管科系系列讲座第260-263期预告

管科系系列讲座第260期预告

时　　间：2019年12月17日（周二）13:30

地　　点：思源楼524

主  持 人：冯天俊教授（商务分析与运营创新研究中心）

主讲嘉宾：Meng Liu is an assistant professor of marketing in Washington University in St. Louis.

主　　题：Do Digital Platforms Reduce Moral Hazard? The Case of Uber and Taxis

摘　　要：

Digital platforms provide a variety of technology-enabled tools that enhance market transparency, such as real-time monitoring, ratings of buyers and sellers, and low-cost complaint channels. How do these innovations affect moral hazard and service quality? We investigate this problem by comparing driver routing choices and efficiency on a large digital platform, Uber, with traditional taxis. The identification is enabled by matching taxi and Uber trips at the origin-destination-time level so they are subject to the same underlying optimal route, by exploiting characteristics of the pricing schemes that differentially affect the incentives of taxi and Uber drivers in various circumstances, and by examining changes in behavior when drivers switch from taxis to Uber. We find that (1) taxi drivers route longer in distance than matched Uber drivers on metered airport routes by an average of 8%, with non-local passengers on airport routes experiencing even longer routing; (2) no such long routing is found for short trips in dense markets (e.g., within-Manhattan trips) or airport trips with a flat fare; and (3) long routing in general leads to longer travel time, instead of saving passengers time. These findings are consistent with the platform tools reducing driver moral hazard, but not with competing explanations such as driver selection or differences in driver navigation technologies.

管科系系列讲座第261期预告

时　　间：2019年12月17日（周二）14:30

地　　点：思源楼524

主  持 人：冯天俊教授（商务分析与运营创新研究中心）

主讲嘉宾：Xiang Hui is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at Washington University in St. Louis.

主　　题：Raising the Bar: Certification Thresholds and Market Outcomes

摘　　要：

Certification is a ubiquitous tool that alleviates information asymmetries in markets, yet little is known about the impact of certification-selectivity on market outcomes. Exploiting a policy change on eBay, we study how a more selective certification threshold affects entry, exit, and incumbent behavior. We develop a stylized model that shows that changes in selectivity impact the distribution of quality and prices in predictable ways. Using rich data from hundreds of online categories on eBay.com, we find support for the model’s hypotheses. Our results help inform the design of certification selectivity in electronic and other markets.

管科系系列讲座第262期预告

时　　间：2019年12月20日（周五）10:30

地　　点：思源楼524

主  持 人：胡奇英教授

主讲嘉宾： Jing-Sheng Jeannette Song is the R. David Thomas Professor of Business Administration and a Professor of Operations Management at the Fuqua School of Business of Duke University.

主　　题：Demand Shaping through Bundling and Product Configuration:A Dynamic Multiproduct Inventory-Pricing Model 

摘　　要：

 We consider a firm who manages inventory of vertically differentiated items over a finite horizon. The firm has the flexibility and pricing power to sell the items in bundles if some items move too slowly or customer taste changes. While this bundling strategy is particularly important and widely adopted in the high-tech industry with rapid technological advancements, there is little understanding on how different factors influence such decisions. To fill this gap, we present a dynamic model to analyze the optimal joint replenishment, pricing, and bundling decisions for the firm. We develop a novel demand model that transfers the discrete bundling decision and the corresponding pricing decision into a market share decision. We show that the optimal policy is dictated by a no-order set in each period. For items in this set, we do not place replenishment orders, because these items are overstocked. The rest of the policy parameters -- the order-up-to-levels for the items that we do order, the bundling and pricing decisions, and the bundle assembly quantity -- all depend on the overstock levels. Exploring the optimal policy features, we devise a branching algorithm that significantly simplifies the computation of the optimal policy. We also characterize how the optimal bundling decision depends on item complementarity, cost structure, inventory status, demand uncertainty, and supply responsiveness. (Joint work with Zhengliang Xue of IBM Watson Center.)

管科系系列讲座第263期预告

时　　间：2019年12月23日（周一）13:30

地　　点：史带楼301

主  持 人：戴悦教授（商务决策与运营分析研究中心）

主讲嘉宾： Shiliang Cui is an Assistant Professor of Operations and Information Management at the McDonough School of Business of Georgetown University.

主　　题： Slugging: Casual Carpooling for Urban Transit

摘　　要：

This paper studies a phenomenon called "slugging" that has evolved for over 40 years but its economic and environmental impacts have not been looked at. Slugging is a form of high-occupancy-vehicle (HOV) carpooling where solo drivers would voluntarily pick up strangers off the street and offer them a free ride along the road, in order to take advantage of the HOV lane.

管理科学系

2019-12-10