INFORMS Open Forum

INFORMS Analytics Collections, the multimedia publication of INFORMS, is delighted to announce the publication of a new collection on the topic of Innovation in Retail.

The Editors of this collection are: Victor Martínez-de-Albéniz (IESE Business School), Felipe Caro (UCLA) and Pierre Poignant (BRANDED).

This collection contains relevant multimedia sources showcasing recent innovations in the retail space. Besides numerous journal articles, the collection provides links to academic materials such as case studies or documentary videos, among others. The collection is structured as follows:

1.      Introduction – provides an overview of the retail industry and recent developments

2.      Demand Planning – discusses issues around the management of consumers

3.      Store Execution – explores store management issues

4.      Supply Chain – looks at the upstream backbone of retail systems

5.      New Business Models – presents new forms of organizing retail

6.      Externalities – finally identifies the relationship of retailing with society at large

Mission Statement: "INFORMS Analytics Collections is the preeminent collection of industry-focused innovations and applications in advanced analytics and operations research. Compiled by INFORMS experts, these collections explore relevant analytical insights, issues, and trends through multimedia, complete with free access to INFORMS content. Addressing both academics and practitioners, each Collection seeks to introduce readers to valuable content related to applications, research, and teaching".

Less formally, the objectives of IAC are to use its unique multimedia platform to:

(a) demonstrate connections between applications that create value in currently high priority, high impact focus areas and academic research innovations, and

(b) thereby enhance the impact of the work of INFORMS members.

Comments and questions from INFORMS members are welcome.

Additionally, IAC welcomes proposals for new collections from members. The (typically, two or three) Editors should include at least one person from industry and one from academia. Please review the 20 published collections for reference and send me a one-page proposal describing your proposed collection topic. Thank you.

Nick

Nicholas G. Hall

Editor, INFORMS Analytics Collections

Fisher College of Business

The Ohio State University

hall.33@osu.edu

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Nicholas G. Hall
Berry Professor,
Fisher College of Business,
The Ohio State University
------------------------------

Dear Professor Hall,  Dear Nick,

thank you, INFORMS Analytics Collections and especially the respected editors, Prof. Victor Martínez-de-Albéniz, Prof. Felipe Caro and Prof. Pierre Poignant, for this rich, comprehensive and timely work! 

The subject of "Innovation in Retail" is very exciting (among the most exciting), paradigmatic, and your and your colleagues' contribution has the potential to become a "must" in our related OR-MS community, whether for the experienced ones or for the young scholars, whether in research or in teaching.

This is a very big and diverse library of valuable material, based on a large portfolio of media, ranging from articles to editorial introductions and explanations and to videos.

Such a kind of a broad and at the same intense service to our community. in fact, INFORMS community, is still a bit exceptional and, with its media mix, a proposal of yours (and of INFORMS) to the OR-MS community and especially the friends from retail management and retail operations.

I encourage all the friends, notably scholars from the field, to comment here and, why not, propose to you further precious material.

This can lead to an acceleration of knowledge which will be beneficial for everyone, and display the high potential of INFORMS to host and energize such knowledge processes.

From my side, I will also inform some leaders of  the EURO working group on Retail Operations (numerous of the EWG friends being members in INFORMS as well) and welcome them to join this exchange and discussion.

Congratulations again to all of you!

Warm regards,

best wishes,

Willi  (Gerhard-Wilhelm Weber)

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Gerhard-Wilhelm Weber
Professor
Poznan University of Technology
Poznan
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Dear Prof. Hall,

This is a tremendous resource for our community, and a great way to showcase the relevance of INFORMS to the industry. Thank you!

The collection was thought-provoking. Two threads:

Thread-A: Maybe the categories can be expanded and also made more accurate? I have spent the past decade in building a decision support system (DSS) for franchised automobile retailers in the USA that has the following menu categories so that it's easier for the non-academic end-users:
1. Marketing. Customer profiling, acquisition, interactions, and retention. Demand generation goes here, as does campaign design and execution.
2. Leads. Pipelines of incoming business. Demand flows go here.
3. Sales (for car dealers: Variable Ops). Pricing, discounting, deal-closing, loan-sourcing, upsells, etc.
4. Inventory. What to buy, where to stock it (product & place). What to wholesale (dispose-off). Shipping and inventory-in-transit goes here.
5. Service (for car dealers: Fixed Ops). Pricing, discounting, labor productivity, loyalty, etc.
6. Accounting. Receivables, payables, data-recon, etc. Strategic planning and tracking is embedded in this menu-item that we position for the leadership as cross-function views anchored in financial viability.
7. HR. Team performance, individual coaching.

