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1、决策复杂性如何影响组合拍卖的结果
企业使用的采购机制已经从简单的单项拍卖变为复杂的多单元，多属性和多对象拍卖及其组合。这些最先进的机制不仅带来许多经济利益，还带来了挑战，例如，参与者决策的复杂性增加。本研究的主要目标是研究决策复杂性如何影响经济结果和先进经济机制（连续组合拍卖）的可接受性。我们确定了复杂性的三个方面：拍卖规模，竞争和有效竞标数量。我们在具有实际收益的实验环境中，通过对普通消费者进行五种拍卖来检查这些复杂性方面。我们发现，复杂性的各个方面以不同的方式影响经济成果。此外，竞争是进行有效拍卖的关键因素。我们还通过仔细检查拍卖期间收集的点击流数据，对投标人的行为进行了二次分析。我们发现决策的复杂性会影响竞标者策略，从而导致拍卖结果的差异。根据我们的分析，我们为拍卖从业者提供了宝贵的见解。
Procurement mechanisms used by businesses have evolved from simple single-item auctions to complex multi-unit, multi-attribute, and multi-object auctions and their combinations. These state-of-the-art mechanisms offer many economic benefits but also introduce challenges such as the increased complexity in decision-making for the participants. Our primary goal in this study is to study how decision complexity affects the economic outcomes and acceptability of an advanced economic mechanism: the continuous combinatorial auction. We identify three aspects of complexity—auction size, competition, and the number of active bids. We examine these complexity aspects with five types of auctions conducted with a general consumer population in an experimental environment with real payoffs. We find that various aspects of complexity affect economic outcomes in different ways. Furthermore, competition is a critical factor for conducting efficient auctions. We also conduct a secondary analysis of bidder behavior through a granular examination of clickstream data collected during the auctions. We find that decision complexity influences bidder strategies leading to differences in auction outcomes. Based on our analysis, we develop valuable insights for auction practitioners.
参考文献：Adomavicius, G., et al. (2020). "How Decision Complexity Affects Outcomes in Combinatorial Auctions." Production and Operations Management 29(11): 2579-2600.
2、基于服务水平需求和动态替换的品类库存计划
我们研究了可替代产品类别的单周期库存计划问题。这是类别经理面临的一个重要的实际问题，他们必须保持高服务水平才能不断扩展产品目录。我们将此问题表述为一种随机优化模型，该模型可以根据服务水平要求将总库存成本降至最低，该模型包括特定产品类别和整个销售季节的全类别库存可用性（就绪率）目标。我们的模型考虑了随机到达的客户，捕获了基于缺货的替代品，并共同确定所有产品的初始库存量。认识到这些方面在解决问题上所面临的挑战，我们提出了一种基于优化的方法，该方法使用确定性近似值来估计准备就绪的价格，并将销售季节离散为有限的时间间隔。这种新颖的建模方法使我们可以将随机优化模型重铸为可容纳几种基于缺货的常见替代方案的确定性混合整数线性程序。我们描述了这种方法在最坏情况下的行为，以开发性能保证。我们还将该模型实施并应用于随机生成的数值实例，这些实例具有不同类型的产品差异和参数值的变化。我们观察到，该方法对问题参数值的更改具有鲁棒性，并且可以非常快速地产生解决方案，其性能优于基于枚举的替代方法，实用的启发式方法和基于现有文献的方法。最后，我们将我们的方法应用于来自信息技术产品转售商的数据。结果表明，我们的方法具有良好的可伸缩性，并有潜力产生节约库存成本。
We study a single-period inventory planning problem for a category of substitutable products. This is an important practical problem facing category managers who have to maintain high service levels for constantly expanding product catalogs. We formulate the problem as a stochastic optimization model that minimizes the total stocking cost subject to service level requirements, which consist of product-specific and category-wide targets for inventory availability (ready rates) through the selling season. Our model accounts for stochastic customer arrivals, captures stockout-based substitutions, and determines initial stocking quantities jointly for all products. Recognizing the challenges that these aspects pose in solving the problem, we propose an optimization-based method that estimates the ready rates using a deterministic approximation and discretizes the selling season into a finite number of time intervals. This novel modeling approach permits us to recast the stochastic optimization model as a deterministic mixed integer linear program that can accommodate several common stockout-based substitution schemes. We characterize the worst-case behavior of this approach to develop performance guarantees. We also implemented and applied this model to randomly generated numerical instances featuring different types of product differentiation and varying in parameter values. We observe that the approach is robust to changes in problem parameter values and yields solutions very quickly, outperforming an enumeration-based alternative, a practical heuristic, and an approach based on extant literature. Finally, we applied our approach to data from a re-seller of Information Technology products. Results illustrate that our approach scales well and has the potential to generate savings in inventory costs.
