June 29, June 30, and July 1, 2000

Frank Batten is the retired chairman of Landmark Communications, Inc. and TeleCable Corporation. Currently he is chairman of the executive committee of Landmark. He serves on the Advisory Board of the School of Business at the College of William & Mary. With his generous support, the Operations and Information Technology (OIT) group at William and Mary will host the first "Frank Batten Young Scholars Forum in OIT" designed to bring in junior faculty conducting exemplary research for a mini-conference in Williamsburg, VA. One objective of the mini-conference is to foster collaborative work, create professional networks, and strengthen existing professional relationships. To that end the forum is designed to be intimate and casual, with ample time for informal interactions.

Conference Theme: Supply Chain Management and Technology Management

Primary Contacts: Tonya Boone, (757) 221-2073; Ram Ganeshan, (757) 221-1825

Meet the Batten Scholars...

Ed Anderson (PhD, MIT; now at Texas) 

Joe Bailey (MIT; Maryland)

Alex Brown (Stanford; Vanderbilt) 

Rebecca Durray (OSU; Colorado)

Sandy Jap (Florida; MIT)

Nitin Joglekar (MIT; Boston University) 

Roman Kapuscinski (Carnegie Mellon; Michigan) 

Siddarth Mahajan (Wharton; Duke)

Andy McAffee (Harvard; Harvard)

Geoff Parker (MIT; Tulane)

Kumar Rajaram (Wharton; UCLA)

Greg Stock (UNC; NIU) 

Mohan Tatikonda (BU; UNC)

Sean Willems (MIT; Cincinnati)

W & M Participants

Brent Allred (Penn State; W & M)

Tonya Boone (UNC; W &M)

Ram Ganeshan (Penn State; W & M)

Gigi Kelly (Georgia; W & M)

Scott Swan (Texas; W & M)

Tentative Schedule:
(Papers will be added to the Sessions as we receive them. We anticipate that all sessions will be held in the Board of Visitors (BOV) meeting room)

Here is a map of campus (1.1 Megs!). The University Center is #69 on the map and Blow Memorial Hall (which houses BOV meeting & dining rooms on the third floor) is #17)

All presentations should be roughly 20 minutes, with  10 minutes of discussion.

Williamsburg Area Links

How to get to Williamsburg & the College of William and Mary

Williamsburg Online (everything you need to visit Williamsburg)

Williamsburg area convention and visitor bureau (Colonial area guide; Bed & breakfasts, etc.)

Colonial Williamsburg (Interesting historical accounts)

College of William & Mary (The alma-mater of a nation)

Quick Area Hotel List (some of you may want to try B & B's -- there are several in Williamsburg)

Patrick Henry Inn, York/Page Streets, 757-229-9540  (have arranged with this hotel for a discounted rate of $85 for attendees to the Frank L. Batten Young Scholar痴 Conference ・must identify yourself as such to receive this rate)  *

Comfort Inn and Suites, 1420 Richmond Rd.  757-229-2981  *

Days Inn Downtown, 902 Richmond Rd.  757-229-5060  * (very close, approx. 1 block)

Embassy Suites, 152 Kingsgate Pkwy, 757-229-6800

Four Points by Sheraton, 351 York St., 757-229-410

Ft. Magruder Inn, Rt. 60 East, 757-220-2250  *

Hampton Inn Bypass, 201 Bypass Rd., 757-220-0880

Hampton Inn York, 505 York St., 757-220-3100  *

Hampton Suites, 1880 Richmond Rd., 757-229-4900

Holiday Inn 1776, 725 Bypass Rd., 757-220-1776

Hospitality House, 415 Richmond Rd., 757-229-4020  *  (the closest, across the street)

Quality Inn, 1402 Richmond Rd., 757-220-2367  *

Quality Inn Colony, Rt. 60 & 2^nd St., 757-229-1855 *

Quality Suites, 1406 Richmond Rd., 757-220-9304 *

Ramada Inn, 500 Merrimac Trail, 757-220-1410

Sleep Inn, 220 Bypass Rd., 757-259-1700

Travel Lodge, 120 Bypass Rd., 757-229-2000

Williamsburg Center, 600 Bypass Rd., 757-220-2800

  * these are the closest hotels to the college, but all of them are within just a few miles

Book Information (Future directions in supply chain and technology management)

The American Management Association (AMACOM) will publish the papers of the Frank Batten Young Scholars Forum as a book with the title  "Future directions in supply chain and technology management."  Please bring two copies of your paper to the conference. Of course, you do not have to restrict the paper to the topic of your presentation, but may want to showcase your research program.

