Annals of Operations Research最新文献

{"title":"The measurement and decomposition of productivity change with environmental variables: a conditional nonparametric frontier analysis approach","authors":"Juan Aparicio,&nbsp;Jose M. Cordero,&nbsp;Cristina Polo","doi":"10.1007/s10479-026-07138-5","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10479-026-07138-5","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Contextual or environmental variables usually play a major role in explaining relative efficiency differences in most empirical applications. Nevertheless, most studies focused on the analysis of productivity changes over a period usually do not account for the influence of these variables, especially those adopting a nonparametric approach. In this paper, we propose a novel method to incorporate information about contextual variables in Malmquist productivity decompositions based on conditional nonparametric efficiency measures. The usefulness of the proposed approach is illustrated on an empirical application using data about European Union (EU) regions to investigate the extent to which the quality of governance influenced the evolution of regional productivity in the years following the last financial crisis. While the index captures productivity change conditional on external factors, such as the quality of governance in our empirical application, it does not allow for formal inference about the marginal effect of these variables. Extending the methodology to address this limitation is beyond the scope of the current paper but represents a promising direction for future research.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":8215,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Operations Research","volume":"359 3","pages":"2351 - 2388"},"PeriodicalIF":4.5,"publicationDate":"2026-03-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10479-026-07138-5.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147636928","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The AI-driven Decision-Making (AIDM) Framework: Integrating AHP and ChatGPT for Supplier Selection","authors":"Negar Sadeghi,&nbsp;Mohammad Dehghani,&nbsp;Nihan Kabadayi","doi":"10.1007/s10479-026-07136-7","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10479-026-07136-7","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into decision-making is transforming industry norms by enabling smarter, faster, and more reliable decisions. This paper presents a novel approach for supplier selection in manufacturing by combining the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) with the Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT). Using GPT as virtual agents to mimic expert evaluations automates the supplier selection process, significantly improving efficiency. The study demonstrates the effectiveness of large language models as virtual experts in complex decision-making, highlighting AI’s crucial role in strategic manufacturing operations. Comparing GPT’s assessments with human expert judgments confirms the model’s reliability and effectiveness in optimizing supplier selection. This approach enhances decision-making processes and emphasizes the broad utility of AI-centric methodologies in various industries.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":8215,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Operations Research","volume":"359 3","pages":"2593 - 2615"},"PeriodicalIF":4.5,"publicationDate":"2026-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10479-026-07136-7.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147636930","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"An enhanced simulation-based approach for multicriteria evaluation of SMEs’ performance","authors":"Silvia Angilella,&nbsp;Michalis Doumpos,&nbsp;Maria Rosaria Pappalardo,&nbsp;Constantin Zopounidis","doi":"10.1007/s10479-026-07036-w","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10479-026-07036-w","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Stochastic multi-attribute acceptability analysis (SMAA) has become a popular tool for dealing with uncertainties in multi-criteria decision aid. SMAA relies on a simulation process to analyze the performance of a set of alternative options over multiple scenarios for the parameters of an evaluation model and/or the data. The sigma-mu efficiency analysis has been proposed to aggregate the simulation results through a data-driven process that relies on ideas from data envelopment analysis (DEA). In this paper, we extend the sigma-mu efficiency analysis considering not only the mean and the variability of the alternatives’ performance over the simulation scenarios, but also skewness and kurtosis. To model the uncertainty in criteria weights, we employ the flexible Dirichlet distribution, which allows the modeling of the variations in the relative importance of the evaluation criteria. The empirical findings, derived from a dataset of European small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) spanning from 2018 to 2022, show that incorporating kurtosis and skewness into the analysis enables a more comprehensive comparison of alternatives. However, this added depth also weakens the dominance relationships between alternatives when considering all four statistical moments.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":8215,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Operations Research","volume":"360 2-3","pages":"767 - 813"},"PeriodicalIF":4.5,"publicationDate":"2026-03-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10479-026-07036-w.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147828615","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Fletcher-reeves-type conjugate direction algorithm for interval-valued multiobjective optimization problems","authors":"Balendu Bhooshan Upadhyay,&nbsp;Rupesh Krishna Pandey,&nbsp;Subham Poddar,&nbsp;Shengda Zeng","doi":"10.1007/s10479-025-06976-z","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10479-025-06976-z","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This paper investigates a class of interval-valued multiobjective optimization problems (in short, IVMOPs). Two different Fletcher–Reeves (in short, FR)-type conjugate direction algorithms, namely, Algorithm 1 and Algorithm 2, are proposed to solve IVMOPs where the objective functions are continuously generalized Hukuhara (in short, gH) differentiable (not necessarily convex) and convex (not necessarily gH-differentiable), respectively. In Algorithm 1, the gH-derivative is used to compute FR-type directions at non-critical points, and an Armijo-like line search strategy is employed to determine appropriate step sizes along these directions. We perform the convergence analysis, establish the convergence rate, and investigate the worst-case complexity of the sequence generated by Algorithm 1, under appropriate