Data-driven research in retail operations—A review

We review the operations research/management science literature on data-driven methods in retail operations. This line of work has grown rapidly in recent years, thanks to the availability of high-quality data, improvements in computing hardware, and parallel developments in machine learning methodologies. We survey state-of-the-art studies in three core aspects of retail operations—assortment optimization, order fulfillment, and inventory management. We then conclude the paper by pointing out some interesting future research possibilities for our community.     

Impact of transfer pricing methods for tax purposes on supply chain performance under demand uncertainty

Transfer pricing refers to the pricing of an intermediate product or service within a firm. This product or service is transferred between two divisions of the firm. Thus, transfer pricing is closely related to the allocation of profits in a supply chain. Motivated by the significant impact of transfer pricing methods for tax purposes on operational decisions and the corresponding profits of a supply chain, in this article, we study a decentralized supply chain of a multinational firm consisting of two divisions: a manufacturing division and a retail division. These two divisions are located in different countries under demand uncertainty. The retail division orders an intermediate product from the upstream manufacturing division and sets the retail price under random customer demand. The manufacturing division accepts or rejects the retail division's order. We specifically consider two commonly used transfer pricing methods for tax purposes: the cost‐plus method and the resale‐price method. We compare the supply chain profits under these two methods. Based on the newsvendor framework, our analysis shows that the cost‐plus method tends to allocate a higher percentage of profit to the retail division, whereas the resale‐price method tends to achieve a higher firm‐wide profit. However, as the variability of demand increases, our numerical study suggests that the firm‐wide and divisional profits tend to be higher under the cost‐plus method than they are under the resale‐price method. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2013     

Bounded flexibility in days‐on and days‐off scheduling

This article presents a flexible days‐on and days‐off scheduling problem and develops an exact branch and price (B&P) algorithm to find solutions. The main objective is to minimize the size of the total workforce required to cover time‐varying demand over a planning horizon that may extend up to 12 weeks. A new aspect of the problem is the general restriction that the number of consecutive days on and the number of consecutive days off must each fall within a predefined range. Moreover, the total assignment of working days in the planning horizon cannot exceed some maximum value. In the B&P framework, the master problem is stated as a set covering‐type problem whose columns are generated iteratively by solving one of three different subproblems. The first is an implicit model, the second is a resource constrained shortest path problem, and the third is a dynamic program. Computational experiments using both real‐word and randomly generated data show that workforce reductions up to 66% are possible with highly flexible days‐on and days‐off patterns. When evaluating the performance of the three subproblems, it was found that each yielded equivalent solutions but the dynamic program proved to be significantly more efficient. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 60: 678–701, 2013     

A branch‐and‐price algorithm for a targeting problem

In this paper, we consider a new weapon‐target allocation problem with the objective of minimizing the overall firing cost. The problem is formulated as a nonlinear integer programming model, but it can be transformed into a linear integer programming model. We present a branch‐and‐price algorithm for the problem employing the disaggregated formulation, which has exponentially many columns denoting the feasible allocations of weapon systems to each target. A greedy‐style heuristic is used to get some initial columns to start the column generation. A branching strategy compatible with the pricing problem is also proposed. Computational results using randomly generated data show this approach is promising for the targeting problem. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2007     

引入价格因素的网络资源分配模型与算法实现

引入价格因素,针对网络资源分配提出PE-EMRA网络资源分配模型,并给出算法实现。PE-EMRA模型综合考虑带宽、缓冲等多种网络资源,调节并限制各业务类流量,使系统总效率最大化。该方法可有效提高资源利用率,提供服务质量保证,并具有配置灵活、实现代价小等特点。     

代价论视角中的和谐社会建设原则

立足社会发展代价的基本内涵和当代中国社会发展代价付出的具体方式两个基本价值维度,阐述了代价论视角的和谐社会建设原则,以期勾勒出未来社会发展的理想图景。     

On the effectiveness of returns policies in the price‐dependent newsvendor model

We study in this paper the price‐dependent (PD) newsvendor model in which a manufacturer sells a product to an independent retailer facing uncertain demand and the retail price is endogenously determined by the retailer. We prove that for a zero salvage value and some expected demand functions, in equilibrium, the manufacturer may elect not to introduce buybacks. On the other hand, if buybacks are introduced in equilibrium, their introduction has an insignificant effect on channel efficiency improvement, but, by contrast, may significantly shift profits from the retailer to the manufacturer. We further demonstrate that the introduction of buybacks increases the wholesale price, retail price, and inventory level, as compared to the wholesale price‐only contract, and that the corresponding vertically integrated firm offers the lowest retail price and highest inventory level. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2005.     

有交易费的套期保值未定权益的最小债券价值量

讨论带交易费的多种股票的市场模型中未定权益的套期保值定价问题,提出折算函数作为总资产的一种较为合理的衡量方式,并来刻画套期保值策略,从而,利用鞅方法和折算函数的性质,得到带交易费套期保值未定权益的最小债券价值量结果。     

单一来源装备采办下定价策略的博弈分析

单一来源装备采办下,由于供应商在装备的定价与装备的升级改造上都存在 相对的比较优势,军方引入渐进式采办来改变自身的不利地位 应用博弈论的观点来对单 一来源装备采办下军方与供应商定价问题进行比较,实现了对单一来源装备采办与竞争策 略下各自收益分析,并用不定次重复博弈对渐进式采办进行了定量分析,对在实际采办过程 中如何实现激励合同和防止腐败问题也进行了理论上的论述。     

Stability in a general oligopoly model

We analyze a general but parsimonious price competition model for an oligopoly in which each firm offers any number of products. The demand volumes are general piecewise affine functions of the full price vector, generated as the “regular” extension of a base set of affine functions. The model specifies a product assortment, along with their prices and demand volumes, in contrast to most commonly used demand models. We identify a fully best response operator which is monotonically increasing so that the market converges to a Nash equilibrium, when firms dynamically adjust their prices, as best responses to their competitors' prices, at least when starting in one of two price regions. Moreover, geometrically fast convergence to a common equilibrium can be guaranteed for an arbitrary starting point, under an additional condition for the price sensitivity matrix.