Firms outperforming competitors often get their success through innovation and new technological knowledge acquisition. This study offers a Three-Stage decision-making model for acquiring the optimal time to invest. In first Stage, two competing firms decide invest in without knowing its level. next stage, will develop integrate it with knowledge. Due uncertainty of knowledge, stochastic progra...

To my dear wife Ying Luo, my dad Naiyu Huang, my mom Yan Li, and my whole family, your love is always the source of my strength. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I want to thank my advisor Dr. Shabbir Ahmed, without whose guidance I could not have finished this exciting journey of discovery and exploration. He taught me how to select a valuable research topic, to conduct high quality research, and t...

We propose a multi-stage stochastic mixed integer programming formulation for the assignment of surgeries to operating rooms (ORs) over a finite planning horizon. We consider the demand for surgery and the duration of surgery to be random variables. The objective is to minimize three competing criteria: expected cost of surgery cancellations, postponements, and OR overtime. We discuss propertie...