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28 June 2024 (Friday) 9:30am via ZOOM (Link) [POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE]

Approximation Algorithms for Assignment Problems in Healthcare Operations

The generalized assignment problem (GAP) is a well studied optimization problem. We examine a variant of this problem called the dynamic GAP.

We present its formulation, show new hardness results (APX HARD) and give a new 2 approximation algorithm.

We then show instances of this problem that can be used to model care giver assignments in certain critical incidence problems in health care and use the approximation schemes to come up with practical solutions that can be quickly implemented.

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Past Seminars

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18 June 2024 (Tuesday) 10:00am (venue: SEK205, Simon and Eleanor Kwok Building, Lingnan University)

Firm-Level Labor-Shortage Exposure

We use FinBERT to extract information from earnings conference call transcripts to develop a novel and reliable measure of labor shortage exposure.  We demonstrate the validity of our measure by showing that states with higher levels of labor-shortage exposure experience lower future unemployment rates but higher wage growth and local labor market tightness, while firms with higher labor-shortage exposure have greater growth in future per-employee staff expenses.  Firms with labor-shortage exposures experience lower earnings call CARs, future stock returns and operating performance.  Firms respond to labor shortages by substituting labor with capital and R&D investments, and by producing more production-process patents. Such measures mitigate the negative effects on future performance.  Our results demonstrate a fruitful application of machine learning to finance and provide insight into labor-capital substitution in response to increasingly expensive and scarce labor.

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29 April 2024 (Monday) 10:10am (venue: SEK106, Simon and Eleanor Kwok Building, Lingnan University)

Framing Decision Problem and Modeling Creative Activity as Search and Optimal Stopping

Traditionally, decision analysis focuses on the optimal decision from a set of a few alternatives. Realistically, alternatives are often not set (and can be generated or discovered), and one can potentially learn more about the risk and relevant objectives. Therefore, framing the decision problem right is extremely important. In this talk I will cover my current research around that. We will discuss “fast and frugal” ways of comparing the alternatives using almost stochastic dominance approach and how to model creative activity as search and optimal stopping.

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16 May 2024 (Thursday) 10:00am via Zoom (LINK) 

Open Source Products: The Moralization of Innovation

Firms can make their innovation-related knowledge open source (i.e., freely share it with the outside world) instead of keeping it secret or protecting it via patents. Through a series of lab and field studies, this research examines consumer beliefs and reactions to a firms’ open source activities and documents a positive “open source effect” whereby consumers are found to have heightened purchase intentions from firms involved in open source actions. This effect is driven by a societal benefits account: Consumers value open source products because they view the focal firm as a moral agent whose open source actions may benefit society. Consistent with this societal benefits account, the effect is found to be stronger when (1) moral (vs. selfish) firm motives are made salient, (2) consumers view the size of the societal impact as large (vs. small), (3) consumers associate the underlying technology with potentially positive (vs. negative) consequences for society, and (4) the firm freely shares internal (vs. integrates external) knowledge. By showing that, from a consumer perspective, the way firms go about innovation can be seen as more versus less moral (with important downstream consequences), the findings contribute to the literatures on open innovation, corporate social responsibility, and marketplace morality.

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3 June 2024 (Monday) 2:30pm (venue: SEK210, Simon and Eleanor Kwok Building, Lingnan University)

Nudges on Environmental Engagement: Evidence from Crowdfunding

We study a platform policy of offering entrepreneurs an option to disclose environmental engagement (E-commitment) using Kickstarter as a laboratory. After the policy rollout, 32.5% of entrepreneurs took up the disclosure option and their projects tend to attract out-of-state backers. Using the rollout as an instrumental variable for E-commitment, we find that the disclosure leads to 13.2% higher likelihood of funding success and 8.7% higher funding amount. We also observe a significant increase in the number of environmental conscious backers, new backers, and environmental related comments. Finally, we find little change in the likelihood of product delivery, but the funding costs rise by 9.5% and the time from funding completion to product delivery stretches longer by 51%. Collectively, the evidence suggests: (1) Kickstarter’s nudge for environmental engagement enhances creators’ ability to attract environmental conscious, new backers; and (2) the environmental conscious backers’ funding decision is likely driven by non-financial, taste-based environmental motive.

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12 June 2024 (Monday) 3:30pm via Zoom (LINK)

To Refurbish or Not: Implications for Firm’s Decisions, Consumers, and Environment

We study the secondary market intervention strategies of a manufacturer which buys used products back from consumers via trade-in programs. The manufacturer then refurbishes the used products to a chosen quality and sells them in the secondary market. The core of our study is to analyze the optimal refurbishing decisions for the manufacturer, how these decisions affect consumer access to the product, and the environmental footprint.

We use a stylized economic model to study a profit-maximizing firm operating in a monopoly market. Our two-period model captures the heterogeneous consumer valuation of the product and seller's hassle cost in the secondary market. We prove that the manufacturer's optimal strategy is "partial intervention with high trade-in price” for most products, with a few rare exceptions. We discover a surprising non-monotonic optimal trade-in price as a response to product design. We show that the manufacturer's strategy broadens consumer access to the products, but it can also exacerbate the total environmental impact. This negative impact can only be mitigated if the environmental benefits gained from using refurbished products significantly outweigh the environmental impact of the refurbishing operation.

Our findings emphasize the need for managers to tailor their approach to different products. We provide practical guidelines for managers navigating these decisions in our case study, which compares high-end vs. low-end smartphones and gasoline vs. electric cars.

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Enquiries

For any enquiries, please contact us at [email protected] or (852) 2616-8371.