assumptions. To develop Algorithm 2, corresponding to IVMOP, we formulate a multiobjective optimization problem (in short, MOP) and introduce an Armijo-like line search in terms of directional derivatives to compute suitable step lengths along descent directions. Finally, we establish the convergence of the sequence generated by Algorithm 2. Several nontrivial numerical examples, including a real-world application in portfolio optimization, are solved employing MATLAB R2024a to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":8215,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Operations Research","volume":"359 3","pages":"2389 - 2429"},"PeriodicalIF":4.5,"publicationDate":"2026-03-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147636929","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Efficient local and tabu search strategies for large-scale general quadratic integer programming","authors":"Haibo Wang,&nbsp;Bahram Alidaee","doi":"10.1007/s10479-026-07066-4","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10479-026-07066-4","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This study investigates the area of general quadratic integer programming (QIP), encompassing both unconstrained (UQIP) and multi-constrained (CQIP) variants. These NP-hard problems have far-reaching applications, yet non-convex cases have received limited attention in the literature. To address this gap, we introduce a closed-form formula for single-variable changes, establishing novel necessary and sufficient conditions for 1-<i>Opt</i> local improvement in UQIP and CQIP. We develop a simple local and sophisticated tabu search with an oscillation strategy tailored for large-scale problems. Experimental results on instances with up to 8000 variables demonstrate the efficiency of these strategies, producing high-quality solutions within a short time.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":8215,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Operations Research","volume":"360 2-3","pages":"1125 - 1147"},"PeriodicalIF":4.5,"publicationDate":"2026-03-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147828594","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Collaborative order fulfillment in omni-channel retailing: Unpaired multi-pickup and delivery problem with time windows","authors":"Mengqi Yu,&nbsp;Mu Du,&nbsp;Jennifer Shang,&nbsp;Xiangpei Hu","doi":"10.1007/s10479-026-07083-3","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10479-026-07083-3","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Order fulfillment in omni-channel (OC) drug retailing necessitates the integrated optimization of order allocation and delivery routing. This integration is particularly challenging, as it requires collaboration among multiple pharmacies to fulfill online orders. To address this issue, we propose a novel variant of the pickup and delivery problem, namely the <i>Unpaired Multi-Pickup and Delivery Problem with Time Windows</i> (UM-PDPTW). This problem is distinguished by the incorporation of item-level allocation decisions that determine the sourcing pharmacy for each item in an order into vehicle routing decisions, together with item-flow decisions under multiple pickups per order. The UM-PDPTW is computationally intractable using existing algorithms or solvers, as it incorporates three interrelated NP-hard sub-problems: item allocation for multi-item orders, multi-commodity flow, and delivery routing. To solve this complex problem, we develop a decomposition-iteration-based algorithm, the <i>Iterative Allocation and Routing algorithm with Commodity Flow Matching</i> (IAR-CFM). IAR-CFM leverages the partial decoupling between item allocation and delivery routing decisions by duplicating the multi-commodity flow variables. It iteratively solves the sub-problems using tailored algorithms and coordinates them into a feasible solution to the primal problem. This coordinated solution is then further improved via an improved variable neighborhood search algorithm. Computational results indicate that IAR-CFM achieves optimal solutions for small-scale instances and near-optimal solutions for large-scale cases, surpassing the upper bounds provided by CPLEX by up to 41.96%. A comprehensive sensitivity analysis based on real-world omni-channel drug retailing scenarios yields managerial insights on delivery time commitments, capacity constraints, assortment compositions, and stocking modes. These findings offer practical guidance for optimizing operations in drug retailing and other similar fulfillment and delivery operations, especially those involving multiple fulfillment centers and synchronized visits.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":8215,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Operations Research","volume":"359 3","pages":"2763 - 2794"},"PeriodicalIF":4.5,"publicationDate":"2026-03-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147637013","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Product line design for a capital-constrained supply chain: financing via bank or trade credit","authors":"Xiangyuan Lu,&nbsp;Zhiqiao Wu,&nbsp;Liwei Xu","doi":"10.1007/s10479-025-06882-4","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10479-025-06882-4","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>In practice, many products are produced and stocked as product lines rather than as single product variants. However, due to the impact of product differentiation, demand uncertainty, and expanding costs, the manufacturer and retailer usually do not agree on the length of the product line, especially when the supply chain (retailer) faces capital constraints. The focus of this research, therefore, is studying how product line length and supply chain operation decisions depend on the retailer’s financing strategy (bank credit and trade credit) and product differentiation. We present a game-theoretic model comprised of a manufacturer who sells one product or two differentiated products through a capital-constrained retailer. When either or both bank credit and trade credit are viable, we analysed the coupling effect between product line length, product differentiation and the financing equilibrium. We find that a manufacturer’s optimal product line design strategy is selling two differentiated products (single products) when the product differentiation is relatively low (high). When the product differentiation is moderate, the optimal product line length is dynamic and changes with the financing strategy. Our study contributes to the growing body of literature on product line design and supply chain finance. Several managerial implications for supply chain operations also emerge from the study.