Freight-sharing platforms, where shippers can offer excess transportation capacity at a discounted cost, enable the effective sharing of shipping capacity. This occasional offer of excess transportation capacity introduces new opportunities in inventory management. We study inventory decisions for a company that interacts with a freight-sharing platform. We derive optimal ordering policy characteristics and propose replenishment heuristics.

In this paper, we formulate an optimal information gathering strategy (IGS) to identify which uncertainties in the supply chain network drive our decisions. Existing approaches consider uncertainties, but do not consider the benefit of resolving them. Based on stylized, numerical, and case study results, we show a significant value of optimal IGS. As a non-monotone non-submodular minimization problem, we solve the problem with an algorithm which achieves a constant approximation guarantee.

Leading thinkers in supply chain management have proposed the long-term effects of supply chain disruptions on market share as customers shift their purchases to competitors. Motivated by this insight, we empirically analyze the lasting effects of supply chain disruptions on firms' market shares. Focusing on pharmaceutical supply chain disruptions, we find that products do not fully recover from the market share loss even after they recover from supply chain disruptions.

This paper investigates the impact of advance commitment on supply chain network design under demand uncertainty. The study develops a robust cooperative model and solves it using a column-and-constraint generation algorithm, finding that this approach significantly reduces conservatism and improves performance compared to a non-cooperative model. The research highlights the potential benefits of contractual commitment for companies seeking to enhance their supply chain operations.

This study examines the relationship between the digital divide and online retail sales, encompassing internet infrastructure and socioeconomic inequalities. We demonstrate how retailers can better bridge the divide by leveraging omnichannel and online fulfillment options. Our research emphasizes the significance of incorporating the digital divide into ecommerce fulfillment strategies. We make a contribution to the literature on diversity, equity, and inclusion in operations management.

We propose a data-driven platform that provides traceability to the first mile of agricultural supply chains by coordinating the transactions of farmers and intermediaries. We model unique aspects of the supply chain, including pre-existing informal relationships between farmers and intermediaries, and we develop algorithms to solve real-world instances. We test the results on data from the palm oil supply chain and show the platform’s potential to reduce costs and increase farmers’ welfare.