The inventory control theory in the operations research and management literature is primarily concerned about manufactured products, for which, the typical assumptions are ample external supplies and predictable prices, and the decision is on how much to order or produce. Agricultural products,...

1. Problem Definition: This article explores the incentive issues and gaming behaviors of firms under risk sharing partnerships in a project management setting, motivated by real-life examples. 2. Academic/Practical relevance: Collaboration prevails in projects within diverse industries. The...

1. Problem Definition: We study the coordination of an E-commerce supply chain between online sellers and 3rd party shippers to meet random demand surges, induced by, for instance, online shopping holidays.2. Academic/Practical Relevance: Motivated by the challenge of meeting the highly...

In many industries, customers are offered free shipping whenever an order placed exceeds a minimum quantity specified by suppliers. This allows the suppliers to achieve economies of scale in terms of production and distribution by encouraging customers to place large orders. In this paper, we...

Component commonality has been widely recognized as a key factor in achieving product variety at low cost. Yet the theory on the value of component commonality is rather limited in the inventory literature. The existing results were built primarily on single-period models or periodic-review...