Public 'Beta' launches have become a preferred route of entry into themarkets for new software products and web site based services. Whilebeta testing of novel products is nothing new, typically such tests weredone by experts within firm boundaries. What makes public beta testingso attractive to...

Department: Industrial Engineering and Operations Research.

We conduct a field study on a prominent US health insurance firm to examine how customizing a product affects firm’s cost to serve the customers through its call center. In our setting, the product is a complex health insurance policy. Firm incurs substantial cost in serving the customers...