Problem definition: Faced with the challenge of serving beneficiaries with heterogeneous needs and under budget constrains, a number of nonprofit organizations (NPOs) have come up with an innovative solution: providing partially complete products or services to beneficiaries. We seek to...

Firms developing novel and innovative products regularly face a canonical product development and introduction problem: introduce a proven and immediately available product, or delay product introduction until the successful development of an advanced version. Limited access to resources for the...

Reward-based crowdfunding allows entrepreneurs (creators) to raise capital through campaigns, where potential consumers (backers) pledge small amounts of funds. A key operational decision for a creator is the reward structure of a campaign, that is, the number of rewards and their contribution...

Consumers often have needs that change in a dynamic fashion over time due to physiological, mental or environmental variations. We develop a model to address a product strategy question on how to satisfy dynamic consumer preferences: Should a firm offer multiple standard products, each designed...

Many non-profit organizations (NPOs) serve distressed individuals who seek relief from hardshipssuch as domestic abuse or homelessness. These NPOs aim to maximize social impact by allocating their limited amount of resources to various activities. However, they face a complex task because their...

In many contexts such as product design and development, advertising, or scouting for technical solutions, clients seek the expertise of external providers to generate innovative solutions for their business problems. Since innovation projects are beset with uncertainty, they often require...