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Browsing Research by Department "Operations & Business Analytics"
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Publication A bridge too far for artificial intelligence?: Automatic classification of stanzas in Spanish poetry(John Wiley and Sons Inc, 2022) Pérez Pozo, Álvaro; Rosa, Javier de la; Ros, Salvador; González Blanco, Elena; Hernández, Laura; Sisto, Mirella de; Horizon 2020 Framework Programme; European Research Council; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75The rise in artificial intelligence and natural language processing techniques has increased considerably in the last few decades. Historically,the focus has been primarily on texts expressed in prose form,leaving mostly aside figurative or poetic expressions of language due to their rich semantics and syntactic complexity. The creation and analysis of poetry have been commonly carried out by hand,with a few computer-assisted approaches. In the Spanish context,the promise of machine learning is starting to pan out in specific tasks such as metrical annotation and syllabification. However,there is a task that remains unexplored and underdeveloped: stanza classification. This classification of the inner structures of verses in which a poem is built upon is an especially relevant task for poetry studies since it complements the structural information of a poem. In this work,we analyzed different computational approaches to stanza classification in the Spanish poetic tradition. These approaches show that this task continues to be hard for computers systems,both based on classical machine learning approaches as well as statistical language models and cannot compete with traditional computational paradigms based on the knowledge of experts. © 2021 The Authors. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Association for Information Science and Technology.Publication Accessibility and availability: A cross-cultural study of shopper responses to online retail stock-outs(Taylor & Francis, 2021-06-14) Gruen, Thomas; Corsten, Daniel; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75Accessibility of products in online retail is an expected part of the shopper experience journey. Frequent products are not accessible due to non-availability. Introduced by Sheth and Sisodia, the 4A’s framework articulates how success in any marketing program depends on four dimensions: Awareness, Acceptability, Affordability, and Accessibility. This article demonstrates how, like dominos fall, marketing investments can fail when the final 4A’s stage, Accessibility, is not adequately addressed in online retailing. Surveying more than 2,000 shoppers across five European and Asian countries that encountered a non-available item while shopping online for one of six fast-moving consumer goods categories, the research study examines shoppers’ switching behavior when Accessibility has been interrupted in the purchasing stage of the customer journey. The overall goal is to better understand how shoppers change their behavior, and it examines a variety of causes that drive switching behavior, whether it be to switch stores, switch brands, or switch intentions when the item they desired is unavailable. Switching behavior was found to vary greatly among the five countries, but less between categories, and switching was greatly affected by the way shoppers encountered the non-available item. The study concludes with recommendations to address Accessibility both in product availability and shoppers’ transaction costs.Publication Capturing the Benefits of Worker Specialization: Effects of Managerial and Organizational Task Experience(Wiley-Blackwell, 2020) Madiedo, Juan Pablo; Chandrasekaran, Aravind; Salvador, Fabrizio; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75Learning by doing is a fundamental driver of productivity among knowledge workers. As workers accumulate experience working on certain types of tasks (i.e.,they become specialized),they also develop proficiency in executing these tasks. However,previous research suggests that organizations may struggle to leverage the knowledge workers accrue through specialization because specialized workers tend to lose interest and reduce effort during task execution. This study investigates how organizations can improve specialized workers’ performance by mitigating the dysfunctional effects of specialization. In particular,we study how other sources of task experiences from the worker's immediate manager as well as the organization itself help manage the relationship between worker specialization and performance. We do so by analyzing a proprietary dataset that comprises of 39,162 software service tasks that 310 employees in a Fortune 100 organization executed under the supervision of 92 managers. Results suggest that the manager role experience (i.e.,the manager's experience supervising workers) is instrumental in mitigating the potential negative effect of worker specialization on performance,measured as task execution time. Such influence,however,is contingent on cases in which organizational task experience (i.e.,the organization's experience in executing tasks of the same substantive content as the focal task) is limited. Taken together,our research contributes to multiple streams of research and unearths important insights on how multiple sources of experience beyond the workers themselves can help capture the elusive benefits of worker specialization. © 2019 The Authors. Production and Operations Management published by Wiley Periodicals,Inc. on behalf of Production and Operations Management SocietyPublication Digital transformation in operations managementFundamental change through agency reversal(Wiley, 2023-08-13) Tenhiälä, Antti; Angelopoulos, Spyros; Bendoly, Elliot ; Fransoo, Jan; Carol Ou, Kai Hoberg; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75The