Logistics, Business & Public Policy
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Item PROMOTING SAFETY IN FOOD SUPPLY CHAINS: NAVIGATING REGULATIONS, INSPECTOR SCHEDULES, AND INCENTIVE STRUCTURES(2024) Grover, Abhay Kumar; Dresner, Martin E; Business and Management: Logistics, Business & Public Policy; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The dissertation examines different aspects around safety in U.S. food supply chains, using the context of regulatory policy implementation and inspections. The first essay explores the impact of supply chain accountability regulations on firm level inventory performance within the context of global sourcing. Using the case of the Food Safety Modernization Act, the study suggests that regulatory policies have the potential to negatively impact a firm’s inventory performance by increasing regulatory stress. Using the stress-coping theory, the study finds that sourcing from developed markets exacerbates the regulatory stress, while sourcing from emerging markets alleviates it, thus altering the firm’s coping response as reflected by its inventory leanness performance. The essay has implications for safety in food supply chains. The second essay investigates the impact of work-break schedules on task performance of field staff. Using the context of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s regulatory inspections, the study explores different work-break regimes and their impact on food inspectors’ quality assessments of food facilities. The study finds that temporal pacing of inspections increases task performance, but at a diminishing rate. Multi-tasking and non-standard schedules negatively affect performance, while intermittent breaks and start-day of inspections may have a positive effect on inspection outcomes. Strategic scheduling of inspections may increase violation detection. The third essay investigates the impact of incentive design on task performance of field staff. Using the context of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s regulatory inspections, the study explores how salary differences relative to multiple referent groups impact food inspectors’ quality assessment of food facilities. Grounded in equity theory, the study finds that a higher salary as compared to previous year, internal peers, and operational interface referents, leads to work withdrawals due to complacency. Conversely, a higher salary as compared to industry referents enhances inspector task performance. A strategic incentive design for inspectors may increase the detection of violations. These studies contribute to the literature at the intersection of supply chain and operations management, public policy, and public sector operations. They do so by advancing our understanding of the factors affecting safety in food supply chains.Item Essays on investor preferences and corporate strategies(2024) Nguyen, Huu Loc; Sampson, Rachelle; Business and Management: Logistics, Business & Public Policy; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Time horizon, an investment’s expected payback period, is a consequential investor preference and a crucial determinant of corporate strategy as it can constrain firms’ investment options. However, a gap exists between research focusing on investor temporal preferences and on corporate intertemporal strategy. Therefore, my dissertation offers a multi-level analysis to examine the dynamic relationship between investor temporal preferences and firm strategy. In the first essay, I construct a real-options signaling game model in which time horizon serves as a key determinant of firm strategic responses to shifts in investor temporal preferences. I test my predictions using the emergence of low-carbon energy innovation in the U.S. Oil and Gas industry during 1980-2018. I find that firms adjust their strategies in response to changes in investor time horizons. When faced with a lengthened investor time horizon, firms are more inclined to prioritize long-term inventive innovation, whereas a shortened investor time horizon prompts a greater focus on short-term adoptive innovation. Furthermore, I find suggestive evidence that such commitments when firms align their strategies to investor temporal preferences enhance firms' innovation performance. The second essay extends my investigation in the first chapter to explore the impacts of the inherent information asymmetry between firms and investors on investor-induced firm strategies. I find that, in high information asymmetry contexts, firms overshoot their investor-induced responses to effectively signal their alignment to shifts in investor temporal preferences. In the third (co-authored) essay, we explore the interplay between investor temporal preferences and firm strategies via top management teams. We study how the career experience of top management influences firm strategies and investor temporal preferences. We construct a novel metric to capture, standardize, and compare executives’ career paths across different functional roles, firms, and industries. Our findings indicate that executives with heightened diversity of experience across various functional roles tend to support longer-term strategies, such as income smoothing over time, aligning with the interests of long-term investors. In contrast, executives with more transitions between firms and industries often exhibit more short-term actions, namely cuts in R&D investments, rendering their firms more appealing to short-term investors.Item THREE ESSAYS IN HUMANITARIAN OPERATIONS: PREPARATION AND RESPONSE TO DISASTERS(2024) Sabol, Matthew; Dresner, Martin; Evers, Philip; Business and Management: Logistics, Business & Public Policy; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Three essays related to humanitarian operations are examined. The first essay addresses the impact of humanitarian operations on