A business perspective on energy system flexibility

The growing integration of renewable energy production in the energy system creates challenges for parties active in power systems, for example related to system balance and congestion. Energy flexibility is considered a potential solution to these challenges and can be offered as a service to interested parties. This thesis adopts a business perspective on energy flexibility and the associated flexibility services. Three studies are executed, concentrating on key scientific business issues related to flexibility services. The first study explores the characteristics and associated management challenges and practices of aggregator companies offering flexibility services, where the focus is specifically on the on-demand supply of flexibility. This study draws upon the academic service management literature focusing on on-demand services. In the second study, the focus is on conceptualizing the notion of flexibility in the business context of flexibility services offered by aggregators via on-demand service platforms. In so doing, this study draws upon academic literature on energy flexibility and the on-demand service platform literature. The third study focuses on the underlying architecture of aggregators’ platform infrastructure and the way these types of businesses evolve to support the evolution of aggregator companies. This study draws upon the academic literature on on-demand service platforms and modular architectures. This thesis shows that some of the key challenges faced by flexibility service providers relate to fundamental service management issues that are also encountered in other industries. By addressing these issues, the results of this thesis contribute to the scientific literature on service management and energy flexibility and the viable implementation of flexibility businesses in power systems

Surge pricing on a service platform under spatial spillovers: evidence from Uber

Ride-sharing platforms employ surge pricing to match anticipated capacity spillover with demand. We develop an optimization model to characterize the relationship between surge price and spillover. We test predicted relationships using a spatial panel model on a dataset from Ubers operation. Results reveal that Ubers pricing accounts for both capacity and price spillover. There is a debate in the management community on the ecacy of labor welfare mechanisms associated with shared capacity. We conduct counterfactual analysis to provide guidance in regards to the debate, for managing congestion, while accounting for consumer and labor welfare through this online platform.First author draf

Towards More Convenient Services: A Text Analytics Approach to Understanding Service Inconveniences in Digital Platforms

In today’s fast-paced world, where time is our most valuable asset, convenience is on the rise. This trend has led to a huge growth in digital on-demand services, which target convenience-oriented consumers. Using big data and text analytics, we examine the impact of service inconveniences on customer satisfaction in the context of on-demand food delivery. Building on the Model of Service Convenience and Attribution Theory, we analyze 235,147 user-generated reviews through a combination of keyword-assisted topic modelling and cumulative link model analysis. We introduce the concept of Remote support inconvenience and identify the key topics related to each inconvenience. We find that all service inconveniences negatively influence satisfaction (especially cancelled orders and remote support incidences), and the effects are exacerbated when moderated by stability or controllability attributions. These insights contribute to our theoretical understanding of service inconvenience and can help platforms identify and improve critical areas of their services

Leveraging Communication Tools to Reduce Consumers’ Privacy Concern in the On-demand Services: An Extended S-O-R Model of Perceived Control and Structural Assurance

To use the on-demand services, consumers need to disclose themselves to some extent, which inevitably raises their privacy concerns. Different from previous literature exploring privacy assurance mechanisms, we employ the stimulus– organism–response framework to investigate how communication tools (environmental stimuli) influence consumers’ perceived control, structural assurance, as well as their service platform- and provider-related privacy concerns (organisms), which subsequently impact new consumers’ intention and regular consumers’ continuance intention to use the on-demand services (behavior responses). The models will be tested based on survey data collected from on-demand service consumers. The potential theoretical contributions and practical implications are discussed

CHARACTERICTION OF ON-DEMAND SERVICES

The purpose of on-demand services is to allow customers to instantly request and receive service as needed, anywhere, anytime. It is fundamentally different from regular services. Novadays people are busier than ever and therefore prefer on-demand services for their daily activities and tasks. In addition, they expect an extremely fast response to their service requests and delivery of products/services. For this reason, on-demand service apps have gained increasing appeal among people since the last decade. The aim of the study is to describe the most characteristic features of on-demand services. Research tasks: (1) provide a general description of on-demand services; (2) describe the on-demand service business model; (3) provide on-demand service application characteristics

다유형의 고객과 배달원이 존재하는 음식배달 플랫폼에서의 최적 가격과 임금에 대한 연구

학위논문(석사) -- 서울대학교대학원 : 공과대학 산업공학과, 2023. 2. 박건수.This study developed a food delivery platform comprising multiple types of customers and couriers to derive optimal service price and wage per service and achieve profit maximization. The developed platform faced price- and time-sensitive customers with heterogeneous delivery distances and earning-sensitive couriers with heterogeneous transportation modes. Furthermore, we formulated the model using multi-class multi-pool system and incorporated multiple types and differing service times upon class-pool set. To solve this complex problem, we proposed an approximation algorithm to derive optimal values. Finally, extensive numerical experiments were conducted, and practical managerial insights were driven.본 논문에서는 여러 유형의 고객과 배송업체가 있는 음식 배달 플랫폼을 고려한다. 플랫폼의 목표는 이익 극대화를 달성하기 위해 최적 서비스 가격과 서비스 당 임금을 도출하는 것이다. 그러나 플랫폼은 다양한 배송 거리와 서로 다른 서비스의 가치 평가 를 가진 가격과 시간에 민감한 고객과 다양한 운송수단과 서로 다른 기회 비용을 가진 수익에 민감한 배달원에 직면해 있다. 본 논문에서는 multi-class multi-pool 시스템을 사용하여 모델링을 진행하여 고객-배달원 조합에 따라 달라지는 서비스 시간을 모델에 적용하였다. 이 복잡한 문제를 해결하기 위해 최적해를 도출하기 위한 근사 알고리즘을 제안한다. 광범위한 수치 실험이 실시되었고 이를 통해 실질적인 경영적 통찰이 도출되었다.Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Problem Description 1 1.2 Research Motivation and Contribution 5 1.3 Organization of the Thesis 6 Chapter 2 Literature Review 7 2.1 On-demand Platforms 7 2.2 Multiple Types of Customers and Service Providers 8 Chapter 3 Problem 10 3.1 Problem Definition 10 3.1.1 Realized Customer Demand λi and Price pi 13 3.1.2 Realized Customer Average Waiting Time Wi 13 3.1.3 Realized Courier Supply kj and Wage wj 15 3.2 Problem Formulation 16 Chapter 4 Model : Two-class Two-pool system 19 4.1 Mean service time and Expected waiting time 19 4.2 Model Formulation 20 4.3 Approximation Scheme 22 4.4 Approximation Algorithm 25 4.5 Scalability 26 Chapter 5 Numerical Experiments 28 5.1 Two-class Two-pool 28 5.2 Real Data Implementation 34 Chapter 6 Conclusion 38 6.1 Summary 38 6.2 Future Direction 38 Bibliography 40 국문초록 43 감사의 글 44석

Innovative online platforms: Research opportunities

Economic growth in many countries is increasingly driven by successful startups that operate as online platforms. These success stories have motivated us to define and classify various online platforms according to their business models. This study discusses strategic and operational issues arising from five types of online platforms (resource sharing, matching, crowdsourcing, review, and crowdfunding) and presents some research opportunities for operations management scholars to explore

Brazil and USA: internationalization process of Zaask

This paper studies the internationalization possibilities of Zaask into Brazil and the USA. Through a PESTLE analysis the countries’ conditions are determined, while an industry analysis rates its attractiveness and a company and competitors analysis verify the resources and advantages of Zaask in the markets. The markets are attractive, but the company lacks at the moment the capacity to pursue this expansion. It is recommended that Zaask pursues a differentiation focus strategy in both markets with the development of new resources, but also consider other potential markets