Public 'Beta' launches have become a preferred route of entry into themarkets for new software products and web site based services. Whilebeta testing of novel products is nothing new, typically such tests weredone by experts within firm boundaries. What makes public beta testingso attractive to...

The rapid pace of technological innovation necessitates that information technology (IT) services firms continually invest in replenishing the skills of their key asset base, the human capital. We examine whether human capital investments directed toward employee training are effective in...

We conduct a field study on a prominent US health insurance firm to examine how customizing a product affects firm’s cost to serve the customers through its call center. In our setting, the product is a complex health insurance policy. Firm incurs substantial cost in serving the customers...

Department: Industrial Engineering and Operations Research.

We present a simple dynamic equilibrium model for an online exchange where both buyers and sellers arrive according to a exogenously defined stochastic process. The structure of this exchange is motivated by the limit order book mechanism used in stock markets. Both buyers and sellers are...