recovery from disasters. Event study methodology is used to demonstrate the economic impact of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) disaster recovery operations on economic recovery. The second essay examines how political considerations can impact government response to natural disasters. Based on theories of public choice and congressional dominance, models are formulated and fixed-effects regressions are used to examine the impact of political alignment and control on government-led humanitarian response. The third essay provides a comparative analysis among four inventory management methods used to prepare for humanitarian operations, under conditions of uncertain demand. Demands for key materials are simulated, based on data from the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), relevant to humanitarian operations. General propositions are formulated for inventory managers in preparation for humanitarian operations.Item Arbitrage Free Approximations to Candidate Volatility Surface Quotations(MDPI, 2019-04-21) Madan, Dilip B.; Schoutens, WimIt is argued that the growth in the breadth of option strikes traded after the financial crisis of 2008 poses difficulties for the use of Fourier inversion methodologies in volatility surface calibration. Continuous time Markov chain approximations are proposed as an alternative. They are shown to be adequate, competitive, and stable though slow for the moment. Further research can be devoted to speed enhancements. The Markov chain approximation is general and not constrained to processes with independent increments. Calibrations are illustrated for data on 2695 options across 28 maturities for 𝑆𝑃𝑌 as at 8 February 2018.Item Pricing Product Options and Using Them to Complete Markets for Functions of Two Underlying Asset Prices(MDPI, 2021-08-04) Madan, Dilip B.; Wang, KingOptions paying the product of put and/or call option payouts at different strikes on two underlying assets are observed to synthesize joint densities and replicate differentiable functions of two underlying asset prices. The pricing of such options is undertaken from three perspectives. The first perspective uses a geometric two-dimensional Brownian motion model. The second inverts two-dimensional characteristic functions. The third uses a bootstrapped physical measure to propose a risk charge minimizing hedge using options on the two underlying assets. The options are priced at the cost of the hedge plus the risk charge.Item Platform Design Strategies and Implications for User Behaviors(2023) Mudambi, Maya; Viswanathan, Siva; Business and Management: Logistics, Business & Public Policy; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This work examines how the design, features, and moderation policies of online platforms impact user behavior in myriad ways and have significant externalities on society at large. The first two studies examine the effectiveness of different content moderation policies adopted by user-generated content platforms to address issues related to misinformation and verbal aggression, respectively. The third study examines how the design of financial incentive structures affects the behaviors of users on a crowdsourcing platform. The studies produce theoretical implications regarding human behavior on online platforms, from the spreading of misinformation to interpersonal verbal aggression, to the behavioral response to monetary rewards. I additionally make recommendations for practitioners regarding optimal platform design and policies.Item A theoretical model on how firms can leverage political resources to align with supply chain strategy for competitive advantage(Wiley, 2022-03-10) Grover, Abhay K.; Dresner, MartinThe success of a firm's supply chain strategy depends on resources in the political environment and the supply network in which it operates. If the political environment is not conducive to a firm's supply chain strategy, a firm can either change its supply chain strategy or seek a political environment that is more favorable to its supply chain. This paper examines this second alternative. The structure-conduct-performance (SCP) paradigm and the competitive dynamics literature are used to explore the relationships between political actions that leverage supply network resources, supply chain strategies, and firm performance. We extend a well-known typology of political actions from the strategic management literature and suggest that beyond influencing or complying with the political environment, firms may choose to moderate the political environment (circumvent or submit) or stay neutral (free ride). An integrated model is developed to explore the relationships between political actions and supply chain strategy, along with a series of propositions outlining how political actions can facilitate supply chain risk management strategies. Finally, suggestions are provided for future research.Item DELIVERY PLATFORMS: DO THEY DELIVER RESULTS?(2022) PARK, HYOSOO Kevin; Dresner, Martin; Pan, Xiaodan; Business and Management: Logistics, Business & Public Policy; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Over the past decade, direct-to-consumer retail deliveries have increased significantly, bolstered by the development of dedicated restaurant and retailer delivery platforms. This dissertation, composed of three essays, examines topics related to the performance of delivery platforms and their retail partners.The first essay compares the impact of delivery partnerships and in-house delivery capabilities on the direct channel sales of restaurant chains. Furthermore, the moderating effects of containment and health measures imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic are examined. I find that delivery platform partnerships and in-house deliveries both positively impact restaurant sales. However, as containment and health measures