We consider the presence of first-mover advantage or disadvantage in a duopoly model of product positioning in which firms are symmetric, except for order of entry. We study a generalization of the Hotelling model, in which a consumer's utility from a product depends on the location of product...

We consider an online multi-item retailer with multiple fulfillment facilities and finite inventory, with the objective of minimizing the expected shipping cost of fulfilling customer orders over a finite horizon. We approximate the stochastic dynamic programming formulation of the problem with...

With e-commerce growing at a rapid pace compared to traditional retail, many brick-and-mortar firms are supporting their online growth through an integrated omnichannel approach. Such integration can lead to reduction in cost that can be achieved through efficient inventory management. A...

We consider a firm that designs a new product and wishes to bring it to market, but does not have ownership or control over all of the resources required to make that happen. The firm must select and contract with one of several possible tier 1 suppliers for necessary inputs, who do the same...

This paper examines pre-auction investments made by asymmetric agents that compete for a supply contract from a monopolist principal. Agents are privately aware of their managerial efficiencies which determine how well they can leverage fixed investments to reduce their variable costs for...