emergence of digital technologies across all aspects of operations management has enabled shifts in decision making, shaping new operational dynamics and business opportunities. The associated scholarly discussions in information systems and operations management span digital manufacturing, the digitalization of operations management and supply chain management, platform outcomes, and economies of collaboration. For such changes to be successful, however, there is a need for organizations to go beyond the mere adoption of digital technologies. Instead, successful changes are transformational, delving into digital transformation endeavors, which in turn can enable operational improvements in organizational performance, lead to structural changes in operations processes, and may result in new business models being deployed. Our aim here, thus, is to provide an epistemic platform to advance our understanding of how such endeavors, including the adoption of digital technologies, business model innovations, and innovations in collaboration mechanisms and methods of operations improvement, can affect various aspects of operations management.Publication Dual-channel competition: the role of quality improvement and price-matching(Taylor & Francis, 2021-05-06) Avgerinos, Emmanouil; Xu, Jinpeng; Huang, Yufei ; Feng, Gengzhong; Chu, Feng; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75Quality improvement and price-matching are two commonly used competing strategies by the retailers. However, it is still unclear how the retailers should deliberate over the two strategies when selling in both online and o ine markets. In this paper, we consider two dual-channel retailers selling a substitutable product to consumers in both online and o ine markets. Especially, the retailers compete in the online market, and their o ine markets are exclusive to themselves. We establish a game-theoretical model to investigate the trade-o between quality improvement and price-matching in competition, and the impact on retailers' pro ts and consumer surplus in the dual-channel market structure. The analysis shows that, rst, a retailer should choose to improve its quality to avoid price competition when the online market is small; second, when retailers engage in price competition, the retailer with larger o ine market is more willing to adopt price matching, while the retailer with a small share of o ine market can be hurt; third, quality improvement can always increase the consumer surplus, while price-matching always hurts consumer surplus due to price collusion.Publication Exploring the antecedents of organizational resilience practices – A transactive memory systems approach(Emerald Group Holdings Ltd., 2020) Cotta, Diogo; Salvador, Fabrizio; European Commission; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75Purpose: The purpose of this paper was to explore individual- and firm-level antecedents of the ability of a manufacturing firm's personnel to collaborate and integrate knowledge for organizational resilience practices. Design/methodology/approach: The authors apply hierarchical regression analysis to study a sample of 192 European industrial equipment manufacturers. Data for each firm are collected from surveys of two key informants in each firm,as well as from public sources. Findings: Firms' personnel’s ability to integrate information and knowledge for organizational resilience practices was positively related with the extent of the head of manufacturing's network of personal contacts inside the firm. This effect was stronger in firms with more formalized job descriptions and clearly defined roles. The head of manufacturing's orientation to teamwork and cooperation impacted this ability only in firms that did not financially incentivize cooperation. The authors also found that cooperation incentives and role formalization directly relate to firms' personnel’s ability to integrate information and knowledge for organizational resilience practices. Originality/value: The study proposes to study organizational resilience practices through a transactive memory systems lens. The study is also the first to link characteristics of individual managers to firm-level resilience practices by examining the antecedents of firms' ability to integrate information and knowledge to recover from operational disruptions. Furthermore,the study serves to enhance the knowledge of resilience practices by examining the role of firm-level antecedents and their interplay with characteristics of individual managers. © 2020,Diogo Cotta and Fabrizio Salvador.Publication How Direct-to- Consumer Brands Can Continue to Grow(Harvard Business Review, 2021-11-01) Rangan, Kasturi; Higgins, Matt; Schlesinge, Leonard; Corsten, Daniel; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75Direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands such as Allbirds, Casper, Peloton, and Warby Parker have creatively found a weakness in the marketing citadel of incumbent brands. By using data gleaned from daily interactions with customers, these brands have been able to adapt how they serve their unique customer communities across a start-to-finish purchase journey. The best of them have parlayed that ability into a profitable business model applied across multiple channels and customer segments. But as successful DTC brands mature, they must recognize the need to evolve. The authors offer four principles for continued success: (1) Focus on deepening customer relationships, not just making comparisons with competitors. (2) Accompany the customer beyond the initial transaction. (3) Omnichannel is about value addition, not cost reduction. (4) Strengthen the core first; consider extensions later.Publication Improving home care: Knowledge creation through engagement and design(Elsevier B.V., 