Omega-international Journal of Management Science最新文献

{"title":"Equipment leasing supply chain with demand uncertainty","authors":"Ting Zhao ,&nbsp;Zhi-Long Chen ,&nbsp;Xinbao Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.omega.2025.103358","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.omega.2025.103358","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Equipment leasing in many industries is a big business and growing fast. Motivated by our interactions with industry, we consider an equipment leasing supply chain where a manufacturer rents a piece of equipment to an operator who uses the equipment to serve its customers with a stochastic demand rate. The manufacturer and the operator sign a usage-based lease contract under which the operator pays a fixed rental plus a variable rental per unit of equipment usage to the manufacturer, while the manufacturer provides maintenance services during the lease period. There are two decisions to be made in this supply chain: the manufacturer’s periodic preventive maintenance policy, and the operator’s production rate (or equipment usage) decision. We first propose a Stackelberg game model, where the manufacturer acts as the leader and determines the maintenance policy first before the actual demand is known to maximize its own expected profit, followed by the operator who acts as the follower and decides the optimal production rate after the actual demand becomes known to maximizes its own profit, given the manufacturer’s maintenance policy. We also propose a centralized model, where the two parties jointly make the maintenance and production rate decisions after the actual demand is known, to maximize the total profit of the supply chain. We analyze and solve these models analytically and obtain various insights into the interplay between the manufacturer’s maintenance policy and the operator’s production rate in the presence of demand uncertainty. Our computational results show that the total expected profit of the supply chain at the Stackelberg equilibrium is consistently lower than that at the optimal centralized solution. To improve the expected profit for both parties in the supply chain under the Stackelberg game, we propose two coordination mechanisms: a cost-sharing incentive mechanism without information sharing, and a joint cost and information sharing mechanism. We find that when designed properly, the cost sharing mechanism can improve the expected profit for both the manufacturer and the operator. However, it cannot eliminate the negative effect brought by the asymmetric demand information, thus failing to achieve the optimal centralized solution. On the other hand, the joint cost and information sharing mechanism yields a solution that improves the expected profit for the both parties, and is also optimal for the centralized system.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":19529,"journal":{"name":"Omega-international Journal of Management Science","volume":"138 ","pages":"Article 103358"},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2025-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144068557","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A Continuous-Review Inventory Model: Harnessing the Spot and Futures Price Cointegration for Effective Cost Control","authors":"Cong-Cong Li ,&nbsp;Jian Ni","doi":"10.1016/j.omega.2025.103355","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.omega.2025.103355","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The volatile commodity price nowadays poses a great challenge to the effective control of cost in inventory management. Empirical studies have suggested that such a spot price volatility is significantly cointegrated to the price variability in commodity futures market. This paper therefore proposes a novel approach that can take advantage of such cointegration using a continuous review inventory model. It is shown that the optimal procurement strategy of the non-perishable commodity can then be characterized by a sequence of continuation regions, i.e., two-dimensional areas in the state space, which indicates when the manager should continue waiting for a better time for commodity procurement. One unique feature of this continuation-region-based strategy is that it optimally utilizes price information from both the commodity spot and futures markets to achieve effective cost control. Through numerical analysis, we corroborate the necessity of incorporating the futures price information into commodity procurement.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":19529,"journal":{"name":"Omega-international Journal of Management Science","volume":"137 ","pages":"Article 103355"},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2025-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143928627","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Conceptual and formal models for design, adaptation, and control of digital twins in supply chain ecosystems","authors":"Dmitry Ivanov","doi":"10.1016/j.omega.2025.103356","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.omega.2025.103356","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The design and adaptation of digital twins in supply chains are of high relevance for academia and industry alike. While numerous prototype-based use cases have been reported, the literature lacks studies revealing generalizable methodological principles. This paper elaborates on conceptual and formal models of digital twins in the supply chain. First, we define a new notion named digital supply chain ecosystem extending the recently developed intelligent digital twin framework. A digital ecosystem is a set of digital technologies, AI-based knowledge management systems, cloud spaces, and platforms