We study a two-period supply chain in which a manufacturer produces a product, learns to reduce cost, and sells it through a retailer with a price-dependent demand. The manufacturer's second-period production cost declines linearly in the first-period production with a random learning rate. The...

We explore buyback contracts in a supplier-retailer supply chain where the retailer faces a price-dependent downward-sloping demand curve subject to uncertainty. We formulate the problem as a supplier-led Stackelberg game and derive explicitly the equilibrium contract parameters along with the...

We develop a general methodology for a partially observed stochastic control problem. The dynamics is governed by a discrete-time Markov process. We describe an application to an inventory system with possibility of shrinkage, and introduce unnormalized conditional probabilities to transform the...

We analyze optimal advertising spending in a duopolistic market where each firm's market share depends on its own and its competitor''s advertising decisions, and is also subject to stochastic disturbances. We develop a differential game model of advertising in which the dynamic behavior is...

We consider two control problems on a finite horizon; one stochastic and the other deterministic. In both problems the running cost and the terminal cost are the same. The controllable input in both problems is of an additive nature with cost proportional to the input (which can be both positive...

This paper considers an infinite horizon stochastic production planning problem with demand assumed to be a continuous-time Markov process. Problems with control (production) and state (inventory) constraints are treated. It is shown that a unique optimal feedback solution exists. This solution...

This paper summarizes the results of its detailed version, which considers optimal infinite horizon stochastic production planning problems with capacity and demand to be finite state Markov chains. Turnpike set concepts are introduced to characterize the optimal inventory levels. It is shown...

This paper presents an asymptotic analysis of hierarchical investment and production decisions in a manufacturing system with machines subject to breakdown and repair. The demand facing the system is assumed to be a given constant. The production capacity can be increased by purchasing a new...

This paper presents an asymptotic analysis of hier­archical marketing-production systems with stochastic demand and stochastic production capacity (machines are subject to bre­akdown and repair). Our control variables are advertising and production rates which influence demand and inventory...

This paper presents an asymptotic analysis of hierarchical production planning in a manufacturing system with two tandem machines that are subject to breakdown and repair. Since the number of parts in the buffer between the two machines needs to be non-negative, the problem is inherently a state...