2017) Groop, Johaan; Gupta, Mahesh; Holmström, Jan; Ketokivi, Mikko; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75In this paper,we apply a design science approach to help a Northern European city improve the efficiency of its home care delivery system. Our proposed solution emerges as a synthesis of applying Goldratt's Theory of Constraints and the principles of variable-demand inventory replenishment. The improved system exhibits both more level resource utilization and higher productivity due to more efficient capacity utilization. In addition to improving system efficiency,we gain insights into how authentic operations management problems can be addressed through design research. A crucial aspect of empirically-rooted practical problems is that they always involve multiple stakeholders with only partially overlapping preferences. Consequently,one must not assume or ascribe an a priori system objective,instead,it must arise from explicit empirical analysis of the relevant stakeholders. Another characteristic of authentic problems is that they are always embedded in an institutional context that sets significant boundary conditions to the feasibility of solutions. These boundary conditions are an important reminder of the complexity of empirically-rooted managerial problems. © 2017Publication Innovation in supply networks - A research framework androadmap(Wiley, 2020-10-23) Salvador, Fabrizio; Narayanan, Sriram; Kumar, Subodha; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75-Publication Online Availability(Springer, 2019-11-01) Gruen, Thomas; Corsten, Daniel; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75This chapter presents a research study of online availability (OLA) in six non-food consumer goods categories (baby care, fabric care, hair care, oral care, skin care, and shave care) at online and omnichannel retailers in six major countries (China, France, Germany, Japan, UK, and USA). It provides insight into the extent of online availability (OLA) and its opposite non-online availability (NOLA) using data from online retailers’ websites, reports from surveys of online shoppers, and surveys from managers of online retail and branded goods manufacturers. It illuminates online shoppers’ encounters with NOLA and reactions to it with a detailed examination of switching behavior to alternative options. It estimates the lost sales opportunities and provides guidelines for improving OLA.Publication Project managers' breadth of experience, project complexity and project performance(John Wiley and Sons Inc, 2021) Alba, Constantin; Madiedo, Juan Pablo; Bendoly, Elliot ; Salvador, Fabrizio; Tenhiälä, Antti; Agencia Estatal de Investigación; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75Research has found that a project manager's experience is a driver of project performance. However,whether specialist or generalist project managers are more effective remains an open question to date. In this paper,we examine how project managers' breadth of experience influences project completion time under different levels of project complexity. Using longitudinal data from 9,765 enterprise resource planning (ERP) system projects executed by a software services organization,we find that managers' breadth of experience has a U-shaped impact on project completion time. We also find that while we can identify an optimal level of breadth of experience that minimizes project completion time on the U-curve,this optimal level becomes lower (the U-curve shifts to the left) as project complexity increases. As project complexity decreases,the U-curve flattens and tends to become monotonically decreasing,signifying that diseconomies from project managers' breadth of experience are less apparent in simpler projects. From a practical standpoint,these findings suggest that project managers' breadth of experience is a critical driver of project performance that should be a key consideration in the selection of managers to lead knowledge work,especially for complex projects. © 2021 The Authors. Journal of Operations Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Association for Supply Chain Management,Inc.Publication Quits Versus Discharges Across Job Levels: Revisiting the Positive Side of Turnover(SAGE Journals, 2022-08-25) Avgerinos, Emmanouil; Simón, Cristina; Revilla, Elena; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75Although the functional effects of turnover have been argued from the earliest research in the field, empirical evidence so far supports a general negative effect on unit performance, and attempts to explore its potential benefits are scarce. It has been argued that one reason for the absence of positive effects has to do with a lack of specificity of the turnover construct. The present study focuses on two sources of specificity: the reason for turnover and the job level of the departing employees. Our objective is to perform integrative research to analyze their joint effects and discuss how the four turnover scenarios created by their combination make their potential benefits of departures salient. We integrate arguments from human and social capital theories with the literature on team adaptation and change to develop our conceptual framework, and test our hypotheses using longitudinal monthly data from 5,202 stores of a large fashion multinational retailer in 39 countries. Our results provide evidence of a curvilinear relationship between staff quits and unit performance, and show that discharges are linearly beneficial both for managerial and staff positions, although at different degrees. Our findings demonstrate that differentiating between quits and discharges matters, and that the relative value conveyed by the job level of the departing employees is a relevant contingency in this distinct effect over performance.Publication Raising the AC temperature in the tropics(Elsevier B.V., 