that encapsulate supply chain data enabling digital twins and simulation models. Second, we elaborate on a digital twin as a complex phenomenon comprising systems, technological-organizational models, and management decision-making support perspectives. We offer a dynamic, quantitative framework for digital twins as a decision-making support and modeling environment using control theory. Third, we introduce two views of building and adapting digital twins, i.e., object-driven and data-driven approaches. Their principle schemes are defined and discussed. Finally, we outline a generalized framework of the cyber-physical supply chain comprised of a digital ecosystem, digital twin, human-AI collaboration space, and the physical supply chain. Application scenarios are considered, e.g., using digital twins for stress testing of supply chain resilience in the setting of tariff-driven shocks as well as building resilient and viable agricultural ecosystems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":19529,"journal":{"name":"Omega-international Journal of Management Science","volume":"137 ","pages":"Article 103356"},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2025-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143913123","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Integrating second-order effects in ELECTRE methods with an interval-based approach","authors":"Eduardo Fernández ,&nbsp;José Rui Figueira ,&nbsp;Jorge Navarro ,&nbsp;Efrain Solares ,&nbsp;Raymundo Díaz","doi":"10.1016/j.omega.2025.103353","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.omega.2025.103353","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Evolving from earlier versions, the ELECTRE methods achieved their most popular model with the fuzzy outranking relation of ELECTRE III. In more recent papers, the effects of reinforced preference, interacting criteria, and the relative strength of the discordance coalition have enhanced the original ELECTRE III. However, these enhancements were proposed separately. This paper has the merit of combining ELECTRE III with its enhancements in a comprehensive model. Although the extended model is more sophisticated and complex, its application may be necessary to accurately reflect the decision maker’s preferences when at least two of the three modifications to the original ELECTRE III cannot be neglected. Since the comprehensive model is more complex than the original one and may contain numerous parameters that are unfamiliar to decision-makers, its construction may be a challenging cognitive task for them. To alleviate this task and handle imperfect knowledge about model parameters and criteria performance levels, this paper proposes an interval-based approach. Thus, as a result of this paper, the pair Decision Maker–Decision Analyst can opt for one of two models: i) the extended ELECTRE III, where parameters and criteria are real numbers; or ii) the interval-based generalization of ELECTRE III, where parameters and criteria can be interval numbers. Both models combine the effects of reinforced preference, interacting criteria, and the relative strength of the discordance coalition. The interval model is more complex but the direct elicitation of its parameters is easier. The outranking relations provided by both approaches are useful for selection and ranking purposes, as well as multiple criteria ordinal classification. The ordinal classification methods based on these relations fulfill the consistency properties required by the ELECTRE TRI family. The new proposal is illustrated by two examples: the first is a simple ordinal classification problem with real numbers; the second example, with the use of interval numbers, comes from a real-world decision problem, revisiting a case study regarding the assessment of the performance of countries from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).</div></div>","PeriodicalId":19529,"journal":{"name":"Omega-international Journal of Management Science","volume":"137 ","pages":"Article 103353"},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2025-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143935761","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"On the fragility of a train timetable","authors":"M.L. Tessitore ,&nbsp;G. Sartor ,&nbsp;M. Samà ,&nbsp;C. Mannino ,&nbsp;D. Pacciarelli","doi":"10.1016/j.omega.2025.103341","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.omega.2025.103341","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In dense railway traffic, even the small delay of a single train may propagate through the network, causing a sequence of knock-on delays and significant deviations from the timetable. To mitigate the propagation of delays, railway infrastructure managers can generally employ two strategies: (i) in real time, train dispatchers can limit delay propagation by rescheduling trains, i.e., by adjusting the timetable in response to disturbances; (ii) in the timetable design phase, train planners can try to build delay-resilient timetables, which requires a complicated and lengthy iterative process. The ability of a timetable to “absorb” delays whenever they occur is known as robustness. While there is no unanimous consensus on a measure to quantify such robustness, it is normally a global measure, and therefore it is unable to highlight whether specific train paths or regions of the railway network are less robust than others. Moreover, only a few academic works incorporate the possibility of mitigating delays in real time through dispatching when evaluating robustness measures. These shortcomings motivate the present work. In this paper, we introduce the concept of fragility as a new practical tool to analyze a given timetable in order to identify the specific sections where a primary delay is most likely to generate knock-on delays, factoring in optimal future dispatching decisions. We also discuss the relationship between the fragility concept and the so-called recovery cost. We present computational results on real-life scenarios from a busy railway line in Norway and discuss several potential uses of fragility to improve decisions at different levels of the railway planning process, including dispatching, timetable design, and network design.