Informs Annual Meeting 2017

MC10

INFORMS Houston – 2017

4 - The Role of the Regulator in Product Recalls Rodney P. Parker, Indiana University, Kelley School of Business,

knowledge will increase sales. Given that training is not costless, an important question is whether training increases SA productivity, and if so, whether the increase is enough to justify the cost of training. We found that as SAs engaged in training over time, their sales rate increased by 1.8 percent for every module taken. 2 - Structural Estimation of Traffic at Retail Store to Achieve Better Conversion Anup Hanamant Walvekar, INSEAD, 1 Ayer Rajah Avenue, PhD Office, Singapore, 138676, Singapore, anup.walvekar@insead.edu, Nils Rudi, Serguei Netessine Conversion rate is an important KPI used by retail chains to compare the performance of stores across different locations and times intervals. Using the traffic data coded using video footage obtained from multiple retail stores from Europe and UAE, we observe that a group of customers seldom have multiple transactions. Hence it is better to use #groups as a measure of traffic instead of #individuals to estimate conversion rate. We model the customer arrival process and structurally estimate the #groups from a stream of customers. We compare the performances of different methods using the real and simulated traffic data. 3 - Ration Gaming and the Bullwhip Effect Robert Louis Bray, 830 Hinman Ave., 2s, Evanston, IL, 60202, United States, robertlbray@gmail.com We model a single-supplier, 73-store supply chain as a dynamic discrete choice problem. We estimate the model with transaction-level data, spanning 3,251 products and 1,370 days. We find two phenomena: ration gaming (strategic inventory hoarding) and the bullwhip effect (the amplification of demand variability along the supply chain). We estimate that the bullwhip effect would be 12% smaller in the counterfactual scenario without ration gaming incentives, confirming the long-standing hypothesis that ration gaming causes the bullwhip effect. 4 - Field Evidence on Employee Training and Customer Performance Ryan Buell, Harvard Business School, Morgan Hall 429, Boston, MA, 02163, United States, rbuell@hbs.edu, Tatiana Sandino Using data from a randomized field experiment conducted in collaboration with a global consulting firm, we examine the effects of a training program that broadens the front line’s perspective on the firm’s service offerings. We examine whether the program affects job engagement, the types (and consistency) of services offered by the consultants, sales, profitability, and the trajectory of service relationships. 332B Service Networks: Empirics and Theory Sponsored: Manufacturing & Service Oper Mgmt, Service Operations Sponsored Session Chair: Gad Allon, l, The Wharton School, gadallon@wharton.upenn.edu Co-Chair: Qiuping Yu, Kelley School of Business, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, 47405-1701, United States, qiupyu@indiana.edu 1 - A Quality Value Chain Network: Linking Supply Chain Quality to Customer Lifetime Value Qiuping Yu, Kelley School of Business, Indiana University, 1309 E. Tenth Street, Bloomington, IN, 47405-1701, United States, qiupyu@indiana.edu, Shawn Mankad, Masha Shunko We create a quality value chain network concept to analyze the impact of supply chain quality (SCQ) on the customer lifetime value (CLV). We apply our framework to a rich dataset from a major restaurant chain utilizing text analysis of the complaints to measure SCQ, a two-stage least squares (2SLS) model with instruments to assess the impact of SCQ on customer experience, and a structural model of consumer purchasing behavior to eventually link customer experience to CLV. We identify the profile of the most valuable customers and provide insights on which SCQ issues the supply chain should focus on, and which restaurants should be prioritized for supply chain improvements. 2 - The Impact of Delay Announcements on Hospital Network Coordination Jing Dong, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road, MC12

1309 E.10th Street, HH4129, Bloomington, IN, 47405, United States, rodp@indiana.edu, George Ball, Ruth Beer

A firm selling products faces the prospect of failures in the market. However, the firm is uncertain whether these product failures are the result of a systemic cause (for which they are responsible) or purely random (for which they are not). As failure reports arrive (while sales continue), the firm updates their belief whether the failures are “recall-worthy” or not. Similarly, the relevant regulator (NHTSA or FDA) will possibly intervene if they have sufficient evidence. We investigate how the firm’s optimal recall-behavior changes under the gaze of the regulator.

MC10

330B Operations in Sharing Economies Sponsored: Manufacturing & Service Oper Mgmt Sponsored Session Chair: Yi Xu, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20742, United States, yxu@rhsmith.umd.edu 1 - Referral and Learning on Social Network: Implications for Newsvendor Guangwen Kong, gkong@umn.edu, Guangwen Kong, Ankur Mani, Yuanchen Su We consider a firm selling differentiated products to customers in a social network . We study how the network structure and learning influence the demand distributions and thus have an impact on the firm’s inventory decision and the optimal design of referral programs. 2 - Strategically Giving Service: the Effect of Real-time Information on Service Efficiency Nil Karacaoglu, Kellogg School of Management, 531 Grove Street, Evanston, IL, 60201, United States, n-karacaoglu@kellogg.northwestern.edu, Antonio Moreno-Garcia, Can Ozkan Using data from a on-demand taxi service, we study the impact of information on driver behavior. 3 - Managing and Designing Online Platform Networks Hongfan Chen, University of Chicago, International House, 1414 East 59th Street, 657, Chicago, IL, 60637, United States, hongfan.chen@chicagobooth.edu, John R.Birge, Ozan Candogan, Daniela Saban In this paper we provided a model of a platform which matches buyers with suppliers. The transaction prices are determined endogenously, and the platform tries to improve its revenues through admission control and display control. We characterize the platform’s optimal policies, and relate it to the underlying compatibility network structure. 4 - An Empirical Analysis of Price Formation, Utilization, and Value Generation in Ride Sharing Services Weiming Zhu, IESE Business School, Avenida Pearson 21, Barcelona, 08034, Spain, zhuwm923@gmail.com, Liu Ming, Tunay Tunca, Yi Xu Using data obtained from a leading company, we construct a structural model to estimate price formation in ride-sharing services based on operational characteristics such as the number of consumers and the utilization of drivers. Further, we conduct counterfactual analysis to examine efficiency and welfare implications.

MC11

332A The Employee Role in Retail Operations Sponsored: Manufacturing & Service Oper Mgmt,

Service Operations Sponsored Session Chair: Santiago Gallino, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, 03755, United States, santiago.gallino@tuck.dartmouth.edu 1 - Does Online Learning Work in Retail? Santiago Gallino, Dartmouth College, 100 Tuck Hall, Hanover, NH, 03755, United States, santiago.gallino@tuck.dartmouth.edu, Marshall L.Fisher, Serguei Netessine A knowledgeable retail sales associate (SA) can explain the features of the available product variants and give the customer sufficient confidence in her choice that she becomes willing to purchase. It is thus plausible that increasing SA

Room C210, Evanston, IL, 60208, United States, jing.dong@northwestern.edu, Elad Yom-Tov, Galit Bracha Yom-Tov

We investigate the impact of delay announcements on the coordination within hospital networks using a combination of empirical observations and numerical experiments. We offer empirical evidence which suggests that patients take delay information into account when choosing emergency service providers and that such information can help increase coordination in the network, leading to improvements in performance of the network, as measured by Emergency Department waiting times.

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