Tentative time line:

July 1: Bring your chapters to the conference. For those of you who cannot meet this deadline, please send it in by August 1st. For the format, use the Management Science submission guidelines.

August 15th: We will mail you your paper with (minor) editorial changes.

September 15th: Final deadline for submissions. You will be asked to mail 3 copies of your paper (+ electronic copy of your paper on a disk), contributor agreements,  etc.

The book will be published 6-8 months later. In the meanwhile, AMACOM copy editors might want to make a few editorial changes also.

Session Details

Session I

Mass Customization: Strategic and Operational Considerations: A Longitudinal Study

Rebecca Duray, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs

  This study explores the operations management paradox of mass customization by examining mass customizing plants over time. In 1996, survey data was gathered on 198 companies which were classified as mass customization archetypes and the operational  processes to support these types were examined.  In 1999, the survey was replicated.  Additional financial performance data was collected in 2000 to provide an ongoing perspective of the results of the strategies pursued.   This presentation will explore the strategic foundation of mass customization, test the mass customization taxonomy and highlight findings in operational processes technologies employed over time by mass customizing companies.

Integrating Operations and Marketing P erspectives on Product Development Projects: The Influence of Organizational Process Factors and Capabilities on Performance

Mohan V. Tatikonda, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

This paper adopts a multidisciplinary view of innovation by integrating operations and marketing perspectives on product development performance.  The conceptual framework builds on the resource-based view of the firm and organizational information processing theory to characterize relationships among organizational process factors, product development capabilities, critical uncertainties, and operational/market outcomes in product development projects.  Data from a cross-sectional sample of 120 completed development projects for assembled goods is analyzed via a two-stage hierarchical moderated regression approach.  The findings show that:  (1) the organizational process factors studied are associated with achievement of operational outcome targets for product quality, unit-cost and time-to-market;  (2) achievement of operational outcomes aids achievement of market outcomes, in turn suggesting that development capabilities are indeed valuable firm resources; and (3) relationships between organizational process factors and operational outcomes, and between operational outcomes and market outcomes, are robust under conditions of technological, market and environmental uncertainty.  This paper provides practical insight into how product development projects can be better managed for multidisciplinary success under various contingencies, and sets a theoretical and empirical basis for future research on the influence of organizational process factors and capabilities on diverse development outcomes.

Performance of Coupled Product Development Activities with a Deadline

Nitindra R. Joglekar, Ali A. Yassine, Steven D. Eppinger and Daniel E. Whitney

Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts & Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts

This paper explores the performance of coupled development tasks subject to a deadline constraint by proposing a performance generation model (PGM). The goal of the PGM is to develop insights about optimal strategies (i.e. sequential, concurrent, or overlapped) to manage coupled design tasks that share fixed amount of engineering resources subject to performance and deadline constraints. The model yields two main results. First, we determine the optimal execution strategy for the coupled development tasks that will maximize the overall product performance. Second, we characterize the solution space for the coupled development problem. The solution space is used to explore the generation of product performance and the associated dynamic forces affecting concurrent development practices. We use these forces to explain conditions under which concurrency is a desirable strategy.

Session II

Sandy Jap, MIT: TBA

Pricing and Inventory Location Decisions by Internet Retailers

Joseph P. Bailey, University of Maryland

One feature that separates Internet retailers from the more traditional physical retailers is the ability to increase the scope of offerings without having to increase inventory size.  Some leaders in Internet retailing are built on a focus of managing information and not products.  Arguably Amazon.com is one example of such a firm because many of the products listed on their web site are not in an Amazon.com warehouse.  Rather, Amazon.com warehouses the information about the product and not the product itself because information is arguably less costly to manage in the supply chain.  Other Internet retailers eschew the logistics component of their business entirely and form close relationships with their distributors for order fulfillment.  One such example is Buy.com who works closely with Ingram Micro to warehouse and ship a product after the consumer痴 order has been received.  This paper will present an analytical model and empirical data that describes how Internet retailers make optimal inventory and pricing decisions given they want to increase the scope of their offerings without having to warehouse or take ownership of products.  The general finding of the paper is that Internet retailers are able to take advantage of having a multiple number of supply chains that may not be possible for physical retailers.  The conclusion is that because the Internet retailer can optimize its pricing and inventory location decisions on a product level they can increase the scope of their offerings while sustaining higher prices and lower inventory levels relative to physical retailers.

