A common theme in the studies of flexible supply contracts has been the producer's profit-maximization problem without regard to the suppliers' reactions. However, suppliers do react and protect their downside against producer's operating policies by revising their strategies in a manner...

In the academic literature and professional practice, there are a number of alternative and apparently competing methods for valuing risky projects. In this paper, we compare and contrast three different approaches: risk-adjusted discount-rate analysis, option pricing analysis, and decision...

Path dependent securities depend on current and past values of underlying state variables. Consequently, the usual backward evaluation technique is difficult to apply since state variable values existing earlier in real time are unknown. This paper develops a series of propositions which makes...

We investigate the long-standing puzzle on the underpricings of convertible bonds. We hypothesize that the observed underpricing is induced by the possibility that a convertible bond might renegotiate on some of its covenants, e.g., an imbedded put option in financial difficulties. Consistent...

This article investigates the role of option contracts in a supply chain when the demand curve is downward sloping. We consider call (put) options that provide the retailer with the right to reorder (return) goods at a fixed price. We show that the introduction of option contracts causes the...

This paper examines the use of options contracts by firms acquiring rights to commercialize university technologies. By combining information about the sequence of licensing decisions with characteristics of the firms and technologies involved, I explore factors that shape decisions to purchase...

This paper studies how judicious resource allocation in networks mitigates risk. Theory is presented for general utility functions and mean-variance formulations and is illustrated with networks featuring resource diversification, flexibility (e.g., inventory substitution), and sharing...