The three essays in this dissertation study issues related to technology-intensive product pricing, Information Technologies (IT) workforce utilization through an emerging online channel, and IT vendor selection in online markets, respectively. The first essay considers pricing issues of...

In this thesis we identify and obtain structural results for two different problems that are motivated by electronic commerce infrastructure and bundling of information goods. Strategic implications of implementing a priority pricing scheme in an ATM-like network owned by a single firm is the...

In this thesis, we investigate the effects of Information Technology (IT) and the Internet on business environments from three perspectives: the catalyst function of IT and the Internet in developing new business models, the enabler role of these technologies for emerging digital marketplaces,...

In this thesis we identify and obtain structural results from two different issues that are motivated by new electronic commerce services and technologies. We study all problems from the consumer switching cost perspective. Analyzing protection strategies for online software distribution is the...

This research was undertaken to study two different topics: Explore the need for moving beyond BPR to an integrated process management approach to change, as suggested in the literature; and if there is such a need to move beyond BPR, then explore the need for 'retooling' the computer based tools...

Online intermediaries have recently started offering database services to donors and certification services to nonprofit organizations through the Internet. We conceptualize a Donor-to-Nonprofit (D2N) marketplace as an online intermediary that offers these two services and examine its effect on...

Loyalty is a big part of today's business because retaining a customer is cheaper than attracting a new one. This relationship also holds true in e-commerce. There are many programs on the Internet to enhance loyalty in the electronic environment, most of which can be summarized as frequent...

This thesis contains quantitative models to aid managerial decision making in various aspects of manufacturing operations. The first essay deals with the economic design of multivariate statistical quality control charts, which help users respond quickly to sudden changes in the manufacturing...

Prescriptive decision theory requires decision-makers to express their beliefs and tastes with explicit, precise, and complete information. This information, expressed in subjective probability and utility functions, is often difficult and costly to obtain from a decision-maker. It is obvious...

Motivated by a production planning problem in an actual global manufacturing network, we examine the impact of exchange-rate uncertainty ... namely the volatility in and correlations among exchange rates ... on the choice of various optimal production policies and the conditions which lead to...