参考文献：Akçay, Y., et al. (2020). "Category Inventory Planning With Service Level Requirements and Dynamic Substitutions." Production and Operations Management 29(11): 2553-2578.
3、人道主义响应中的协调信息泡沫：理论基础和实证研究
人道主义灾难是高度动态且不确定的。形势的变化，信息的波动以及决策过程和协调结构的出现要求人道主义组织不断调整其行动。在本研究中，我们旨在通过不断变化的情况，易变的信息和新兴的协调结构之间的动态相互作用来理解自适应决策。从感官，协调和决策的理论出发，我们提供了两个案例研究，代表了对两种不同人道主义灾难的反应：菲律宾的台风海燕和叙利亚危机，这是目前最突出的冲突之一。对于这两者，我们都强调了易变的信息和通过感官做出回应的冲动如何导致紧急协调结构和决策的分散和错位，进而减慢了适应的速度。基于案例研究，我们得出了命题，并提出了在不同区域之间持续横向对齐以及在操作和战略层次之间持续层次化对齐的必要性，以避免协调信息泡沫的持续性。我们讨论了我们的发现对方法和理论发展的意义，以确保人道主义行动管理抓住信息作为紧急协调和适应性决定的驱动因素的关键作用。
Humanitarian disasters are highly dynamic and uncertain. The shifting situation, volatility of information, and the emergence of decision processes and coordination structures require humanitarian organizations to continuously adapt their operations. In this study, we aim to make headway in understanding adaptive decision-making in a dynamic interplay between changing situation, volatile information, and emerging coordination structures. Starting from theories of sensemaking, coordination, and decision-making, we present two case studies that represent the response to two different humanitarian disasters: Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, and the Syria Crisis, one of the most prominent ongoing conflicts. For both, we highlight how volatile information and the urge to respond via sensemaking lead to fragmentation and misalignment of emergent coordination structures and decisions, which, in turn, slow down adaptation. Based on the case studies, we derive propositions and the need to continuously align laterally between different regions and hierarchically between operational and strategic levels to avoid persistence of coordination-information bubbles. We discuss the implications of our findings for the development of methods and theory to ensure that humanitarian operations management captures the critical role of information as a driver of emergent coordination and adaptive decisions.
参考文献：Comes, T., et al. (2020). "The Coordination-Information Bubble in Humanitarian Response: Theoretical Foundations and Empirical Investigations." Production and Operations Management 29(11): 2484-2507.
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4、谁应该补偿分销渠道中的销售代理？
我们分析研究了由三个独立方组成的价值链:制造商、零售商和销售代理。制造商或零售商都可以补偿销售代理，并且制造商和零售商之间可以使用各种供应合同：价格，回购和渠道回扣。我们首先比较两种补偿方案下不同供应合同的效率，然后比较在参数范围内执行效果最佳的供应合同时的两种补偿方案。在制造商补偿下，我们发现仅价格合同在鼓励销售方面可能表现良好，并且可以在某些参数（生产和销售工作成本）范围内主导分销渠道协调合同。在零售商补偿下，我们发现在价值链内，回购合同在数量协调方面表现更好，渠道回扣合同在销售工作协调方面表现更好。有趣的是，我们的结果表明，支持销售人员薪酬计划的适当供应合同有助于减轻不对称销售努力信息带来的效率低下，并可以在广泛的参数范围内将价值链放在首位。在市场需求不确定的情况下，通过单价合同执行的制造商补偿支配着稳定的需求市场，而通过渠道回扣合同执行的零售商补偿则支配着主导。
We analytically study a value chain consisting of three independent parties: a manufacturer, a retailer, and a sales agent. Either the manufacturer or the retailer may compensate the sales agent, and a variety of supply contracts may be used between the manufacturer and the retailer: price-only, buyback, and channel rebate. We first compare the efficiency of different supply contracts under either compensation scheme, and then compare the two compensation schemes when executed with the best performing supply contract for the parameter range. Under manufacturer compensation, we find that the price-only contract may perform well in encouraging sales effort and it can dominate the distribution channel coordinating contracts in certain parameter (production and sales effort costs) range. Under retailer compensation, we find that, within the value chain, the buyback contract performs better in quantity coordination and the channel rebate contract performs better in sales effort coordination. Interestingly, our results show that an appropriate supply contract in support of a salesforce compensation scheme helps mitigate the inefficiency brought by the asymmetric sales effort information, and can lead to value chain first best for a wide range of parameters. When this is not the case, manufacturer compensation executed via the price-only contract dominates for stable demand markets and retailer compensation executed via channel rebate contract dominates when the market’s uncertain outcomes are distinct.
