3D Printing and Product Assortment Strategy

3D printing, as a production technology, differs from conventional technologies in three characteristics: design freedom—that is, it can handle certain product designs that conventional technologies cannot; quality distinction—that is, depending on the focal quality dimension, it can lead to a quality level superior or inferior to that of conventional technologies; and natural flexibility—that is, it is endowed with capacity flexibility without sacrificing operational efficiency. This paper investigates the joint impact of these characteristics when a firm selects conceptual designs to form its product assortment, taking into account the production-technology choices available for each design: 3D printing and two conventional technologies (dedicated and traditional flexible). Some designs can be processed by using any technology (generic), whereas others are specific to 3D printing (3D-specific). The firm selects designs to be handled by each technology and then invests accordingly in technology adoption, product development, capacity, and production. We characterize the structure of the optimal assortment based on the popularity of each design. Within the sets of generic designs and 3D-specific designs, respectively, the most popular designs should be included in the assortment; under a mild condition, the optimal assortment comprises the most popular ones among all the designs. Within the optimal assortment, 3D printing should handle the less popular generic designs than conventional technologies. We further demonstrate that the design freedom or improved quality associated with 3D printing may reduce the firm’s optimal product variety. In the absence of design freedom and quality distinction, natural flexibility by itself always enhances product variety; by contrast, traditional flexible technology may reduce product variety. Numerical study shows that 3D printing tends to be more valuable when popularities of the generic designs are distributed more evenly and when popularities of the 3D-specific designs are distributed less evenly. This paper was accepted by Vishal Gaur, operations management.

An investigation into the Online Sales Channels of Small Business Fashion Retailers on Portal Shopping and Fashion Shopping Malls

The aim of this study was to analyze the perceptions and entering status of small business online fashion retailers on portal shopping and fashion shopping malls. Case studies were conducted on a total of 10 research samples. The results were as follows: first, regarding the strategic factors of online fashion stores, ‘price competitiveness’ is important, especially in portal shopping and low-cost brands; ‘product assortment’ is important but not essential in all platforms; and ‘differentiation’ is important to continuously secure loyal customers in fashion shopping malls. Customer satisfaction leads to customer loyalty, and customer loyalty affects the sales conversion rate and brand growth of online sales channels. Factors that promoted sales activities in online sales channels were exposure, advertisements, SNS, events, special exhibitions, and events. Hindrance factors were low price competition, overheated competition, and the MD of sales channels. Second, the research samples used multiple online sales channels, including portal shopping malls and fashion shopping malls, in addition to their own malls. The selection factors were platform reputation and commission, branding, and customer inflow through exposure. Portal shopping malls were perceived as providing easy access, advertising/customer communication, exposure/search, price competitiveness, scalability, and intense competition, whereas fashion shopping malls were perceived as providing a brand image and concept, brand promotion, high commissions, difficult entry, and low profits. The factors for success in portal shopping malls were exposure/search, price competitiveness, and brand recognition, whereas the factors for success in fashion shopping malls were differentiation, brand, exposure/advertisement, product assortment, and MD.

Service Delivery Strategies for Alleviating Pandemic Suffering While Maintaining Profitability

The postpandemic world requires a renewed focus from service providers on ensuring that all customer segments receive the essential services (food, healthcare, housing, education, etc.) that they need. Philanthropic service providers are unable to cope with the increased demand caused by the social, economic, and operational challenges induced by the pandemic. For-profit service providers offering no-pay services to customers, allowing them to self-select a service option, is becoming a popular strategy in various settings. Obtaining insights into how to efficiently balance societal and financial goals is critical for a for-profit service provider. We develop and analyze a quantitative model of customer utilities, vertically differentiated product assortment, pricing, and market size to understand how service providers can effectively use customer segmentation and serve the poor in the lowest economic strata. We identify conditions under which designing the service delivery to be accessible to the poor can simultaneously benefit the for-profit service provider, customers, and the entire society. Interestingly, we observe that the increasing customer valuation of the no-pay option because of a superior quality service offered by a service provider need not benefit customers. Our work provides a framework to obtain operational, economic, and strategic insights into socially responsible service delivery strategies.