2023) Koch, Ingrid; Lim, Noah; Somasundaram, Jeeva; National University of Singapore; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75In tropical countries,air conditioners (ACs) account for a significant fraction of energy consumption. We conduct a randomized control trial to examine how people can best be induced to raise their AC temperature by 2 °C over time,to reduce energy consumption. Subjects were randomly assigned to (1) raise the AC temperature gradually,by 1 °C in period 1 and an additional 1 °C in period 2; (2) increase the temperature by 2 °C in one go during period 2; or (3) a no-incentive control condition. We find that raising AC temperatures gradually worked better in achieving higher AC temperatures during the intervention and post-intervention periods. Energy consumption data confirmed that these higher AC temperatures translated into energy savings. Our findings demonstrate the effectiveness of gradual targets to initiate and sustain behavioral change in energy conservation and other related domains. © 2023Publication Reproducibility in Management Science(Informs, 2023-12-22) Somasundaram, Jeeva; Greiner, Ben; Huber, Christoph; Katok, Elena; Ihsan Ozkes, Ali; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75With the help of more than 700 reviewers, we assess the reproducibility of nearly 500 articles published in the journal Management Science before and after the introduction of a new Data and Code Disclosure policy in 2019. When considering only articles for which data accessibility and hardware and software requirements were not an obstacle for reviewers, the results of more than 95% of articles under the new disclosure policy could be fully or largely computationally reproduced. However, for 29% of articles, at least part of the data set was not accessible to the reviewer. Considering all articles in our sample reduces the share of reproduced articles to 68%. These figures represent a significant increase compared with the period before the introduction of the disclosure policy, where only 12% of articles voluntarily provided replication materials, of which 55% could be (largely) reproduced. Substantial heterogeneity in reproducibility rates across different fields is mainly driven by differences in data set accessibility. Other reasons for unsuccessful reproduction attempts include missing code, unresolvable code errors, weak or missing documentation, and software and hardware requirements and code complexity. Our findings highlight the importance of journal code and data disclosure policies and suggest potential avenues for enhancing their effectiveness.Publication Self-Selected Versus Assigned Target to Reduce Smartphone Use and Improve Mental Health: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial(JMIR Publications Inc., 2024) Sharma, Kamal Kant; Sachdeva, Ashish; Somasundaram, Jeeva; International Society of Biomechanics; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75Background: Smartphones have become integral to people’s lives,with a noticeable increase in the average screen time,both on a global scale and,notably,in India. Existing research links mobile consumption to sleep problems,poor physical and mental health,and lower subjective well-being. The comparative effectiveness of monetary incentives given for self-selected versus assigned targets on reducing screen time and thereby improving mental health remains unanswered. Objective: This study aims to assess the impact of monetary incentives and target selection on mobile screen time reduction and mental health. Methods: We designed a 3-armed randomized controlled trial conducted with employees and students at an educational institution in India. The study is conducted digitally over 12 weeks,including baseline (2 weeks),randomization (1 week),intervention (5 weeks),and postintervention (4 week) periods. We emailed the employees and students to inquire about their interest in participation. Those who expressed interest received detailed study information and consent forms. After securing consent,participants were asked to complete the initial survey and provide their mobile screen time during the baseline period. At the beginning of the intervention period,the participants were randomly allocated into 1 of 3 study groups in a 2:2:1 ratio (self-selected vs assigned vs control). Participants in the self-selected group were presented with 3 target options: 10%,20%,and 30%,and they were asked to self-select a target to reduce their mobile screen time from their baseline average mobile screen time. Participants in the assigned group were given a target to reduce their mobile screen time from their baseline average mobile screen time. The assigned target was set as the average of the targets selected by participants in the self-selected group. During the intervention period,participants in the self-selected and assigned group were eligible to receive a monetary incentive of INR (Indian Rupee) 50 (US $0.61) per day for successfully attaining their target. Participants in the control group neither received nor selected a target for reducing their mobile screen time and did not receive any monetary incentives during the intervention period. All participants received information regarding the advantages of reducing mobile screen time. As an incentive,all participants would receive INR 500 (US $6.06) upon completion of the study and a chance to win 1 of 2 lotteries valued at INR 5000 (US $60.55) for consistently sharing their mobile screen time data. Results: Currently,the study intervention is being rolled out. Enrollment occurred between August 21,2023,and September 2,2023; data collection concluded in November 2023. We expect that results will be available by early 2024. Conclusions: The monetary incentives and self-selected versus assigned targets might be effective interventions in reducing mobile screen time among working professionals and students. Trial Registration: AsPredicted 142497; https://aspredicted.org/hr3nn.pdf ©Kamal Kant Sharma,Jeeva Somasundaram,Ashish Sachdeva. Originally published in JMIR Research Protocols (https://www.researchprotocols.org),06.05.2024. