We consider the assortment optimization problem when customer preferences follow a mixture of Mallows distributions. The assortment optimization problem focuses on determining the revenue/profit maximizing subset of products from a large universe of products; it is an important decision that is commonly faced by retailers in determining what to offer their customers. There are two key challenge...

A central task in operations is demand estimation, which provides high quality inputs for assortment planning and revenue management (RM). For simplicity, many models in practice assume that each product has its own independent demand stream. However, if products are substitutes, then the demand for a given product will be a function of the set of alternatives available to consumers when they m...

Motivated by overcoming the existing utility-based choice modeling approaches, we present a novel conceptual framework of multidimensional network analysis (MNA) for modeling customer preferences in supporting design decisions. In the proposed multidimensional customer–product network (MCPN), customer–product interactions are viewed as a socio-technical system where separate entities of ‘custom...

This study investigates the impact of a channel selection and switching on satisfaction with government services. Specifically, using an archival dataset of telephone surveys administered by U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) with more than 2,700 respondents, we measure the effect of channel selection (online, in-person, or telephone) and switching (from online to another) on satisfactio...

Abstract: In this study, we research the problem of network revenue management with customer choice based on the Origin-Destination (O-D) demands. By dividing customers into different segments according to O-D pairs, we consider a network capacity control problem where each customer chooses the open product within the segment he belongs to. Starting with a Markov Decision Process (MDP) formulat...

In many retail situations, customers today face vast assortments and often have limited ability to find exactly what they need. By implementing a need-based toolkit for assortment matching, retailers can limit this complexity of choice, increasing the satisfaction of consumers with the goods acquired. Building such a need-based system however is costly and time-consuming, as expert knowledge an...

We consider the motivations of a customer-facing focal firm in a supply network regarding a choice between options for production methods and project direction. One option is purely economic, but with a negative social impact, while the other is a socially responsible alternative that entails a lower rate of economic return. In our game-theoretic analysis, the focal firm faces twin pressures: e...

In today’s competitive business environment, it is extremely important to offer customers exactly the products they want. Mass Customization promises to enable companies to offer a large variety of products while still being able to manage the complexity caused by this increased number of products. But offering a large range of variants does not necessarily mean increased profits, as many manuf...