This dissertation research is broadly in the area of retail merchandising. Uncertainty in consumer choice decisions results in demand uncertainty and temporary stockouts. These stockouts in turn impact consumer choice decisions. This research draws on the theory of discrete choice, originating...

We consider a revenue sharing contract in a supply chain, under price dependent demand. The demand is random and follows a multiplicative model. We show that the retail price that maximizes expected retailer profits, is higher than the price that would maximize profits if there was no demand...

We consider a quantity flexibility contract in a supply chain, under price dependent demand. The demand is random and follows a multiplicative model. We show that the retail price that maximizes expected retailer profits, is higher than the price that would maximize profits if there was no...

Customer choice behavior, such as 'buy-up' and 'buy-down', is an important phe-nomenon in a wide range of industries. Yet there are few models or methodologies available to exploit this phenomenon within yield management systems. We make some progress on filling this void. Specifically, we...

Economics is the study of how scarce resources are allocated. Operations research studies how to accomplish goals in the least costly manner. These fields have much to offer each other in terms of challenging problems that need to be solved and the techniques to solve them. This was the case...

Customer switching costs are an important factor in account-based services such as telecommunications, financial, insurance and brokerage services. In these businesses, existing customers incur significant costs if they switch to another provider. Such costs include physical configuration and...

We propose a method for estimating substitute and lost demand when only sales and product availability data are observable, not all products are displayed in all periods (e.g., due to stock-outs or availability controls), and the seller knows its aggregate market share. The model combines a...

We study the informational role stock-outs may play when consumers have heterogeneous information about the quality of a firm's product. Typically, in a newsvendor world, matching uncertain demand with inventory leads inevitably to stock-outs. When, in addition, consumers are heterogeneously...

We develop a theoretical model of optimal growth in two-sided markets. The model posits that market output (number of transactions) is a function of the stock of supply and demand. This market output is modeled using a homogeneous function, which can have increasing or decreasing returns to...

The management of a national sporting goods retail chain is not satisfied with the results of the current markdown policy. A consulting team has been hired to help revise the firm's policy in order to increase store revenues. The team is provided with data from a single department, and is...