Demand Equilibria in Spatial Service Systems

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Carlsson, John Gunnar; Peng, Xiaoshan; Ryzhov, Ilya O.
• 署名单位: University of Southern California; Indiana University System; Indiana University Bloomington; IU Kelley School of Business; University System of Maryland; University of Maryland College Park
• 刊物名称: M&SOM-MANUFACTURING & SERVICE OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1523-4614
• DOI: 10.1287/msom.2023.0434
• 发表日期: 2024
• 关键词: spatial service systems; geographical partitioning; Voronoi diagrams; equilibrium analysis

摘要

Problem definition: : A service is offered at certain locations (facilities) in a geographical region. Customers can appear anywhere in the region, and each customer chooses a facility based on travel distance as well as expected waiting time. Customer decisions affect waiting times by increasing the load on a facility, and thus, they impact other customers' decisions. The service provider can also influence service quality by adjusting service rates at each facility. Methodology/results: : Using a combination of queueing models and computational geometry, we characterize demand equilibria in such spatial service systems. An equilibrium can be visualized as a partition of the region into service zones that form as a result of customer decisions. Service rates can be set in a way that achieves the best-possible social welfare purely through decentralized customer behavior. Managerial implications: : We provide techniques for computing and visualizing demand equilibria as well as calculating optimal service rates. Our analytical and numerical results indicate that in many situations, resource allocation is a far more significant source of inefficiency than decentralized behavior.