Informs 2015

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INFORMS Philadelphia – 2015
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3 - Dynamic Credit-collections Optimization
Naveed Chehrazi, Assistant Professor, McCombs School of
Business, 2110 Speedway Stop B6500, Austin, TX, 78705,
United States of America, ,
Peter Glynn, Thomas Weber
We develop a dynamic model of consumer repayment behavior on delinquent
credit-card loans using a marked point process. The intensity of this point process
can be influenced by costly treatment actions. Both the type and the timing of the
account-treatment actions are subject to optimization, leading to an optimal
impulse control problem. Using the HJB equation, we obtain a quasi-closed form
solution for this control problem.
4 - Complexity Estimates for Policy and Value Iteration Algorithms for
Total-cost and Average Cost MDPS
Jefferson Huang, Stony Brook University, Dept. Applied
Mathematics & Statistics, Stony Brook, NY, 11794-3600,
United States of America,
Eugene Feinberg
We present two groups of results: an example showing that the value iteration
algorithm and its modifications are not strongly polynomial for discounted MDPs,
and reductions of certain total-cost and average-cost MDPs to discounted ones.
Combining the latter with Yinyu Ye’s result on the strong polynomiality of the
simplex method and policy iterations for discounted MDPs allows us to design
strongly polynomial algorithms for important classes of total-cost and average-
cost MDPs.
MC39
39-Room 100, CC
Branding and Bundling
Cluster: Operations/Marketing Interface
Invited Session
Chair: Kathy Stecke, UT Dallas, SM30 JSOM, 800 W Campbell Rd,
Richardson, TX, 75080, United States of America,
1 - Consumer Taste Uncertainty in the Context of Store Brand and
National Brand Competition
Saibal Ray, Professor, McGill University, 1001 Sherbrooke Street
West, Montreal, Canada, , Tamer Boyaci,
Arcan Nalca
We focus on the uncertainty in consumer taste and study how a retailer can
benefit from acquiring that taste information in the presence of competition
between its store brand and a national brand. We also identify the optimal
information sharing strategy of the retailer as well as the equilibrium product
positioning and pricing of the brands. We generate insights as to when it is most
valuable for the retailer to acquire taste information as well its value for the
manufacturer.
2 - Retail Assortment and Price Competition when Consumers are
Uncertain about Product Tastes
Steve Gilbert, Professor, University of Texas at Austin,
1 University Station, B6500, The University of Texas at Austin,
Austin, TX, 78712, United States of America,
Haoying Sun
For many products, at least some consumers may need to physically experience
them in order to assess their valuations. For such products, we provide conditions
under there will be an equilibrium between two symmetric retailers in which one
carries both products and the other carries only one. In addition, we find that the
pricing strategy that should be adopted by each retailer differs substantially
depending upon his rival’s assortment.
3 - Demand Shaping through Bundling and Configuration:
A Dynamic Multiproduct Inventory-pricing Model
Zhengliang Xue, IBM Research Center, Yorktown Heights, NY,
United States of America, , Jeannette Song
Motivated by the industrial practice of using product bundling to shape demand,
we present a dynamic model to analyze the optimal joint inventory, pricing, and
bundling decisions for a firm selling vertically differentiated bundles over a finite
horizon. We study the factors driving the bundling strategy, and provide insights
into when to change the bundling strategies. Such strategies have a broad
application in practice such as pricing the configuration of server and accessories.
4 - Should a Retailer Consider Adding a Social Network
Enabled Channel?
Gulver Karamemis, University of Florida, 355A STZ, Gainesville,
FL, 32611, United States of America,
Narendra Agrawal,
Subhajyoti Bandyopadhyay, Asoo Vakharia
Social networks are one of the most exciting recent developments that have
influenced the relationships between individuals and between individuals and
organizations. However, due to its relative infancy as well as the myriad data and
security related concerns of consumers, retailers have been slow to dive into
social networks as a sales channel. Our research sheds light on the question of
when retailers should consider adding a social network channel to their existing
channel architecture.
MC40
40- Room 101, CC
Micro-Underpinnings of Mobility, Knowledge, and
Performance in Groups and Organizations
Sponsor: Organization Science
Sponsored Session
Chair: Aimee Kane, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA,
Co-Chair: Gina Dokko, University of California, Davis, CA
1 - Managing Talent across Organizations: the Portability of
Individual Performance
Gina Dokko, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA,
Winnie Jiang
As individuals’ careers increasingly unfold in diverse ways, the question of what
they carry with them as they cross organizational or institutional boundaries
becomes increasingly important. In this essay, we review findings on the
portability of individual performance and develop a framework for thinking about
talent management in organizations that accounts for the movement of
individuals in and out of organizations and the complexity of modern careers.
2 - Using What You Know: Inventor Mobility to Young Firms
Erin Fahrenkopf, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA,
The research addresses the conditions under which individuals at entrepreneurial
firms exploit knowledge from prior organizational experiences. In particular, I
examine the effect of engaging in collaborative work and organizational roles on
individuals’ knowledge use at young firms. I study a sample of inventor
movements, both founders and employees, in the US laser industry and provide
implications for the study of entrepreneurship and knowledge transfer by
employee movements.
3 - Overcoming Barriers to Team Receptivity to Newcomers
Aimee Kane, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA,
, Floor Rink
Newcomers bring with them unique perspectives drawn from prior experience,
but, due to social psychological barriers, there is a pervasive tendency for teams to
push newcomers to assimilate to the team rather than utilize their valuable
knowledge. This contribution draws on evidence from small group experiments
and vignette studies to suggest ways of replacing this resistance with receptivity to
newcomer’s unique knowledge, which are also amendable to managerial, team,
and newcomer intervention.
4 - Shady Characters: How Illicit Roles Contribute to
Team Performance
Colleen Stuart, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD,
Celia Moore
In this paper we theorize about illicit roles, roles that specialize in activity that
contravenes rules or regulations to support group goals. We use data on
professional hockey teams to examine how team performance is disrupted when
the enforcer, a player who specializes in the prohibited activity of fighting, is
injured. We discuss how our understanding of illicit roles can be used to build
theory about informal organizational roles and the implications of these roles for
mobility in teams.
MC39