CPFR: The Retail Business-to-Business Model

Ram Ganeshan (William and Mary), Tonya Boone (William and Mary), and Al Stenger (Penn State)

Our intent in this paper is to analyze in a systemic manner the benefits of information sharing via the Internet, specifically Collaborative Planning, Forecasting, and Replenishment (CPFR), on a typical fast-moving consumer goods supply chain. We use a comprehensive simulation model to test the impact of CPFR on four performance dimensions: fill rates, supply chain inventory, supply chain cycle time, and shareholder value. Our results indicate that CPFR increases fill rates and shareholder wealth (measured as EVA) while decreasing supply chain inventory and cycle time.

Session III

A Conceptual Typology of Inward Technology Transfer

Gregory N. Stock,  Northern Illinois University

Mohan V. Tatikonda, University of North Carolina

  In this paper we develop a conceptual typology of inward technology transfer.  This paper builds on but differs from most of the extant literature on technology transfer by adopting the perspective of the technology recipient (hence 妬nward transfer・ rather than the technology source, and by considering operational issues at the level of analysis of the individual transfer project.  The typology applies the general organizational theories of information processing and interdependence to the specific context of inward technology transfer.  Two key dimensions of technology transfer are inherent in the typology.  The first dimension, technology uncertainty, follows from the concept of task uncertainty from organizational information processing theory (OIPT).  The second dimension, organizational interaction, follows from the OIPT concept of coordination and control mechanisms.  Four categories of technology uncertainty and four categories of organizational interaction are developed and described.  The application of OIPT to this context requires consideration of effective 杜atches・of the type of technology to be transferred and the mode of the transfer.  Stylized and real-life examples of effective matches of technology uncertainty and organizational interaction are presented.  We also discuss implications of the typology for theory and practice.

Antecedents and performance Outcomes of International Subsidiaries' Technology Sourcing Decisions

Scott Swan & Brent Allred, College of William and Mary

The study examines the role that goals, product/process dynamism, competitive intensity, corporate size, relative international emphasis, and geographic distance from others in the parent company have on the sourcing decision (whether to source from other subsidiaries/parent corporation or from outside).  The study also looks at the performance impact of the sourcing decision.

Knowledge Depreciation and Transfer in Professional Services

Tonya Boone, College of William and Mary

  Organizational knowledge management has become a critical source of competitive advantage for many companies.  Retaining and internally disseminating knowledge are critical components of organizational knowledge management.  Count data models are used to evaluate the depreciation and dissemination of knowledge within a professional service organization.  Learning curve theory is used to construct the models. The results show significant knowledge depreciation. Knowledge transfer between departments is found asymmetric, in contrast to earlier research which has assumed symmetric knowledge transfer.

Session IV

From Buyer to Integrator:  The Transformation of the Supply-chain Manager in the Vertically Disintegrating Firm

Geoffrey G. Parker , Tulane University & Edward G. Anderson Jr, University of Texas

Using case study data, we describe the change in supply-chain management toward supply-chain integration.  We find that as large firms disaggregate into linked chains of focused firms specializing in distinct areas, those focused firms paradoxically require more highly-skilled generalists, "supply-chain integrators," capable of coordinating product development, marketing, production, and logistics within and across organizational boundaries.  We report on the change in supply-chain roles as managers of people become managers of supplier organizations.  We finally discuss possible responses from educational institutions and firms to better prepare people for the supply-chain integration function.

ISO 9000 Didn't Prepare Us for This: Expanding Definitions of Process Quality in the Era of Ebusiness

Andy McAffee, Harvard

Scenarios are presented for the evolution of inter-company relations, particularly between suppliers and customers, in an operations environment characterized by increased focus on supply chain management, great information transparency, and the presence of internet-based marketplaces. Likely developments include the emergence of new bases, beyond certification of process existence, for supplier evaluation, selection, and certification, for example demonstrated ability to meet fulfillment commitments Challenges to the realization of these scenarios are discussed.

Gigi Kelly, William and Mary: TBA

Session V

Optimizing the Supply Chain Configuration for New Products

Sean Willems, University of Cincinnati 

In practice, the dominant criterion when choosing suppliers for a new product is unit manufacturing cost. We present a model that incorporates other relevant supply-chain costs, including inventory and time-to-market costs. We illustrate possible new insights for designing supply chains with examples from industry.

