Professional services require certain organizational patterns in order to avoid information asymmetries and external effects. These same patterns are used within production structures involving various degrees of monopoly. However, competitive restraints are justified today only when substantial...

In this work we discuss some ideas and opinions related with teaching Metaheuristics in Business Schools. The main purpose of the work is to initiate a discussion and collaboration about this topic,with the final objective to improve the teaching and publicity of the area. The main topics to be...

The problems arising in the logistics of commercial distribution are complex and involve several players and decision levels. One important decision is related with the design of the routes to distribute the products, in an efficient and inexpensive way. This article explores three different...

In this paper we develop two models for an inventory system in which the distributor manages the inventory at the retailers location. These type of systems correspond to the Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) systems described ib the literature. These systems are very common in many different types...

The need for integration in the supply chain management leads us to consider the coordination of two logistic planning functions: transportation and inventory. The coordination of these activities can be an extremely important source of competitive advantage in the supply chain management. The...

The Maximum Capture problem (MAXCAP) is a decision model that addresses the issue of location in a competitive environment. This paper presents a new approach to determine which store’s attributes (other than distance) should be included in the new Market Capture Models and how they ought to...

A new direction of research in Competitive Location theory incorporates theories of Consumer Choice Behavior in its models. Following this direction, this paper studies the importance of consumer behavior with respect to distance or transportation costs in the optimality of locations obtained by...

To understand whether retailers should consider consumer returns when merchandising, we study how the optimal assortment of a price-taking retailer is influenced by its return policy. The retailer selects its assortment from an exogenous set of horizontally differentiated products. Consumers...

We analyze empirically the allocation of rights and monetary incentives in automobile franchise contracts. These contracts substantially restrict the decision rights of dealers and grant manufacturers extensive contractual completion and enforcement powers, converting the manufacturers, de...

This article illustrates how contracts are completed ex post in practice and, in so doing, indirectly suggests what the real function of contracts may be. Our evidence comes from the contracts between automobile manufacturers and their dealers in 23 dealership networks in Spain. Franchising...