The Future of Retail Operations

Retailing consists of all the activities associated with the selling of goods to the final consumer. In this article, we review the research on retail operations published in Manufacturing & Service Operations Research (M&SOM) since 1999. We then discuss the current retail landscape and the new research directions it offers, in which M&SOM can play a prominent role

Exploring the concept of web site customization: applications and antecedents

While mass customization is the tailoring of products and services to the needs and wants of individual customers, web site customization is the tailoring of web sites to individual customers? preferences. Based on a review of site customization applications, the authors propose a model with four different levels standardization, adaptation, passive personalization, and active personalization). Each of these levels requires a different level of involvement of both the supplier and the customer. Based on an extensive review literature the authors then develop conceptual models of the determinants of site customization from both a customer?s and a supplier?s point of view. Both models contain the factors that determine the willingness of a party (customer or supplier) to get actively involved in web site customization. Some factors have a positive impact on the willingness to customize while others have a negative impact. Managers engaged in site customization projects should realized that site customization is not an undisputed topic. Its success will be context dependent. The presented conceptual models can be used to analyze the essentials of a particular context and to assess the potential of web site customization.

Emerging Perspectives on Self Service Technologies in Retail Banking

This paper attempts to critically examine the available literature on the subject, discuss a model that provides a managerial framework for analyzing the variables associated with customer value, and to identify potential research areas. The discussion draws conceptual impetus from new technologies in banking services through self service technologies in banking as a tool for optimizing profit. The discussion in the paper also analyzes the main criteria for successful internet-banking strategy and brings out benefits of e-banking from the point of view of banks, their technology and customer values and tentatively concludes that there is increasing returns to scale in the bank services in relation to the banking products, new technology and customer value.Self service technology, retail banking, customer value, profit optimization

Factors Influencing Perceptions Toward Social Networking Websites in China

Based on an online national survey of 503 respondents, this study empirically investigates factors influencing perceptions toward social networking websites (SNWs) in China. More specifically, user demographics and media\ud characteristics were examined. While income was found to be a significant predictor of users’ attitude toward SNWs, gender, age, educational level and marital status were insignificant, suggesting that demographic divides may be\ud diminishing when it comes to online social media in China. Both perceived risk and enjoyment were found to have significant positive effects. Managerial implications were discussed

Paired and altruistic kidney donation in the UK: Algorithms and experimentation

We study the computational problem of identifying optimal sets of kidney exchanges in the UK. We show how to expand an integer programming-based formulation due to Roth et al. [2007] in order to model the criteria that constitute the UK definition of optimality. The software arising from this work has been used by the National Health Service Blood and Transplant to find optimal sets of kidney exchanges for their National Living Donor Kidney Sharing Schemes since July 2008. We report on the characteristics of the solutions that have been obtained in matching runs of the scheme since this time. We then present empirical results arising from experiments on the real datasets that stem from these matching runs, with the aim of establishing the extent to which the particular optimality criteria that are present in the UK influence the structure of the solutions that are ultimately computed. A key observation is that allowing four-way exchanges would be likely to lead to a moderate number of additional transplants