This paper aims at determining the optimal number of new facilities besides specifying both the optimal location and design level of them under the budget constraint in a competitive environment by a novel hybrid continuous and discrete firefly algorithm. A real-world application of locating new...

We analyze the possibility and consequences of coalition-formation amongst suppliers of retail services. We first provide a framework in which producers of Substitutes have an incentive to Cluster in market places in order to attract consumers dispersed in space. Owing to spatial externalities,...