Collaborative Research: Operational Strategies for Price and Service Quality Competition

这笔赠款提供资金，用于分析如何使用运营战略来提高公司的长期利润，以及通过改善服务质量吸引和留住客户的能力。将开发几类新的模型，用于在竞争激烈的订单式市场中进行最优定价、生产和服务质量选择的结构分析。一旦完成初步分析，这些模型将扩展到各种复杂环境，包括具有多种质量属性、一般需求设置、多类别需求和寡头垄断设置的模型。为了在更复杂的环境中考虑运营战略的影响，研究团队将研究公司在按订单生产和按库存生产的基础上提供产品的模式。如果成功，这项研究的结果将有助于更深入地理解动态运营战略在竞争市场中的影响，特别是有助于解释企业选择正确的价格和质量的能力将如何影响企业的长期利润和市场份额。在行业合作伙伴的合作下，研究团队将开发一种方法基础，最终将导致更高效和有效的决策支持系统，以帮助管理人员选择价格和服务(产品)质量的“正确”组合。最后，本研究提出的见解将被纳入一个案例研究和一个教学模块。这项研究是伯克利大学和圣路易斯华盛顿大学的PI之间的合作工作。PIs及其研究生将定期往返于两地之间，以进一步促进合作。

This grant provides funding for an analysis of how to use operational strategies to improve a firm's long-run profit and its ability to attract and retain customers through improved service quality. Several classes of novel models will be developed for the structural analysis of optimal pricing, production, and service quality selection in a competitive make-to-order marketplace. Once initial analysis is completed, these models will be extended to a variety of complex environments, including models featuring multiple quality attributes, general demand settings, multi-class demand, and oligopoly settings. To account for the impact of operational strategy in a more complex environment, the research team will study models under which the firm offers products on both a make-to-order and make-to-stock basis. If successful, the results of this research will lead to a deeper understanding of the impact of dynamic operational strategy in a competitive market place, and in particular, will help to explain how the firm's ability to choose the "right" price and quality will affect the firm's long-run profit and market-share. With the cooperation from industry partners, the research team will develop a methodological foundation that will ultimately lead to more efficient and effective decision support systems to help managers to choose a "right" combination of price and service (product) quality. Finally, the insights developed in this research will be incorporated into a case study and a teaching module. This research is collaborative work between the PIs at the University of Berkeley and Washington University in St. Louis. Both the PIs and their graduate students will regularly travel between the two locations to further facilitate the collaboration.