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/),which permits unrestricted use,distribution,and reproduction in any medium,provided the original work,first published in JMIR Research Protocols,is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information,a link to the original publication on https://www.researchprotocols.org,as well as this copyright and license information must be included.Publication Task Variety in Professional Service Work: When It Helps and When It Hurts(Sage Journals, 2018-03-23) Avgerinos, Emmanouil; Gokpinar, Bilal; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75In a wide range of professional service firms, individuals perform a variety of tasks which are highly cognitive and knowledge intensive yet repetitive in nature, providing significant opportunities for learning. In addition, individuals in such environments tend to enjoy considerable discretion in managing when and how they perform their tasks. In light of these observations, we investigate task allocation and timing strategies that may enhance or inhibit learning and productivity for professional service workers. Specifically, we focus on the role of task variety. We use a detailed dataset of 3,275 coronary artery bypass surgeries in a private European hospital over seven years to examine the effect of concurrent and non-concurrent exposure to task variety on learning and productivity on a focal task. We find that while concurrent exposure to variety has a positive impact on focal productivity, non-concurrent exposure to variety has a negative impact on it. Our results also suggest that short term exposure to variety amplifies these relationships.Publication Taste-Based Gender Favouritism in High-Stake Decisions: Evidence from the Price is Right(Oxford University Press, 2024) Dana, Jason; Klein Teeselink, Bouke; Atanasov, Pavel; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75Gender discrimination is present across various fields,but identifying the underlying mechanism is challenging. We demonstrate own-gender favouritism in a field setting that allows for clean identification of tastes versus beliefs: the One Bid game on the TV show The Price Is Right. Players must guess an item's value without exceeding it,leaving the last bidder with a dominant 'cutoff' strategy of overbidding another player by $ 1. We show that last bidders are significantly more likely to cut off opposite-gender opponents. This behaviour is explained by own-gender favouritism rather than beliefs that cutting off opposite-gender opponents is more profitable. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Economic Society.Publication Team familiarity in cardiac surgery operations: The effects of hierarchy and failure on team productivity(SAGE Journals, 2019-10-01) Avgerinos, Emmanouil; Fragkos, Ioannis; Huang, Yufei; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75Project teams are regularly assembled by a variety of organizations in order to perform knowledge-intensive tasks. Previous shared experiences among their members can have a significant impact on team performance. In this study, we use a unique and detailed dataset of 6206 cardiac surgeries from a private hospital in Europe, property of an American non-profit organization, in order to examine how past shared experiences of individuals affect future team productivity. Using transactive memory system as theoretical framework, we first decompose overall team familiarity into horizontal familiarity (e.g. surgeon to surgeon) and hierarchical familiarity (e.g. surgeon to nurse) and find that the former one is more beneficial for team productivity than the latter one. Next, we observe that horizontal familiarity of high-power, high-status individuals has a higher impact on team productivity than the one among subordinate individuals. Finally, we investigate how past failure experiences of individuals in the same team can increase future team productivity more than past shared successes. Our results provide useful insights for managers who aim to increase team productivity via better team allocation strategies.Publication The creativity dilemma(Fundacao Getulio Vargas, 2019) Revilla, Elena; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75[No abstract available]Publication The Effect of a Third-Party Facilitator on Supply Chain Collaboration: Evidence from a Dutch Supply Chain Network(SSRN, 2022-12-01) Avgerinos, Emmanouil; Guha, Reeju; Slabbers, Tom; Fragkos, Ioannis; Zuidwijk, Rob; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75Collaboration among supply chain actors leads to improved market access, and reduced logistics costs. In practice, however, collaboration initiatives are challenging to implement, due to barriers such as the sharing of sensitive information, coordination complexity, and the lack of operational visibility. The impact of such barriers may be mitigated by a third-party facilitator – an organization that facilitates coordination among actors, and safeguards sensitive information. We assess the impact of such a facilitator on supply chain collaboration. We further investigate whether the facilitator may induce a positive, second-order effect on environmental impact and logistics costs through improving collaboration. We test our hypotheses using survey interviews on member organizations of Connekt, a logistics facilitator. Our results suggest that the facilitator increases the number of collaborations, which leads to reduction in supply chain costs and a positive environmental impact. Lastly, we demonstrate that larger firms further improve collaborations, in the presence of the facilitator.