Informs 2015

302 / 552

INFORMS Philadelphia – 2015
300
4 - Learning, Revising, and Forgetting Multidimensional Contextual
Features for Online Ad Selection
John Turner, Assistant Professor, University of California, Irvine,
Room SB2 338, The Paul Merage School of Business, Irvine, CA,
92697-3125, United States of America,
Tianbing Xu, Amelia Regan, Yaming Yu
We study how best to match ads to viewers using high-dimensional contextual
features (demographic, browsing behavior) to predict click-through probability.
Using Thompson Sampling in a Bayesian framework, our model learns the
importance of contextual features while adapting/forgetting over time, capturing
changing individuals’ tastes and shifts in the viewing population’s composition.
TB46
46-Room 104A, CC
Service Models in MSOM
Sponsor: Manufacturing & Service Oper Mgmt/Service Operations
Sponsored Session
Chair: Opher Baron, University of Toronto, 105 St George St,
Toronto, ON, Canada,
1 - Worker Flexibility Training and Production Decision Rights
Gad Allon, Professor, Kellogg School of Management,
Northwestern University, 2001 Sheridan Road,
Evanston, IL, 60201, United States of America, g-
, Achal Bassamboo, Evan Barlow
We explore the interaction between production decision rights and workers’
decisions on training to become flexible resources. Research on flexible resources
is prevalent in the operations management literature. Human resources, however,
are decision makers and have rights to decide on their own training levels. Many
firms, however, have also given workers some production decision rights. We
show how the workers’ training decisions are affected by the identity of the
production decision maker.
2 - Revenue Maximization for Cloud Computing Services
Cinar Kilcioglu, Columbia Business School, New York, NY, 10027,
United States of America, ,
Costis Maglaras
We study a stylized model of revenue maximization for cloud computing services,
analyze price data traces from the biggest cloud service provider, Amazon, provide
some possible explanation for price spikes based on intuitive asymptotic analysis
arguments in systems with large scale capacity and large market potential, and
ultimately study the revenue maximization problem faced by the service provider
that operates in an infinite capacity system and in a market with multiple
customer types.
3 - Admission and Discharge Decisions in Intensive Care Units
Huiyin Ouyang, UNC Department of Statistics & Operations
Research, 318 Hanes Hall, CB# 3260, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599-
3260, United States of America, ,
Serhan Ziya, Nilay Argon
We formulate a MDP model for admission decisions in an ICU where patients’
health conditions change over time according to Markovian probabilities, We find
that the optimal decision can depend on the mix of patients in the ICU and
provide an analytic characterization of the optimal policy. We also identify
conditions under which the optimal policy is state-independent.
4 - Tandem Queues with Reneging – Analysis and Insights
Jianfu Wang, Assistant Professor, Nanyang Business School, NTU,
50 Nanyang Avenue, NTU, Singapore, Singapore,
Opher Baron, Oded Berman,
Hossein Abouee Mehrizi
This paper considers tandem queueing systems with reneging. We develop a new
technique to solve two dimensional Markov Chains with non-repeating structure.
Our technique can be applied to additional settings and used to derive different
service level measures. We demonstrate this technique on a two-station tandem
queueing model with reneging, which has been considered analytically
intractable.
TB47
47-Room 104B, CC
Supply Chain Social Responsibility
Sponsor: Manufacturing & Service Oper Mgmt/Sustainable
Operations
Sponsored Session
Chair: Robert Swinney, Associate Professor, Duke University, 100
Fuqua Dr, Durham, NC, 27708, United States of America,
1 - Supply Chain Social and Environmental Performance:
Measurement, Improvement and Disclosure
Basak Kalkanci, Georgia Institute of Technology,
800 W Peachtree St. NW, Atlanta, GA, United States of America,
, Erica Plambeck
Firms are beginning to measure the social and environmental impacts associated
with their products and (in a few cases) report those impacts to investors and
consumers. Supply chain strategy and structure influence a firm’s costs and
benefits from impact measurement, reduction and disclosure. We evaluate how a
mandate for disclosure affect impacts, firm expected profit, and its valuation by
investors.
2 - Impact of Supply Chain Transparency on Sustainability under
NGO Scrutiny
Shi Chen, Assistant Professor, University of Washington,
Michael G. Foster School of Business, University of Washington,
Seattle, WA, 98195, United States of America, ,
Qinqin Zhang, Yong-Pin Zhou
We study the use of supply chain transparency as an effective tool to mitigate
supply chain sustainability issues, and in particular, whether the buyer should
reveal her supplier list, knowing that revealed suppliers could face a different
level of NGO scrutiny than the unrevealed ones. We incorporate the strategic
interactions among a buyer, her suppliers, and the independent NGOs.
3 - Responsible Sourcing via Vertical Integration and
Horizontal Sourcing
Adem Orsdemir, Assistant Professor, University of California
Riverside, School of Business Administration, Anderson Hall,
Riverside, CA, 92507, United States of America,
Bin Hu, Vinayak Deshpande
Vertical integration is a viable way to achieve responsible sourcing. In a
competitive setting, we analyze a firm’s integration and responsible sourcing
decisions. We find that demand externality and possibility of supplying the
competitor may fundamentally change firms’ behaviors. Furthermore, high
probability of violation detection may discourage responsible sourcing.
4 - Investing in Supply Chain Transparency for Social Responsibility
Leon Valdes, Tim Kraft, Karen Zheng
We study a manufacturer’s decisions when the social responsibility performance
of his supplier cannot be perfectly observed. The manufacturer can invest to
increase the transparency of his supply chain and the performance of his supplier.
An NGO may communicate to consumers the true level of social responsibility,
potentially decreasing profits.
TB48
48-Room 105A, CC
Operational Issues in Agriculture
Sponsor: Manufacturing & Service Oper Mgmt/iFORM
Sponsored Session
Chair: Onur Boyabatli, Assistant Professor of Operations Management,
Singapore Management University, 50 Stamford Road 04-01,
Lee Kong Chian School of Business, Singapore, 178899, Singapore,
1 - Agricultural Cooperative Pricing of Premium Product
Burak Kazaz, Associate Professor, Syracuse University,
721 University Avenue, Syracuse, NY, 13244, United States of
America, Scott Webster, Nur Ayvaz-cavdaroglu
We consider the problem of price-setting by a cooperative for an agricultural
product with the following characteristics: (1) the open-market price for the
product depends on yield and on quality and (2) the quality of the product is
influenced by farmer investments over the growing season. We identify a simple
pricing scheme that shows potential to improve performance, and we characterize
the drivers and the magnitude of performance improvement.
TB46