Thread-B: Can there be a pattern language for models? DSS makers must link models (e.g., in papers and textbooks) into their DSS. Can there be a pattern language that serves as a wrapper for models and enable the data-inflows & outflows needed for the model? A pattern language is useful if it reduces the effort required to connect a model into a DSS, and useless if it just imposes an overhead because it cannot hope to capture the variety of use-cases (model types). Given that there is a data-model for the industry (this is forced by the existence of the DSS), is a pattern for models (forecasting, optimization, etc.) a good pursuit?

------------------------------
Rahul Saxena
FrogData.com
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Thanks to both Willi Weber and Rahul Saxena for their appreciative and generous comments about the exemplary Collection "Innovation in Retail" recently published by IAC.

Here I provide some background about the background and mission of IAC.

1 IAC was developed as the brainchild of 2013 INFORMS President, Anne G. Robinson, and originally styled as "Editor's Cut". All credit goes to Anne for this initiative.

2 As INFORMS' unique multimedia publication, IAC has the primary role of unifying academic research and industry practice.

3 A Collection published by IAC provides a snapshot of academic research and industry practice at the time of publication. It is not continuously updated. The agreement with the Collection Editors is terminated at publication. INFORMS does not support changes to the online content.

4 The published Collections have been a valuable resource for members. The number of page views for each Collection is typically about 1,000 over the first year.

5 IAC welcomes proposals for new Collections from members. The (typically, two or three) Editors should include at least one person from industry and one from academia. Please review the previously published Collections for reference and send me a one-page proposal describing your proposed topic, avoiding overlap with previous Collections.

6 IAC is managed by an Editorial Board composed of distinguished leaders in academia and industry. The Board has one or two vacancies, and I invite interested INFORMS members to apply by e-mail. The workload involves lightly reviewing one submission and attending one meeting and is 1.0 to 1.5 days per year.

7 Another splendid Collection will be published within the next two weeks. Stay tuned!

Thanks.

Nick

------------------------------
Nicholas G. Hall
Berry Professor,
Fisher College of Business,
The Ohio State University
hall.33@osu.edu
614-292-9216
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 09-07-2024 00:54
From: Rahul Saxena
Subject: INFORMS Analytics Collection - Innovation in Retail

Dear Prof. Hall,

This is a tremendous resource for our community, and a great way to showcase the relevance of INFORMS to the industry. Thank you!

The collection was thought-provoking. Two threads:

Thread-A: Maybe the categories can be expanded and also made more accurate? I have spent the past decade in building a decision support system (DSS) for franchised automobile retailers in the USA that has the following menu categories so that it's easier for the non-academic end-users:
1. Marketing. Customer profiling, acquisition, interactions, and retention. Demand generation goes here, as does campaign design and execution.
2. Leads. Pipelines of incoming business. Demand flows go here.
3. Sales (for car dealers: Variable Ops). Pricing, discounting, deal-closing, loan-sourcing, upsells, etc.
4. Inventory. What to buy, where to stock it (product & place). What to wholesale (dispose-off). Shipping and inventory-in-transit goes here.
5. Service (for car dealers: Fixed Ops). Pricing, discounting, labor productivity, loyalty, etc.
6. Accounting. Receivables, payables, data-recon, etc. Strategic planning and tracking is embedded in this menu-item that we position for the leadership as cross-function views anchored in financial viability.
7. HR. Team performance, individual coaching.

Thread-B: Can there be a pattern language for models? DSS makers must link models (e.g., in papers and textbooks) into their DSS. Can there be a pattern language that serves as a wrapper for models and enable the data-inflows & outflows needed for the model? A pattern language is useful if it reduces the effort required to connect a model into a DSS, and useless if it just imposes an overhead because it cannot hope to capture the variety of use-cases (model types). Given that there is a data-model for the industry (this is forced by the existence of the DSS), is a pattern for models (forecasting, optimization, etc.) a good pursuit?

------------------------------
Rahul Saxena
FrogData.com
------------------------------