Based on accepted advances in the marketing, economics, consumer behavior, and satisfaction literatures, we develop a micro-foundations model of a firm that needs to manage the quality of a product that is inherently heterogeneous in the presence of varying customer tastes or expectations for quality. Our model blends elements of the returns to quality, customer lifetime value, and service prof...

An actual demand-forecasting problem of the US apparel dealers is studied. Demand is highly fluctuating during the peak sale season and low prior to the peak season. The model is described by the continuous time stochastic process applying the Bayesian process. The standard gamma distribution is selected for the demand process and an inverse gamma distribution is chosen as the conjugate prior f...

F several of the largest supermarket product categories, such as carbonated soft drinks, canned soups, ready-to-eat cereals, and cookies, consumers regularly purchase assortments of products. Within the category, consumers often purchase multiple products and multiple units of each alternative selected on a given trip. This multiple discreteness violates the single-unit purchase assumption of m...

We use a proprietary database of consumer brand evaluation to explore the role of firm-specific demand characteristics in financial decisions. We hypothesize that higher and more inelastic consumer demand for a product reduces the costs of financial distress but can also intensify agency conflicts by increasing firm market power. The empirical analysis shows that firms with stronger demand take...

This paper examines a two stage model of product choice with elastic demand. The duopolists choose locations in the initial stage and compete in prices in the next stage. The consumers' demand varies inversely with price. The existence of Nash equilibrium prices in the second stage for each pair of locations is proved. The equilibrium locations chosen in the rst stage are unique and symmetric. ...

With the increase in new product introductions in consumer packaged goods categories, supermarkets are reluctant to accept new products. Therefore, it is very important for manufacturers to convince retailers of the high-demand potential of their products. We study how a high-demand manufacturer can use advertising, slotting allowances, andwholesale prices to signal its high demand to retailers...

Diverting large quantities of goods from authorized distribution channels to unauthorized or “gray market” channels, albeit legal, significantly affects both firms and consumers due to effects on price, revenue, service and warranty availability, and product availability. In this paper we consider mechanisms by which the uncertainty surrounding inventory ordering decisions drives gray markets. ...

Zara introduces 10,000 new designs every year and distributes 5.2 million clothing articles per week to a network of over 1925 stores in more than 86 countries. Their high product mix and vast global network makes demand forecasting for Zara a challenging endeavor. This thesis sets out to incorporate the effects from seasonality, product lifecycle, and cannibalization into a long term aggregate...

The problem of product assortment and inventory planning under customer-driven demand substitution is analyzed and a mathematical model for this problem is provided in this paper. Realistic issues in a retail context such as supplier selection, shelf space constraints, and poor quality procurement are also taken into account. The performance of three modified models, one that neglects customers...

We consider a single-product inventory system that serves multiple demand classes, which differ in their shortage costs or service level requirements. We assume a critical-level control policy, and show the equivalence between this inventory system and a serial inventory system. Based on this equivalence, we develop a model for cost evaluation and optimization, under the assumptions of Poisson ...