Motivated by bed allocation patterns of U.S. nursing homes, we formulate a queueing network model to study nonprofit and for-profit nursing homes' bed allocation decisions and the resulting access to care for the public. Nursing homes have a fixed number of beds that can be allocated among three...

Problem definition: We investigate how the Degree of Standardization (DoS) across service chain-belonging units impacts units' performance outcomes. We study this question in the nursing home industry. More specifically, we study the DoS in three operational dimensions: customer mix, service...

We present an integrated approach to pricing and scheduling for services that are differentiated in terms of throughput, delay and loss specifications. The key building block to the model are quality value curves that specify a user's value of higher quality levels. From the analysis emerges a...

Retailers often use service level agreements (SLAs) to evaluate their supplier's performance. Based on an examination of 70 SLAs from practice we conclude that in terms of evaluating fill rate, these SLAs vary in at least three key dimensions: (1) supplier performance can be evaluated for each...