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":19529,"journal":{"name":"Omega-international Journal of Management Science","volume":"137 ","pages":"Article 103341"},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143916543","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A novel linear-integral TOPSIS approach to mars mission simulator planning at NASA","authors":"Madjid Tavana ,&nbsp;Mehdi Soltanifar ,&nbsp;Andreas Dellnitz","doi":"10.1016/j.omega.2025.103350","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.omega.2025.103350","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Decision-makers are often subject to cognitive biases when making complex decisions. One such bias is apophenia (or pareidolia concerning visual information), where people perceive patterns that do not exist. Everyone experiences this phenomenon to varying degrees. Decision-makers often rely on cognitive shortcuts (heuristics) that deviate from Euclidean distances, perceiving relative rather than absolute distances in estimating the proximity of objects in multi-attribute decision-making. For instance, if a trajectory closely resembles a reference trajectory, the brain may perceive it as closer, even if another trajectory is technically closer in Euclidean terms but follows a more divergent path. Euclidean distances are used to assess the proximity between alternatives in the conventional Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to the Ideal Solution (TOPSIS). However, this approach may not align with how the human brain processes complex information due to the limitations of Euclidean measures in capturing cognitive biases. Therefore, we propose a new linear-integral TOPSIS approach that actively integrates this human tendency to perceive patterns, enhancing its compatibility with cognitive biases. As the decision maker processes information, the method becomes influenced by the sequence dependencies among the attributes. We demonstrate that this issue can be linked to a specific version of the traveling salesperson problem when determining the best and worst sequence orders for processing an alternative’s attributes. To address this, we rely on the sequence induced by the preference structure and solve an open traveling salesperson problem to substantiate the robustness of the resulting sequence. We demonstrate the applicability of the new linear-integral TOPSIS to the Mars mission simulator planning at NASA’s mission directorate at Johnson Space Center.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":19529,"journal":{"name":"Omega-international Journal of Management Science","volume":"137 ","pages":"Article 103350"},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143898592","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Distributionally robust alternative service design responding to joint closures in multimodal transit systems","authors":"Hankun Zheng ,&nbsp;Huijun Sun ,&nbsp;Peiling Dai ,&nbsp;Jianjun Wu","doi":"10.1016/j.omega.2025.103340","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.omega.2025.103340","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Despite their occurrence in practice and typically severe consequences, little attention has been given to joint disruptions in multimodal transit systems. To bridge this gap, we focus on joint closures of metro stations and urban roads, a common type of joint disruptions that simultaneously affects multiple metro lines and bus routes. The proposed approach integrates the optimizations of adaptive bus routes, service departure times, and passenger demand assignment to design alternative metro and bus services for passengers. The coordination of alternative services is ensured both within individual transit systems and across the entire multimodal transit system. Uncertainties in passenger demand and bus travel time are duly incorporated using finite stochastic scenarios. Given the partially known uncertainty information, we develop a distributionally robust optimization (DRO) model to address the problem. The worst-case mean-conditional value-at-risk criterion is utilized to balance operators’ risk-averse attitude against the expected total passenger and operation costs. Afterwards, we devise a polyhedral ambiguity set to obtain a computationally tractable form of the DRO model and propose a tailored adaptive large neighborhood search heuristic for model solving. Finally, we test our methodology with mid-scale and large-scale cases in Beijing. Numerical results show that the DRO approach produces more robust solutions with superior out-of-sample performance compared to stochastic programming, with minimal additional cost. Besides, the integrated optimization of alternative metro and bus services plays a critical role in reducing total cost and enhancing service quality for passengers. Based on these numerical results, we conclude several valuable managerial insights for real-world applications.