We examine a large operational data set in a casual restaurant setting to study how coworkers' sales ability level affects other workers' sales performance. We find that waiters react non-linearly to their coworkers' ability. In particular, when coworkers' overall sales ability is low,...

We empirically examine the impact of expanded product variety on demand concentration using large data sets from the movie rental industry as our test bed. We find that product variety is likely to increase demand concentration, which goes against the “Long Tail effect” theory predicting...

Each year the Manufacturing and Service Operations Management (MSOM) Society of INFORMS conducts a student paper competition. In Volume 2, Issue 2 of M&SOM, we published the extended abstracts of the 1999 winners in the hopes that this could become an annual event. Our hopes have become a...