Data-Driven Operations Management

Digitization of the world has made available tons of data to operations researchers. In this dissertation, we discuss three projects in the fields of the mobile app market, telemedicine in healthcare, and E-commerce platforms, where real data are utilized to answer operations management questions. In the first project, we propose a two-step data analytic model for mobile apps' promotion planning. We show that estimating the demand function from real data will significantly increase the total revenue. In the second project, we propose a changes-in-changes model to identify the effect of adopting telemedicine on physicians' scheduling of follow-up visits. In the third project, we model consumers' purchasing behavior on E-commerce platforms as a consider-then-choose model. The model is then used to solve for the optimal search page assortment on E-commerce platforms. We close this dissertation by discussing several future research directions of data-driven analysis.PHDBusiness AdministrationUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/168093/1/manqili_1.pd

Studies on pharmaceutical markets

Het economische, maatschappelijke en politieke belang van de gezondheidszorg in het algemeen en van de farmaceutische markt in het bijzonder wordt algemeen erkend. Dit blijkt onder meer uit het deel van het bruto nationaal product dat door veel landen wordt besteed aan de gezondheidszorg. Omdat ontwikkelde economieën in toenemende mate geconfronteerd worden met financiële beperkingen, vergrijzing en technologische verandering, zijn er voor de gezondheidszorg kostenverlagende maatregelen nodig. Tegelijkertijd dient het kwaliteitsniveau van de zorg gelijk te blijven of, liever nog, te verbeteren. De farmaceutische industrie heeft een voortrekkersrol in de ontwikkeling en de marketing van nieuwe medische behandelingen. De grote hoeveelheid geld die de industrie uitgeeft aan de promotie van haar producten, maar ook de manier waarop ze marketing bedrijft zijn echter voortdurend onderhevig aan kritiek, zowel vanuit de maatschappij als van academici. De farmaceutische markt is een complex systeem dat voortdurend in ontwikkeling is: nieuwe medicijnen worden op de markt gebracht, gezondheidsrisico’s worden opnieuw beoordeeld, wettelijke richtlijnen veranderen en zorgkosten blijven stijgen. De uitdagingen die hieruit voortvloeien hebben als inspiratiebron gediend voor de vier studies die in dit proefschrift zijn opgenomen. De vier studies richten zich op drie centrale thema’s, te weten: Hoe kunnen zelfstandige apotheken hun verkoopresultaten op peil houden in een continu veranderende zorgmarkt? Wat beïnvloedt de effectiviteit van de communicatie van veiligheidsrisico’s voor bestaande medicijnen, zodat een juist gebruik van deze medicijnen kan worden gegarandeerd? Wat draagt ertoe bij dat nieuwe medicijnen snel door de markt worden geadopteerd en wanneer en hoe kunnen promotiemiddelen hierbij efficiënt worden ingezet? Met deze studies willen we bijdragen aan de ontwikkeling van nieuwe en relevante kennis op het terrein van de gezondheidszorg en aan de bevordering van interdisciplinair onderzoek tussen marketingwetenschappers en medische academici. Hieronder vatten we de belangrijkste conclusies van de vier studies samen

Empirical Essays in The Entertainment and Hospitality industries

In the first part of the dissertation, we empirically examine the impact of expanded product variety due to the adoption of the Internet on demand concentration, taking endogeneity into consideration. We analyze two large data sets from the movie rental industry at both movie-level and consumer-level. We find that product variety diversifies the demand for niches more significantly than for hits in absolute terms (e.g., the top/bottom 1,000 titles). However, using relative terms (e.g., the top/bottom 10% of titles) to dynamically adjust for the changing product variety, we find that product variety increases the demand for the hits and reduces the demand for the niches. We further find that product variety increases monthly Gini Coefficients, a measure of demand concentration. We propose that new products appear much faster than consumers discover them. Finally, we find no evidence that niche titles satisfy consumer tastes any better than popular titles and that a small number of heavy users are more likely to venture into niches than light users. In the second part of the dissertation, we analyze a large, detailed operational data set from a restaurant chain to shed new light on how workload (defined as the hourly average number of diners assigned to a server) affects servers\u27 performance (measured as hourly sales). We use an exogenous shock - implementation of a labor scheduling software - to disentangle the endogeneity between demand and supply in this setting. We find that when the overall workload is low, an increase in the workload leads to higher server performance. However, there is a saturation point after which any further increase in the workload leads to degradation of performance. In the focal restaurant chain we find that this saturation point is generally not reached and, counter-intuitively, the chain can reduce the staffing level and achieve both significantly higher sales (an estimated 35% increase) and lower labor costs (an estimated 20% decrease)

Can Upward Brand Extensions be an Opportunity for Marketing Managers During the Covid-19 Pandemic and Beyond?

Early COVID-19 research has guided current managerial practice by introducing more products across different product categories as consumers tried to avoid perceived health risks from food shortages, i.e. horizontal brand extensions. For example, Leon, a fast-food restaurant in the UK, introduced a new range of ready meal products. However, when the food supply stabilised, availability may no longer be a concern for consumers. Instead, job losses could be a driver of higher perceived financial risks. Meanwhile, it remains unknown whether the perceived health or financial risks play a more significant role on consumers’ consumptions. Our preliminary survey shows perceived health risks outperform perceived financial risks to positively influence purchase intention during COVID-19. We suggest such a result indicates an opportunity for marketers to consider introducing premium priced products, i.e. upward brand extensions. The risk-as�feelings and signalling theories were used to explain consumer choice under risk may adopt affective heuristic processing, using minimal cognitive efforts to evaluate products. Based on this, consumers are likely to be affected by the salient high-quality and reliable product cue of upward extension signalled by its premium price level, which may attract consumers to purchase when they have high perceived health risks associated with COVID-19. Addressing this, a series of experimental studies confirm that upward brand extensions (versus normal new product introductions) can positively moderate the positive effect between perceived health risks associated with COVID-19 and purchase intention. Such an effect can be mediated by affective heuristic information processing. The results contribute to emergent COVID-19 literature and managerial practice during the pandemic but could also inform post-pandemic thinking around vertical brand extensions

NURS 3301 Professional Mobility

https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/oer/1002/thumbnail.jp