Kumar Rajaram, UCLA: TBA

Capacity and Backlog Management in Service-Oriented Supply Chains

 Ed Anderson, University of Texas

Although there is a rapidly growing body of research on supply chain management, the vast majority of it concentrates upon managing inventory in a manufacturing or distribution setting.  Very little is relevant to managing service supply chains, which have no inventory, but only backlogs.  Furthermore these backlogs can be managed solely through capacity adjustment, often involving a significant time lag. To begin to address this problem, we develop a simple capacity management model for a serial service supply chain. At each stage in the supply chain, the model relates capacity, backlog, and lead-time. In aggregate, the model captures the dynamic interactions between different stages. We use the model to determine whether and under what conditions a 澱ullwhip effect・(Forrester 1958)擁.e., an increase in demand variation at successive stages in the supply chain謡ill occur. We then study the impact of various management strategies on the bullwhip effect including the advantages of using global demand information to manage capacity. Additionally, we analyze the impact of lead-time reduction. Conventional wisdom, largely based on the inventory management literature, strongly supports lead-time reduction in order to mitigate the bullwhip effect. We show that lead-time reduction should be synchronized throughout the supply chain and carefully coordinated with capacity adjustment at each stage, otherwise in many cases, reducing lead-time will actually exacerbate the bullwhip effect.

Session VI

Coordinating Production and Delivery Under a (z,Z)-type Vendor Managed Inventory Contract

Roman Kapuscinski, University of Michigan

This paper models a type of vendor managed inventory (VMI) agreement that occurs in practice called a (z, Z) VMI contract.  We investigate the savings offered by such an agreement in the form of allowing for better coordination of production and delivery.  The optimal behavior of both the supplier and the retailer are characterized.  Numerical analysis is conducted to compare the performance of a single supplier and a single retailer operating under a (z,Z) VMI contract with the performance of those operating under traditional retailer managed inventory (RMI) with information sharing. Our results verify some observations made in industry about VMI and show that this type of VMI agreement performs significantly better than RMI in many settings, but can perform worse in some scenarios.

Supply Chain Coordination Under Horizontal Competition

Siddarth Mahajan, Duke University

We analyze a model of a two-echelon supply chain in which a monopolist retailer stocks products from n horizontally competing suppliers. A stochastic sequence of heterogenous customers dynamically substituteamong these products based on the availability of retail stocks. The channel decisions consist of linear, wholesale prices between echelons and inventory levels at the retail echelon. Depending on how decision rights are allocated,  Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) or Retailer Managed Inventory (RMI) trading mechanisms are modeled. In each case, there is vertical competition between the retailer and its suppliers, which causes channel losses due to double marginalization, and horizontal competition among the suppliers, which causes channel losses due to either under pricing or excess stocking by suppliers.

We show that neither VMI nor RMI achieves first-best profits in general. However, when supplier's products are perfect substitutes, we show that VMI achieves first-best profits as the number of competing suppliers increases and RMI achieves first-best profits with two or more competing suppliers. Moreover, the entire first-best profits are captured by the monopolist retailer in these cases. Numerical examples with differentiated suppliers suggest that both VMI and RMI approach first best as the number of suppliers increases. These results show that while horizontal or vertical competition alone often causes channel losses, their combination can lead to channel coordination. We also identify incentive compatibility problems; the coordination scheme which is best for the channel is not always best for the monopolist retailer. In both the theoretical and numerical cases, however, price competition produces the largest channel profits. This suggests that, from a channel perspective, price competition (RMI) is better than inventory competition (VMI).

Pricing Supply Flexibility

Alex Brown, Vanderbilt University

We consider a manufacturer and a supplier of a long lead time, expensive product.  The supplier currently offers its product at a single price with zero supply flexibility ・the manufacturer assumes all the risk involved with his forecast.  The supplier is considering offering its product at higher prices with different degrees of supply flexibility, having the supplier share in the risk involved with the forecast.  This paper examines the following research question: 展hen the manufacturer has private information regarding his demand uncertainty level or selling price, what menu of price-flexibility contracts should be offered by the supplier to maximize his profit?・span style="mso-spacerun: yes">  We develop a general model solution and numerically illustrate the impact of cost, uncertainty, and prior probability distribution.  We show that a manufacturer with high demand uncertainty benefits the most from such a contract.  We also show that the supplier is able to extract the large majority of the extra profit that he could gain if he had access to the private information.