Procurement has become a vital strategic function as firms increasingly pursue supply chain partnerships and outsourcing options. By coordinating procurement policies across multiple divisions and leveraging firm-wide purchasing power to negotiate significant volume discounts from suppliers,...

In some retail contexts, higher inventories not only improve service levels, but also stimulate demand by serving as a promotional tool (e.g., by increasing product visibility). Motivated by a building-products retailer's practice of stocking large quantities of products to stimulate demand, we...

Resource flexibility is an important tool for firms to better match capacity with demand so as to increase revenues and improve service levels. However, in service contexts that require dynamically deciding whether to accept incoming jobsand what resource to assign to each accepted job,...

Manufacturers are increasingly relying on third-party logistics service providers to distribute their products to retail stores. Fee tables, specifying how much to pay for each delivery based on weight and distance, are commonly used as the basis for compensating distributors for their delivery...

Solar electricity generation is a strategic component in the energy portfolio of many countries to replace fossil fuels and reduce green-house gas emissions. Installations of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems by residential homes in the United States have grown rapidly in the past decade, driven...