Customer choice research can optimize product offerings

Meet Jake Feldman, Assistant Professor of Operations & Manufacturing Management at Olin Business School. In this video, he shares some insights into two of his recent papers based on customer choice research: “Revenue Management under the Markov Chain Choice Model” and “Appointment Scheduling under Patient Preference and No-Show Behavior.”

These papers focus on the common challenges of product offerings:

• How retailers decide to display products in order to make the most money
• How organizations in the service industry can schedule the most appointments (e.g., hospitals, doctors, auto repair shops, etc.)

Feldman studies these challenges using mathematical models that measure customer substitution behavior. He uses these complex modeling problems to estimate the best set of products to offer to the customer.

In the Pipeline is a Boeing Center digital series that highlights in-progress academic research in the fields of supply chain, risk management, and operational excellence. It features professors from Washington University’s Olin Business School, and demonstrates The Boeing Center’s ongoing pursuit of cutting-edge research and knowledge dissemination.