Combinatorial allocation involves assigning bundles of items to agents when the use of money is not allowed. Course allocation is one common application of combinatorial allocation, in which the bundles are schedules of courses and the assignees are students. Existing mechanisms used in practice...

Recent platforms, like Uber and Lyft, offer service to consumers via “self-scheduling” providers who decide for themselves how often to work. These platforms may charge consumers prices and pay providers wages that both adjust based on prevailing demand conditions. For example, Uber uses a...

Abstract Every firm has a business model, which is the collection of strategic decisions that determine how the firm generates a sustainable enterprise through the creation of enough value (its supply model) and the extraction of a sufficient portion of that value (its revenue model). Innovative...

Abstract. Operations management has evolved since the founding of M&SOM: new departments have been created in our journals, new tracks have been established in our conferences, and new methodologies have been adopted in our research. Are these changes good for the field? To some, they seem...

It has been shown that a monopolist can use advance selling to increase profits. This paper documents that this may not hold when firms face competition. With advance selling a firm offers its service in an advance period, before consumers know their valuations for the firms' services, or later...

What is the relationship between inventory and sales? Clearly, inventory could increase sales: expanding inventory creates more choice (options, colors, etc.) and might signal a popular/desirable product. Or, inventory might encourage a consumer to continue her search (e.g., on the theory that...

In many markets consumers incur search costs and firms must choose a pricing strategy that determines how their pricing responds to market conditions. A pricing strategy may involve commitments to take actions that are not optimal given the information the firm knowns about demand. Two types of...

The density, size and location of stores in a retailer's network influences both the retailer's and the consumers' costs - with stores few and far between, consumers must travel a long distance to shop, whereas shopping trips are shorter with a dense network of stores. The layout of the retail...