair: Osman Alp, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, T2N 1N4, Canada Co-Chair: Christopher W. Zobel, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, 24061- 0235, United States 1 - Towards a Greener Society: Exploring the Adoption Level of Solar Technologies in the State Of Sonora, Mexico Jose Luis Ruiz Duarte, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA, United States In this project, the solar potential of a delimited geographical region is explored. The analysis includes the evaluation of local energy generation and energy trades with neighboring regions. Optimization under uncertainty is proposed to evaluate the size and location of solar energy sources. The project analyzes the performance of the region with different adoption levels of roof solar panels, as well as the possibility of large-scale solar generation considering concentrated thermal and photovoltaic technologies. A case study for the state of Sonora, Mexico is performed to show the effectiveness of the proposed model and algorithms. 2 - A Framework for Planning Access Corridors to Northern Territories of Canada Osman Alp, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, T2N 1N4, Canada, Meraj Ajam Geographical conditions provide challenges accessing to northern territories of Canada. This creates friction in trade flows between territories and provinces, which limits the economic activity and prosperity. We embed a Trade Cost model borrowed from the economics literature into a network flow optimization model.

This model can help the federal government in planning infrastructural investments to lower the trade costs by creating access corridors from south and east to north. We analyze how such corridors can reduce the cost of transporting energy-related commodities. 3 - Impact of Increased Biopower Generation on US Forests Ashkan Mirzaee, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, 65201, United States, Ronald McGarvey Biopower, electricity generated from biomass, is a major source of renewable energy in the US. Over 20% of US renewable electricity in 2019 was generated from woody biomass. Despite significant growth in woody biomass use for electricity, a systematic assessment of associated impacts on forest resources is lacking. This study assessed associations between biopower generation on timberland structure and carbon stocks across 450 landscapes in the eastern US including 210 procurement zones that were harvested from 2005 to 2017 to supply biomass to power plants. In this study, we used data analysis and statistical learning techniques to collect and analysis forest conditions in a large scaled areas. MB07 CC Room 303B In Person: Yards and Terminals General Session Chair: Roger William Baugher, TrAnalytics, LLC, Johns Creek, GA, 30097-8510, United States 1 - Flat Yard Simulation using AnyLogic Roger William Baugher, MBA, Northwestern; MSCE, University of Illinois, TrAnalytics, LLC, Duluth, GA, 30097, United States Choosing the correct sequence for switching cars in a flat yard can be a complex challenge. Such yards may not have dedicated tracks for arriving or building trains, may be switched from both ends, may have multiple switch jobs with conflicting movements, may have the mainline running through the middle and other complicating factors. A simulation of the switching process can provide insight for training, analysis and process improvement. The presentation will demonstrate the simulation of flat switching operations at a terminal railroad using AnyLogic, a software package capable of depicting railroad movements. 2 - Hump Yard Simulation using AnyLogic Jiaxi Zhao, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Newmark Civil Eng. 205 N. Mathews Ave # 1245, Urbana, IL, 61801-2350, United States On North American freight railways, railcars spent majority of their transit time in classification (marshalling) yards waiting for being sorted and classified to their destination. The congestion of one yard could promote mainline train delay and further affect down stream yards and then decrease the railway level of service. However, few research has focused on the interaction of yards and mainline with the impact of vast volume and schedule variability. This study conducted a series of simulation experiments to quantify the interaction of inbound and outbound traffic and schedule variability among yards with a novel AnyLogic hump yard model. A few yard performance metrics are collected to reveal the propagation and transformation of the variability from upstream yards to downstream yards. MB08 CC Room 303C In Person: spORts I General Session Chair: Eli Olinick, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, 75275- 0123, United States 1 - The International Timetabling Competition on Sports: Results And Lessons Learned Dries Goossens, Ghent University, 9000, Belgium, David Van Bulck, Jeroen Belien, Morteza Davari From mid October 2020 till April 2021, the International Timetabling Competition (ITC2021) challenged over a dozen teams to find the best solution on various sports timetabling problem instances. Our competition involved a rich and diverse set of artificial instances, involving up to 9 different constraints that are common in real-life. In this talk, we explain how the instances were designed and how feasibility and diversity was ensured. Moreover, we discuss the results obtained by the participants, and provide insights on what solution approach works best for what types of instances.

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