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":8215,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Operations Research","volume":"359 3","pages":"2563 - 2592"},"PeriodicalIF":4.5,"publicationDate":"2026-03-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147636938","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Insights into the computational complexity of the single-source capacitated facility location problem with customer preferences","authors":"Christina Büsing,&nbsp;Timo Gersing,&nbsp;Sophia Wrede","doi":"10.1007/s10479-026-07110-3","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10479-026-07110-3","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Single-source capacitated facility location problems are well studied in the operations research literature, yet classic problems often lack practicability by disregarding the customers’ perspective: An authority that assigns customers to open facilities deprives customers from choosing facilities according to their individual preferences. In reality, this can render solutions infeasible, as customers may deviate to their most preferred open facility, thereby breaking capacities of facilities serving more customers than originally planned. <i>Preference constraints</i> aim to prevent this by ensuring that each customer is served at their most preferred open facility. The corresponding problem is called <i>single-source capacitated facility location problem with customer preferences</i> (<i>CFLP-CP</i>) and is known to be strongly NP-hard. In this paper, we provide a deeper understanding of the transition from polynomially solvable cases to strongly NP-hard cases of the CFLP-CP. In particular, we show that the effect of preference constraints on the theoretical complexity can go both ways: Some problems become harder, while others become easier. This is because preference constraints simplify the assignment of customers to facilities, while simultaneously increasing the complexity of locating facilities. We show that the type of customer preferences, e.g., strict preferences or geographically closest assignments, has a vital impact on the complexity. Notably, strict preferences, i.e., customers cannot be indifferent, allow to compute feasible solutions of the CFLP-CP in polynomial time.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":8215,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Operations Research","volume":"359 3","pages":"2457 - 2482"},"PeriodicalIF":4.5,"publicationDate":"2026-03-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10479-026-07110-3.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147636927","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Optimization of multi-cycle multi-objective remanufacturing green supply chain network based on improved deep reinforcement learning algorithm considering differentiated incentive compatibility mechanisms","authors":"Zhen Wang,&nbsp;Chunming Ye,&nbsp;Jianquan Guo","doi":"10.1007/s10479-026-07099-9","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10479-026-07099-9","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>To tackle the complex difficulties of recycling and remanufacturing end-of-life new energy vehicles (NEVs) and their components, this study develops a multi-channel, multi-cycle, multi-objective remanufacturing green supply chain network model under differentiated government intervention, and proposes an improved multi-objective deep reinforcement learning algorithm (IMO-DRLA) for its solution. The results indicate that: (1) the multi-channel, multi-cycle, multi-objective model greatly enhances overall supply chain optimization, enabling high-quality development; (2) by integrating fuzzy data preprocessing, deep learning–based prediction, and hyper-heuristic search for multi-objective optimization, the IMO-DRLA attains multi-objective optima in complex recycling scenarios, improving both computational efficiency and accuracy; and (3) differentiated subsidy and tax policies effectively strengthen supply chain stability. By precisely forecasting and solving the synergistic effects between the IMO-DRLA and differentiated governmental interventions, this study significantly improves the efficiency of multiple recycling channels for end-of-life NEVs, the emission-reduction rate, and the adoption of internet technologies, thereby providing critical methodological support for building a sustainable NEV recycling system.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":8215,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Operations Research","volume":"359 3","pages":"2681 - 2708"},"PeriodicalIF":4.5,"publicationDate":"2026-03-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10479-026-07099-9.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147636949","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Radiation therapy patient scheduling using a column generation approach: an algorithmic framework and a single-institution study","authors":"Sara Frimodig,&nbsp;Per Enqvist,&nbsp;Jan Kronqvist,&nbsp;Carole Mercier,&nbsp;Geert De Kerf","doi":"10.1007/s10479-026-07111-2","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10479-026-07111-2","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>In radiation therapy (RT), radiation from linear accelerators is used to kill malignant tumor cells. Scheduling patients for RT is difficult both due to the numerous medical and technical constraints, and because of the stochastic inflow of patients with different urgency levels. In this paper, we present a Column Generation (CG) approach for the RT scheduling problem. The model includes constraints such as different machine compatibilities and individualized patient protocols, as well as planned interruptions in treatments due to maintenance on machines. Data from Iridium Netwerk, the largest cancer center in Belgium, is used to evaluate the CG approach. The results show that using a dynamic time reservation method to handle uncertainty in future urgent patients works very well. Furthermore, the schedules generated by the CG algorithm are clinically validated and compared to historical clinical schedules for a time period of one year. The CG generated schedules are shown to decrease the average patient waiting time by 80%, improve the average consistency in appointment times by 80%, and increase the number of treatments scheduled on the best suited machine by more than 90% compared to the manually constructed clinical schedules. Thus, the CG approach to automatically generate schedules for RT can improve the quality of the schedules significantly while saving the clinic many hours of administrative work every week.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":8215,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Operations Research","volume":"359 3","pages":"2869 - 2915"},"PeriodicalIF":4.5,"publicationDate":"2026-02-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10479-026-07111-2.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147636932","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}