Informs Annual Meeting Phoenix 2018

INFORMS Phoenix – 2018

TC24

2 - Strategically Giving Service: The Effect of Real-time Information on Service Efficiency Nil Karacaoglu, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Antonio Moreno, Can Ozkan The use of real-time information in on-demand services provides agents with access to an unprecedented amount of information about their competitors. We study the impact of the increased availability of real-time information on the behavior of strategic agents and the implications of this phenomenon for service efficiency using data from one of the leading e-hailing taxi platforms in South America 3 - When More is Less: Staffing Level and Flexibility in a Restaurant Chain Masoud Kamalahmadi, Indiana University, 1309 E. 10th Street, Bloomington, IN, 47405, United States, Qiuping Yu, Yong-Pin Zhou We empirically explore how staffing level and flexibility (created through unpredictable scheduling such as call-in and holdover overtime) impact worker and customer behavior, and subsequently the firm’s current and future revenue. We find that working on holdover overtime negatively impacts worker productivity, whereas working on call-in doesn’t impact worker productivity. Moreover, staffing decisions impact customers’ current and future purchasing behaviors. 4 - Ratings and Version Updates in the Mobile App Market Gad Allon, University of Pennsylvania, 3730 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States, Kenneth Moon, Amandeep Singh Mobile apps have become an economy with a projected market size of $77 Billion in 2017. One of the key features that distinguishes mobile apps from other types of digital goods (such as movies, songs or books) is that they have versions. A developer can release an app into a mobile app store, and can then keep adding, removing, or editing features of the app with subsequent version updates. We characterize the optimal strategy for timing such updates and structurally estimate the extent to which developers respond to demand-side incentives in a ratings- sensitive environment. We discuss implications for platforms and developers. n TC26 North Bldg 132A Joint Session Service/Sractice Curated: Empirical Research for New Service Business Sponsored: Service Science Sponsored Session Chair: Kejia Hu, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, 37215, United States 1 - Shaping Demand Peaks and Valleys in Service Industries Through Online Deals Using data from three leading online platforms in offering deals, we empirically study how service providers strategically design deals to facilitate demand-supply coordination during holiday demand swings. In particular, using our structural model, we find that service providers strategically design the deal discount and launch date based on their operating margin and foreseeable holiday demand change. Building on the estimation of deal customers’ sensitivities to the discount and launch date, we propose an optimal deal strategy to shape demand and therefore increase profit. Moreover, we substantiate the importance of selecting a launch date wisely to manage demand and maximize profit. 2 - The Impact of Waiting on Customer Response Delay Guangzhi Shang, Florida State University, College of Business, Tallahassee, FL, 32306, United States, Noyan Ilk We study the impact of waiting times on customer response behavior in the context of online service centers. Using a unique operational data set, we show that waiting before service (i.e., queue wait) accelerates customer engagement, whereas waiting during service (i.e., in-service wait) slows down customer responses. These findings contribute to the service operations literature by showing the significance of the feedback from waiting to (customer-instigated) service time. We discuss the implications of these findings on customer admission decisions and agent workload levels. 3 - Understanding Customers’ Retrials in Call Centers: Preferences of Service Speed and Service Quality Kejia Hu, Vanderbilt University, 300 Ashcroft Pl, Nashville, TN, 37215, United States, Gad Allon, Achal Bassamboo Using a call-by-call customers contact dataset, we want to understand how customers’ preferences of service speed and quality impact their retrial behavior (calling back for the same issue) in the call center. Simin Li, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 2211 Campus Drive, Evanston, IL, 60208, United States, Kejia Hu, Martin Lariviere

n TC24 North Bldg 131B eBusiness Sponsored: EBusiness Sponsored Session Chair: Ajit Sharma, Wayne State University, Rochester Hills, MI, 48307, United States 1 - Signaling Quality with Return Insurance Chong Zhang, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China,, Man Yu, Jian Chen Motivated by sellers’ practices on various shopping platforms such as Taobao.com and JD.com, we examine the informational role of a return insurance, which compensates consumers for their cost of returning the items. We characterize the conditions under which the return insurance can serve as an effective signal of high-quality products. 2 - The Role of Filtered Search in Matching: Evidence From an Online Dating Platform Kyungmin Park, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States, Elina Hwang, Soo-Haeng Cho Does filtered search really increase the matching probability in online dating market? Many online dating websites have utilized individual preference based filtering to improve their mate recommendation system. However, the effectiveness of the filtered search is questionable since stated and real preferences are often different. Based on the dataset from a Korean online dating website, we empirically examine the role of the filtered search on the matching probability in online dating market. Male users show a U-shaped pattern in the relationship between their mate search pool size and matching probability. Whereas, female users do not show any strong pattern. 3 - Sponsor-Partner Relationship in Social Media Sponsored Contents Shahryar Doosti, University of Washington, Foster School of Business, Mackenzie Hall, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States, Stephanie Lee Sponsored contents on social media have been major outlets for companies to advertise based on the targeted audience and popularity of the creators. We utilize a rich data set on sponsored videos on a large scaled social media to study the partnership between the sponsors and creators. We found that sponsors tend to keep the partnership over time despite the decaying efficiency in number of views. 4 - The Role of Customer Images in Product Understanding Yue Guan, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China Multimedia content has attracted increasing attention from customers, retailers and ecommerce platform managers. Compared with product images posted by retailers, images from customers are more trustworthy as a kind of UGC (User Generated Content). Drawing on the theory of consumer psychology, we aim to investigate the mechanism and elements in customer images that contribute to customers’ product understanding. Empirical tests are conducted with real world data, and the significant effects of customer images are verified. n TC25 North Bldg 131C Data-driven Service Operations Sponsored: Service Science Sponsored Session Chair: Qiuping Yu, Kelley School of Business, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, 47405-1701, United States 1 - Does Feedback Make You Try Less Hard? A Study of Automotive Telematics Vivek Choudhary, INSEAD Business School, 1 Ayer Rajah Avenue, Singapore, Masha Shunko, Serguei Netessine Internet of things devices and mobile connectivity in general increasingly enabling to track user behavior that was not possible before. In this paper we focus on insurance provided using automotive Telematics devices that track users’ behavior while driving which is currently the most disruptive technology in the auto insurance industry. Using a novel dataset obtained through a collaboration with a startup, we find that contrary to the feedback and feedback-seeking literature, telematics feedback does not necessarily improve driving behavior.

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