The paper focuses on an innovative bank-intermediated trade finance contract, which we call dynamic trade finance (DTF, under which banks dynamically adjust loan interest rates as an order passes through different steps in the trade process). We examine the value of DTF, the impact of process...

Products with high product variety are often made in a manufacturing process (or a supply chain) consisting of multiple stages, with products taking certain features or "personalities" at each stage. The product may start as a common single engine. As the product moves along manufacturing...

Many companies have embarked on initiatives that enable more demand information sharing between retailers and their upstream suppliers. While the literature on such initiatives in the business press is proliferating, it is not clear how one can quantify the benefits of these initiatives and how...

Supply chain fairness refers to the practices that members in a supply chain treat each other. Due to imperfections of a competitive market, some members could exploit their positions or circumstances that enabled them to gain excessive advantage over others. Such unfair practices could be in...

Expanding product variety and high customer service provision are both major challenges for manufacturers to compete in the global market. In addition to many ongoing programs, such as lead-time reduction, redesigning products and processes so as to delay the point of product differentiation is...