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":19529,"journal":{"name":"Omega-international Journal of Management Science","volume":"137 ","pages":"Article 103340"},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143886859","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Maintaining fairness in stochastic chemotherapy scheduling","authors":"Batuhan Çelik ,&nbsp;Serhat Gul ,&nbsp;Özlem Karsu","doi":"10.1016/j.omega.2025.103338","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.omega.2025.103338","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Chemotherapy scheduling is hard to manage under uncertainty in infusion durations, and focusing on expected performance measure values may lead to unfavorable outcomes for some patients. In this study, we aim to design daily patient appointment schedules considering a fair environment regarding patient waiting times. We propose using a metric that encourages fairness and efficiency in waiting time allocations. To optimize this metric, we formulate a two-stage stochastic mixed-integer nonlinear programming model. We employ a binary search algorithm to identify the optimal schedule, and then propose a modified binary search algorithm (MBSA) to enhance computational capability. Moreover, to address stochastic feasibility problems at each MBSA iteration, we introduce a novel reduce-and-augment algorithm that utilizes scenario set reduction and augmentation methods. We use real data from a major oncology hospital to show the efficacy of MBSA. We compare the schedules identified by MBSA with both the baseline schedules from the oncology hospital and those generated by commonly employed scheduling heuristics. Finally, we highlight the significance of considering uncertainty in infusion durations to maintain fairness while creating appointment schedules.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":19529,"journal":{"name":"Omega-international Journal of Management Science","volume":"137 ","pages":"Article 103338"},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143877563","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Strategic pricing and quality discrimination in presence of different customer incentive programs","authors":"Xu Wang,&nbsp;Siyu Du","doi":"10.1016/j.omega.2025.103336","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.omega.2025.103336","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>By leveraging consumers’ historical data, firms can implement price discrimination based on individual characteristics. However, beyond mere price differentiation, firms may also employ quality discrimination as a means to either retain old customers or attract new ones, which we call customer incentive programs. Therefore, this study investigates the impact of different customer incentive programs on firms’ decisions, profits, and consumer surplus. Our findings reveal several key insights. First, contrary to conventional wisdom, firms may simultaneously offer lower prices and quality-improved products to new customers. Second, we discover that rewarding old customers is suboptimal for firms. When consumer patience is sufficiently high, foregoing quality discrimination emerges as a more advantageous method. Conversely, in scenarios where consumer patience is limited, rewarding new customers becomes the preferable option. Finally, permitting firms to utilize consumer data under specific conditions may be more beneficial for consumers overall from a policymaker’s perspective. However, firms might strategically choose to remain ignorant, opting not to utilize this data even when permitted. This paper provides valuable insights and recommendations for designing firms’ customer incentive programs and government data compliance policies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":19529,"journal":{"name":"Omega-international Journal of Management Science","volume":"137 ","pages":"Article 103336"},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143878815","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"R&D and operational efficiency in China’s innovative high-tech enterprises: Empirical analysis with two-stage slack based measure data envelopment analysis and threshold regression","authors":"Nannan Liang ,&nbsp;Yu Shi ,&nbsp;Yao Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.omega.2025.103342","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.omega.2025.103342","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study applies a two-stage slack-based measure data envelopment analysis (SBM-DEA) model to evaluate the micro-level R&amp;D and operational efficiency of 445 listed innovative high-tech enterprises in China's science and technology sector. A threshold regression model is then used to explore the impact of R&amp;D investment intensity variables, such as R&amp;D investment personnel intensity, R&amp;D investment funds intensity and government subsidies intensity, and enterprise scale on efficiency. The findings indicate that the R&amp;D and operational efficiency of China's innovative high-tech enterprises is generally low, with particularly significant room for improvement in R&amp;D efficiency. Among the influencing factors, R&amp;D personnel intensity and enterprise scale both have a significant negative impact on R&amp;D activities and a significant positive impact on operational activities. Meanwhile, enterprise scale exhibits a single threshold effect on both R&amp;D and operational efficiency. When the scale is below or above the threshold, the direction of the effect on efficiency remains the same, but the magnitude differs. Finally, government subsidies intensity did not significantly impact R&amp;D and operational activities and failed to achieve effective incentives or generate positive effects.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":19529,"journal":{"name":"Omega-international Journal of Management Science","volume":"136 ","pages":"Article 103342"},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143859387","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}