Feldman, Zhang take Olin Award for Alibaba research

Dear Olin community,

It is my pleasure to announce that the recipient of the 2019 Olin Award is Taking Assortment Optimization from Theory to Practice: Evidence from Large Field Experiments on Alibaba by Jake Feldman, assistant professor of operations and manufacturing management, and Dennis Zhang, assistant professor of operations and manufacturing management.

In its 12th year, the Olin Award was established to recognize scholarly research that has timely, practical applications. This year’s winning entry uses data from the Chinese online retail giant Alibaba to test the benefits—and recommend a solution—for presenting buyers the optimum variety of products available for purchase with individual online retail stores. Of the 16 papers submitted this year, six went on to the second round, rated by our corporate judges as research with potential impact to business.

Some of those papers will be presented in the coming months in the Olin Business Research Series. The winning paper will be presented at a luncheon on May 22, 2019, from noon till 1:30 p.m. We will send out a formal invite in the near future.

Special thanks to Olin Distinguished Executive in Residence Richard Mahoney and all of the judges for their ongoing support. We look forward to all of next year’s faculty submissions. Please join me in congratulating Jake Feldman and Dennis Zhang.

Pictured above: Richard Mahoney, Jake Feldman, Dennis Zhang and Dean Mark Taylor.