参考文献：Kouvelis, P. and D. Shi (2020). "Who Should Compensate the Sales Agent in a Distribution Channel?" Production and Operations Management 29(11): 2437-2460.
5、分销渠道中直接存储配送的驱动因素和影响
直接门店配送（DSD）是零售商允许制造商执行店内操作（如货架补充）的一种安排。本文研究了DSD的经济驱动因素及其对零售商和制造商的影响。我们考虑了一个分销渠道，两个竞争的制造商通过一个受限于货架空间的零售商来销售他们的产品。分配给每种产品的货架空间会影响与店内运营相关的成本。零售商可以将DSD提供给任何一个或两个制造商。制造商通过接受或拒绝零售商的DSD报价来做出回应。确定渠道安排后，制造商确定批发价格，然后零售商确定零售价格。我们的结果表明：（i）与货架补给相关的运营成本是凸性的；（ii）制造商之间的竞争激烈到足以确保零售商愿意提供DSD，但没有那么强烈地阻止制造商采用DSD时，采用DSD。
此外，我们发现DSD提高了批发价格，降低了零售价格，并增加了每种产品的需求。这一发现的含义是，DSD不仅可以使相关的零售商和制造商受益，也可以使消费者受益。
Direct-Store-Delivery (DSD) is an arrangement in which a retailer allows a manufacturer to execute in-store operations such as shelf replenishments. This paper studies the economic drivers and implications of DSD for retailers and manufacturers. We consider a distribution channel where two competing manufacturers sell their products via a shelf-space constrained retailer. The shelf space allocated to each product affects the cost associated with in-store operations. The retailer can offer DSD to neither, one, or both manufacturers. The manufacturers respond by accepting or rejecting the retailer’s DSD offer. After the channel arrangement is determined, the manufacturers set their wholesale prices and then the retailer sets retail prices. Our results suggest that DSD is adopted when (i) the operational cost associated with shelf replenishments is convex, and (ii) competition between the manufacturers is intense enough to ensure the retailer’s willingness to offer DSD, but not so intense to deter the manufacturers from adopting DSD. Furthermore, we find that DSD increases the wholesale prices, decreases the retail prices, and increases demand for each product. The implication of this finding is that DSD can benefit not only the involved retailer and manufacturer but also the consumers.
参考文献：Kurtuluş, M., et al. (2020). "Drivers and Implications of Direct-Store-Delivery in Distribution Channels." Production and Operations Management 29(11): 2621-2636.
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6、发展中国家的疫苗采购合同
近年来，一些全球卫生组织（GHO）尝试了基于市场的采购合同，以鼓励制药公司将后期疫苗带入发展中国家市场。由于能力承诺的机会成本高，发展中国家的支付能力有限且需求不确定，因此制药公司常常发现此类市场在财务上没有吸引力。一家GHO公司最近实施了一项合同设计，在发展中国家支付基本价格的基础上，向制造商提供每剂药的销售补贴，由GHO支付。之所以需要补贴，是因为基本价格本身不足以诱使制造商为发展中国家的市场投入生产能力。在这种情况下出现的自然问题是，在固定预算内，替代合同设计是否会导致更高的容量承诺。本研究提出并分析了三种合同设计，其中包括当前的实践以及受运营管理文献中研究的合同启发的两种替代方案。它还考虑了实践中可能出现的两种预算约束，并量化了每种预算约束对制造商的能力承诺的影响。我们表明最佳的合同设计取决于预算的大小，并且GHO可以通过选择适合预算的合同设计和所选设计的最佳参数来增加容量承诺（超过实际使用的合同设计）。
In recent years, several Global Health Organizations (GHOs) have experimented with market-based procurement contracts to encourage pharmaceutical companies to bring late-stage vaccines to developing-country markets. Pharmaceutical companies often find such markets financially unattractive because the opportunity cost of capacity commitment is high, developing countries have limited ability to pay, and demand is uncertain. A contract design recently implemented by one GHO offers the manufacturer a per-dose sales subsidy, which is paid by the GHO, on top of the base price paid by developing countries. The subsidy is required because the base price is not enough, by itself, to induce the manufacturer to commit capacity for developing-country markets. A natural question that arises in this context is whether, within a fixed budget, alternate contract designs lead to higher capacity commitment. This study proposes and analyzes three contract designs that include the current practice and two alternatives inspired by contracts studied in the operations management literature. It also considers two types of budget constraints that may arise in practice and quantifies the impact of each type of budget constraint on the manufacturer’s capacity commitment. We show that the best contract design depends on the size of the budget, and that GHOs can increase capacity commitment (over the contract design used in practice) by choosing the budget-appropriate contract design and optimal parameters for the chosen design.
