Purpose – The Emergency Department (ED) at Grand River Hospital in Kitchener, Ontario sought insight into strategies that would reduce patient length of stay and queuing for initial assessment. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the ED's operational level and determine an optimal fast...

The provision of essential supplies is a key service provided by retailers when demand spikes due to consumer stockpiling during environmental emergencies. Moreover, it is important for retailers to quickly recover from these events by replenishing the stock of essential supplies to meet the...

This study examines the impacts of consumer confidence on stockpiling behavior and, subsequently, retail inventory management. We show how stockpiling behavior evolved during the “Great Recession” of 2008-2009 as consumer confidence waned and demonstrate the impact of this development on...

The operations literature has increasingly accounted for the presence of strategic consumer behavior. Theory suggests that such a behaviour exposes firms to intertemporal competition and exerts downwards pressure on prices. However, little evidence exists to demonstrate the outcome effect and...