We study a service facility in which the system manager dynamically controls the arrival and service rates to maximize the long-run average value generated. We initially consider a rate-setting problem where the service facility is modeled as an M/M/1 queue with adjustable arrival and service...

Amathematical model is developed to help analyze the benefit in contact-center performance obtained from increasing employee (agent) retention, which is in turn obtained by increasing agent job satisfaction. The contact-center performance may be restricted to a traditional productivity measure...

This paper examines search across competing e-commerce sites. By analyzing panel data from over 10,000 Internet households and three commodity-like products (books, compact discs (CDs), and air travel services), we show that the amount of online search is actually quite limited. On average,...

This paper develops a model of conversion behavior (i.e., converting store visits into purchases) that predicts each customer's probability of purchasing based on an observed history of visits and purchases. We offer an individual-level probability model that allows for different forms of...

A new class of stochastic variables, governed by a specific set of rules, is introduced. These rules force them to loose some properties usually assumed for this kind of variables. We demonstrate that stochastic processes driven by these random sources must be described using a probability...

A flexible product is a menu of two or more alternative, typically substitute, products offered by a constrained supplier using a sales or booking process. The supplier reserves the right to assign customers who purchase a flexible product to one of the alternatives at a time near the end of the...

The facility to generate weather data from limited inputs and independently of specific locations would allow simulations of energetic systems to be run at locations for which detailed weather records do not exist. This article presents a methodology to calculate synthetic daily solar radiation...

The paper obtains two principal results. First, using a new definition ofhigher-order (2) matrix derivatives, the paper derives a recursion forcomputing any Gaussian multivariate moment. Second, the paper uses this resultin a perturbation method to derive equations for computing the...

This paper presents a new stochastic multidimensional scaling procedure for the analysis of three-mode, three-way pick any/ J data. The method provides either a vector or ideal-point model to represent the structure in such data, as well as “floating” model specifications (e.g., different...