参考文献：Martin, P., et al. (2020). "Vaccine Procurement Contracts for Developing Countries." Production and Operations Management 29(11): 2601-2620.
7、使用点击流数据来提高限时销售的效果
限时抢购零售商组织网上活动，在短时间内以极低的折扣出售商品。这些事件的需求非常不确定，但是点击流数据可以帮助零售商获得有关购物过程的详细信息，从而使他们能够管理此类风险。为此，我们建立了一个预测模型，用于预测购物者关于访问某个活动、获取产品信息和进行购买的顺序决策，并使用领先的闪购公司的大量数据进行了验证。所提出的分层方法反映了购物渠道的不同阶段，并允许直接分解其主要变化来源，从客户到货到产品购买。我们将活动和产品之间的生命周期动态和异质性确定为差异的主要来源：从统计的角度来看，这些使我们能够提供最佳的预测，从而在样本外准确性方面优于机器学习的替代方法。因此，我们的模型使快速销售零售商能够在几个小时内了解新产品的性能并更新价格，以便更好地与供需预测相匹配并提高利润。我们在包括数千种产品在内的多个广告系列中模拟了我们的预测和优化程序，结果表明我们的模型可以成功地将受欢迎和不受欢迎的产品区分开，并显着提高收入。
Flash sales retailers organize online campaigns where products are sold for a short period of time at a deep discount. The demand in these events is very uncertain, but clickstream data can potentially help retailers with detailed information about the shopping process, thereby allowing them to manage such risks. For this purpose, we build a predictive model for shoppers’ sequential decisions about visiting a campaign, obtaining product information and placing a purchase, which we validate using a large data set from a leading flash sales firm. The proposed hierarchical approach mirrors the different stages of the shopping funnel and allows for a direct decomposition of its main sources of variation, from customers arrival to products purchase. We identify life-cycle dynamics and heterogeneity across campaigns and products as the main sources of variation: these allow us to provide the best predictions from a statistical standpoint, which outperform machine learning alternatives in out-of-sample accuracy. Our model thus enables flash sales retailers to learn about the performance of new products in a few hours and to update prices so as to better match supply and demand forecast and improve profits. We simulate our forecasting and optimization procedures on several campaigns including thousands of products and show that our model can successfully separate popular and unpopular products and lift revenues significantly.
参考文献：Martínez-de-Albéniz, V., et al. (2020). "Using Clickstream Data to Improve Flash Sales Effectiveness." Production and Operations Management 29(11): 2508-2531.
8、非营利设置中的供应受限位置分布
受世界粮食计划署在安哥拉内战后粮食危机中的活动的启发，本研究提出了一种系统的方法来解决非营利环境中的位置分配问题，在这种情况下，必须将有限的供应量分配给不同的需求区域。效用函数的使用是我们框架中的关键，因为它允许决策者通过代表将供应分配到不同需求地点（地点效应）和分配给同一需求地点中不同个人的异质效应（递减收益效应）来确定优先级。我们建议使用嵌入了效用函数的两个分式目标：效率度量和与基尼系数有关的新不平等度量。所建议的问题采用双目标整数线性分数程序的形式，并且我们的解决优化技术旨在解决多个分式目标测度。提供了针对所提出的解决优化技术的最坏情况性能的新颖分析结果。我们的数值实验评估了计算效率并提供了具体的管理规定。最后，基于效率-不平等权衡分析，提出了我们的方法在安哥拉粮食危机背景下的说明性应用。
Inspired by the World Food Programme's activity in the post-civil war food crisis in Angola, this study proposes a systematic approach to address the location distribution problem in not-for-profit settings, where a limited volume of supply has to be allocated to different demand regions. The use of utility functions is key in our framework because it allows the decision-maker to establish priorities by representing the heterogeneous effects of distributing supply to different demand locations (location effect) and to different individuals in the same demand location (diminishing returns effect). We propose the use of two fractional objectives with the utility functions embedded into them: an efficiency measure and a new inequity measure related to the Gini coefficient. The suggested problem has the form of a bi-objective integer linear fractional program and our resolution optimization technique is designed to solve for multiple fractional objective measures. Novel analytical results for the worst-case performance of the proposed resolution technique are provided. Our numerical experiments assess computational efficiency and provide concrete managerial prescriptions. Finally, an illustrative application of our approach in the context of the food crisis in Angola is presented based on an efficiency-inequity trade-off analysis.
参考文献：Park, C. H. and G. Berenguer (2020). "Supply Constrained Location-Distribution in Not-for-Profit Settings." Production and Operations Management 29(11): 2461-2483.
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