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作者:Perry, Ohad; Whitt, Ward
作者单位:Columbia University
摘要:We consider how two networked large-scale service systems that normally operate separately, such as call centers, can help each other when one encounters an unexpected overload and is unable to immediately increase its own staffing. Our proposed control activates serving some customers from the other system when a ratio of the two queue lengths ( numbers of waiting customers) exceeds a threshold. Two thresholds, one for each direction of sharing, automatically detect the overload condition and...
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作者:Zhao, Xinlei
作者单位:University System of Ohio; Kent State University; Kent State University Kent; Kent State University Salem; United States Department of the Treasury; Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
摘要:I examine whether technological innovation is a motivating factor in firms' acquisition decisions and how an acquisition (or an acquisition withdrawal) affects technological innovation in subsequent years. I find that firms engaging in acquisition activities are less innovative and have often experienced declines in technological innovation during the years prior to the bid. Among the bidders, the relatively more innovative ones are less likely to complete a deal. During the three years after ...
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作者:Anderson, Eric T.; Dana, James D., Jr.
作者单位:Northwestern University; Northeastern University; Northeastern University
摘要:We consider a general model of monopoly price discrimination and characterize the conditions under which price discrimination is and is not profitable. We show that an important condition for profitable price discrimination is that the percentage change in surplus (i.e., consumers' total willingness to pay, less the firm's costs) associated with a product upgrade is increasing in consumers' willingness to pay. We refer to this as an increasing percentage differences condition and relate it to ...
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作者:Ibrahim, Rouba; Whitt, Ward
作者单位:Columbia University
摘要:We use heavy-traffic limits and computer simulation to study the performance of alternative real-time delay estimators in the overloaded GI/GI/s+GI multiserver queueing model, allowing customer abandonment. These delay estimates may be used to make delay announcements in call centers and related service systems. We characterize performance by the expected mean squared error in steady state. We exploit established approximations for performance measures with a nonexponential abandonment-time di...
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作者:Looney, Clayton Arlen; Hardin, Andrew M.
作者单位:University of Montana System; University of Montana; Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE); University of Nevada Las Vegas
摘要:As firms continue to abandon pensions in favor of employee-managed retirement plans, tremendous demands are being placed on the decision-making proficiency of future retirees. As reflected in the equity premium puzzle, individual investors tend to hold overly conservative portfolios that provide meager payoffs over time. Consequently, there is growing concern that the vast majority of retirement accounts might be insufficiently funded when employees reach retirement. Given that most retirement...
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作者:Fleder, Daniel; Hosanagar, Kartik
作者单位:University of Pennsylvania
摘要:This paper examines the effect of recommender systems on the diversity of sales. Two anecdotal views exist about such effects. Some believe recommenders help consumers discover new products and thus increase sales diversity. Others believe recommenders only reinforce the popularity of already-popular products. This paper seeks to reconcile these seemingly incompatible views. We explore the question in two ways. First, modeling recommender systems analytically allows us to explore their path-de...
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作者:Ganuza, Juan-Jose; Llobet, Gerard; Dominguez, Beatriz
作者单位:Pompeu Fabra University
摘要:It is commonly argued that in recent years pharmaceutical companies have targeted their research and development (R&D) at small improvements of existing compounds instead of riskier drastic innovations. In this paper, we show that the bias in the pharmaceutical industry toward small innovations might be driven by the low sensitivity of the demand. In particular, small innovations get a proportionally larger reward because pharmaceutical firms target them at the inelastic segments of the demand...
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作者:Boulding, William; Christen, Markus
作者单位:Duke University; INSEAD Business School
摘要:Previous research suggests firms can build a market share advantage by preempting later entrants with a broad product line and expanding rapidly into related markets. Whether such a strategy leads to a pioneering profit advantage relative to followers also depends on its cost effects. In this paper, we examine when the market share advantage of a pioneering firm with a broad product line strategy translates into a profit advantage by examining the cost effects of this strategy. Using the profi...
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作者:Jayanthi, Shekhar; Roth, Aleda V.; Kristal, Mehmet M.; Venu, Lauren Carter-Roth
作者单位:Texas A&M University System; Texas A&M University College Station; Mays Business School; Clemson University; York University - Canada
摘要:We conceptualize strategic decision-making processes within a manufacturing firm as streams of resources allocated to short-and long-term changes. The analogous ecological model, referred to as the Lotka-Volterra model, captures this dynamic tension between decisions made by the firm and its manufacturing operations. This representation leads to evolutionarily stable manufacturing strategies (ESMSs), which contribute to a firm's competitive advantage in different ways. Using a random sample of...
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作者:Zhang, Zhe George
作者单位:Western Washington University; Simon Fraser University
摘要:This paper analyzes a waiting line system that is motivated by the operations of border-crossing stations between the United States and Canada. There are two main conflicting goals in such a system: high security level, which often leads to a longer line; and good customer service, which requires a shorter line. Thus, unlike other queueing systems, maintaining the average queue length within a certain range is the primary objective. This is achieved using a staffing policy, called congestion-b...