We consider the impact of variable production costs on competitive behavior in a duopoly where manufacturers compete on quality and price in a two-stage game. In the pricing stage, we make no assumptions regarding these costs--other than that they are positive and increasing in quality--and no...

We investigate a firm's product line design and capacity investment problem for vertically differentiated products along design quality levels. Customers arrive according to a Poisson process and are heterogeneous in their marginal valuation of the quality level. Customers make product choices...

We consider a centralized distribution network with multiple retailers who receive replenishment inventory to satisfy customer demand of the local markets. The operational flexibility of the network is defined as the opportunity that one retailer's excess inventory can be transferred to satisfy...

The authors quantify the benefits of a newly introduced logistics product, day-definite Full Container-load (FCL), in terms of its cost reduction relative to other existing products – regular FCL and airfreight, from the perspective of a logistic manager in an intercontinental supply...

Integrated device manufacturers (IDMs) and foundries are two types of manufacturers in the semiconductor industry. IDMs integrate both design and manufacturing functions whereas foundries solely focus on manufacturing. Since foundries often have cost advantage over IDMs due to their...

In today's marketplace, most companies realize that it is essential to be aware of and participate in international markets. Furthermore, it becomes transparent that the footprint of the firm's global facilities for sourcing, R+D, production, distribution and sales, and the effective...

This paper investigates the impact of operational flexibility on firms׳ economic exposure to currency fluctuations in the presence of global competition. We consider a global firm who sells as a monopolist in the domestic market, and also sells to a foreign market facing competition from a...