This paper shows the benefits of high inventory turnover in responding to demand shocks. We identify quantity- and price-responsiveness as two mediating mechanisms that distinguish how high- and low-inventory-turnover retailers (HIT and LIT retailers, respectively) can manage demand shocks....

We investigate how uncertainty in retail sales can be explained by the return on a financial market index. This information can be employed in forecasting, hedging, and risk management. Our forecasting model expresses the total sales of a retailer as a function of sales forecasts generated by...

We present an efficient dynamic programming algorithm to determine the optimal assortment and inventory levels in a single-period problem with stockout-based substitution. In our model, total customer demand is random and comprises of a fixed proportion of customers of different types. Customer...

We study a sourcing problem faced by a firm that seeks to procure a product or a component from a pool of alternative suppliers. The firm has a preference ordering of the suppliers based on factors such as their past performance, quality, service, geographical location and financial strength,...

Retail store managers may not follow order advices generated by an automated inventory replenishment system if their incentives differ from the cost minimization objective of the system or if they perceive the system to be suboptimal. We study the ordering behavior of retail store managers in a...