increase, impacts from delivery platforms wane. Conversely, in-house delivery becomes more beneficial at impacting restaurant sales as containment and health measures increase. In the second essay, I analyze how delivery platform partnerships affect the sales of both grocery retailers and delivery platforms. Two distinct partnerships stages are assessed: 1) platform access, where a grocery retailer’s same-day delivery is only offered through a partner platform’s website, and 2) usage integration, where the platform’s same-day delivery services are integrated into the retailer’s website. I find that platform access provides positive impacts for online sales of both the retailer and the delivery platform. However, usage integration, the second level of the partnership integration, provides benefits to the retailer’s online channel but not to the platform channel. The third essay analyzes how delivery platform partnerships impact retailer and delivery platform sales and how vertical integration between the two partners moderates these relationships. I find that delivery platform partnerships have a positive effect on both retailer and delivery platform sales. However, these positive impacts depend on whether the two partners are vertically integrated. Without a common ownership structure, delivery platform sales crowd out retailer store sales. Likewise, retailer sales crowd out delivery platform sales without vertical integration.Item The Competition on Online Marketplaces(2022) Su, Hao; Dresner, Martin E.; Business and Management: Logistics, Business & Public Policy; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation examines competition in online marketplaces using data from the largest online marketplace in the U.S., Amazon.com. The first essay studies direct sales competition between a marketplace operator and third parties that sell their products on the marketplace and examines factors that third-party sellers may use to avoid direct competition with the marketplace operator. I find that third-party sellers can best avoid competing directly with Amazon by selling unbranded products and by marketing products that are fulfilled by Amazon. The second essay investigates competitive results between the marketplace operator and third-party sellers. I find that despite inherent competitive disadvantages, third-party sellers may increase their likelihood of winning the sales competition against the marketplace operator when they offer a lower price than the marketplace operator and when they use the marketplace operator’s fulfillment services. In addition, a third-party seller using direct fulfillment is less likely to outcompete a seller using operator-managed fulfillment services, but it can be more competitive when it offers lower prices and when it sells low-priced products. The third essay investigates how employment of the marketplace’s store banner impacts sales performance for both private label products and non-private label products on an online marketplace. I find that directly branding private labels and using store banners on non-private label products are both associated with greater sales performance. In addition, lower-priced products and non-private label products may achieve greater benefits from store banners. The findings contribute to the online marketplace literature by empirically testing the impact of direct sales, fulfillment services, and store banner use on competition between a marketplace operator and third-party sellers. The findings also contribute to important antitrust considerations.Item Competition, Firm Financial Pressure, and Location Strategy: 3 Essays on Firm Domestic and International Expansion(2022) Jaffe, Roxanne L; Chung, Wilbur; Business and Management: Logistics, Business & Public Policy; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation examines the relationship between firm capabilities, including firm financial condition, and expansion strategy in a competitive environment. In Essay 1, I build a formal model of firm geographical expansion and entry timing based on Cournot competition that is driven by heterogeneity in firm, location, and competition traits. Using Monte-Carlo simulation, I identify firm best responses and Nash Equilibrium which serve as predictions for empirical inquiry in Essay 2 and Essay 3. Variation in firm traits and location traits lead to different expansion outcomes including whether firms expand at all, whether firms enter a market early or later, and which geographical location firms choose. While similar firms choose similar expansion behavior, as firms’ relative capabilities and revenue pressure differ, staggered entry becomes more appealing, resulting in differential firm profits. Additionally, expansion strategy becomes more nuanced when considering the interaction between firm, competitor, and location traits, both domestically and internationally. I focus on two key mechanisms of interest and test these empirically: revenue pressure in Essay 2, and liability of foreignness in Essay 3. I focus on a subset of propositions that map to my empirical setting: expansion into cities by firms in the micro-mobility industry (scooter, bike, and moped share companies). In Essay 2, the empirical results for US expansion activity support model predictions that more capable firms expand before less capable firms, but that revenue pressure pushes firms to expand earlier than they would prefer. Extending the model to capture international expansion in Essay 3, I find that liability foreignness helps explain the entry timing of firms at the country level, as well as a subset of entry decisions at the city level. This final essay highlights the nuances of various measures of liability of foreignness, as well as the importance of separating out different levels of analysis (e.g., at the city and country level) when examining firm entry decisions.