Design and Management of Responsible and Optimal Global Supply Chains for Retailing

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

My long-term research objective is to address the following issue: how can we use data, models and decision-making algorithms to most efficiently provide higher convenience for customers while being socially responsible? In the short-term, I plan to carry out the following two research programs in collaboration with students and real-life firms. Designing responsible subscription-based personalization for retailing: Well-known retailers like Loblaws and Amazon today are the biggest repository of consumer data in human history because of their access to both consumers and manufacturers. They can then use advanced data analytics to uncover customer insights and accurately provide consumer-product matches (i.e., provide personalization). This has benefits for consumers; but, ethical concerns have been raised regarding retailers' access to such data. Research that considers privacy and other social issues while designing personalization is rare. Our goal in this research program is to develop optimal subscription-based personalization services for the food sector that goes beyond typical customer and supply chain data and profit maximization objective to also include privacy and health concerns. This research will build on our ongoing work about developing retail personalization systems using machine learning and about studying the impact of privacy on product positioning, but will advance our understanding from theoretical and applied perspectives. Managing supply chains for environmentally responsible retail innovations: Personalization creates proliferation in retailers' product variety that can potentially have adverse impact on the society. Prime example is the fast-fashion sector that is blamed for creating an environmental crisis due to excessive water usage and carbon emissions as well as for promoting frivolous consumption. Although some new business model innovations attempt to tackle these challenges, there is little extant research about how to responsibly manage the associated supply chains by incorporating both demand and supply perspectives. In this research program, we will analyze these innovations that encourage alternate types of ownership mechanisms, e.g., rentals, rather than purchase of new items. One of our primary goals in this context will be to assess the precise environmental risk of the innovations. Moreover, there are certain supply chain optimization challenges facing these models-pricing, purchasing and inventory management-that have not yet been addressed adequately in the literature. Our research experience with rental models for durable products in various retail sectors will be useful for this research program. The above program will be among the first to develop a framework that can help two economically important retail sectors for Canada (food and fashion) to be profitable without being a threat to its long-term future. It will also help in building a healthier and more sustainable Canadian society.