The Effects of Sister-Store Presence and Market Competition on Product Assortment: Evidence from Book Retailing

When consumers’ preferred products are not carried by the retail chain store they visit, they may switch to purchasing these products from nearby sister stores of the same chain or from nearby competing stores. Such within- and across-chain substitution effects are enhanced as store-level product assortment information becomes increasingly available to consumers. It is important for scholars and practitioners to understand the effect of sister-store presence and market competition on retail product assortment strategies. In this paper, we obtain store-level product assortment data from a nationwide bookstore chain and study how sister-store presence and market competition can have an impact on the retail chain’s product assortment. In addition, we explore how this impact differs for niche and popular products. Our results show that having at least one sister store nearby reduces product assortment and such effects are stronger for niche products although having a competing store nearby increases product assortment and such effects are stronger for popular products.

Formulation Matters: Reciprocating Integer Programming for Birchbox Product Assortment

Birchbox created a mixed-integer programming formulation to determine the products that it will send to its subscribers in individual boxes on a monthly basis. The goal of this formulation is to produce a set of different box configurations that are then assigned to customers to meet the diverse needs of its varied customer base. As Birchbox’s business grew, the mixed-integer program was taking days to solve, and experimenting with different business requirements to determine the best set of configurations became impossible. Therefore, Princeton Consultants created the Reciprocating Integer Programming technique to reduce these solution times, thus decreasing them to typically under 20 minutes. This has dramatically changed the way that Birchbox can run its subscription business.

The place of sheep breeding in the formation of meat resources and the development of the regional economy

The economic importance of the sheep breeding industry in the development of the agrarian economy of Russia is due to the types of product assortment obtained in this industry for the formation of food security and for industry. The advantages of sheep breeding in the use of natural forage lands for sheep grazing in Russia are analyzed. The role of sheep products in the food supply of the country is revealed. The place of sheep breeding in the development of the economy of the regions, the level of specialization in the sheep breeding industry in the regions of the country is investigated, the expediency of expanding the regions of sheep keeping, increasing the efficiency of using the potential of the industry, the growth of economic indicators in agriculture, increasing the production of sheep products in rural farmsteads and farms is revealed, the role of consumer cooperation in the development of sheep breeding in small forms of management, increasing employment in rural areas is revealed.

The impact of mall personality and shopping value on shoppers' well-being: moderating role of compulsive shopping

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the association between mall personality, hedonic and utilitarian shopping value, and shoppers' well-being. The moderating effect of compulsive shopping on the association between both hedonic and utilitarian shopping value, and shoppers' well-being is also investigated.Design/methodology/approachThis study is quantitative in nature, and a purposive sampling technique is used. Data was collected through mall intercept survey. The authors collected 431 usable responses from respondents at two different malls in Lahore, Pakistan. PLS-SEM was employed to test the proposed hypotheses.FindingsResults indicate that mall personality significantly and positively influences both hedonic and utilitarian shopping value and shoppers' well-being. Similarly, hedonic shopping value has a significant and positive impact on shoppers' well-being, while utilitarian shopping value has a non-significant relationship with shoppers' well-being. Moreover, while compulsive shopping behaviour moderates the positive relationship between hedonic shopping value and shoppers' well-being, it does not moderate the relationship between utilitarian shopping value and shoppers' well-being.Originality/valueDespite the extant studies on brand and store personality on numerous retail outcomes, no study has examined the association between mall personality and shoppers' well-being. Another key contribution of this study is to examine moderation effect of compulsive shopping on the association between shopping value and shoppers' well-being. Additionally, this study enlightens mall administration to emphasise upon mall personality and hedonic shopping value so as to enhance shoppers' well-being, more so if its product assortment encourages compulsive shopping.