A critical decision made by many firms is whether to adopt a responsive supply chain (prioritizing speed) or an efficient supply chain (prioritizing cost). We consider the environmental implications of this choice. We analyze a model wherein responsiveness increases marginal costs, decreases...

In many industries, product design and manufacturing lead-times are sufficiently long that both the quality level of a product and the amount of inventory produced must be determined before a firm knows what the actual demand will be. In this paper, we conduct a theoretical analysis of such a...

Problem Definition: We study the management of social responsibility in a three-tier supply chain in which a Tier 2 supplier sells to a Tier 1 supplier, which in turn sells to a Tier 0 buyer. The Tier 2 supplier may violate social and environmental standards, resulting in harm to all firms in...