Competitive Setting Research Articles

Inverse optimization of integer programming games for parameter estimation arising from competitive retail location selection

When determining store locations, competing retailers must take customers’ store choice into consideration. Customers predominantly select which store to visit based on price, accessibility, and convenience. Incumbent retailers can estimate the weight of these factors (customer attraction parameters) using granular historical data. Their location decision under full information and simultaneous competition translates into an integer programming game. Unlike incumbents, new entrants lack this detailed information; however, they can observe the resulting location structure of incumbents. Assuming the observed location structure is (near-)optimal for all incumbent retailers, a new entrant can use these observations to estimate customer attraction parameters. To facilitate this estimation, we propose an “inverse optimization approach” for integer programming games (IPGs), enabling a new entrant to identify parameters that lead to the observed equilibrium solutions. We solve this “inverse IPG” via decomposition by solving a master problem and a subproblem. The master problem identifies parameter combinations for which the observations represent (approximate) Nash equilibria compared with optimal solutions enumerated in the subproblem. This row-generation approach extends prior methods for inverse integer optimization to competitive settings with (approximate) equilibria.We compare the decision-making of new entrants selecting locations based on scenarios, or information about the underlying distribution of customer attraction parameters (expected values), with new entrants using inversely estimated parameters for their location decisions. New entrants who rely on inversely optimized parameters can improve their profits. On average over a large set of synthetic numerical experiments, we observe improvements of 4–11%. This benefit can be realized with as little as one or two observations, yet additional observations help to increase prediction reliability significantly.

The use of crowdsourcing mechanisms in management learning

ABSTRACT While management education increasingly uses creative crowdsourcing techniques (e.g. hackathons and innovation crowdsourcing) to help students apply their knowledge to real business problems, this research examines crowdsourcing as a learning approach that enhances students’ learning experience, not by giving access to knowledge resources, but rather by creating a process that generates value and learning experience through active participation. Using an exploratory research (i.e. observations and in situ interviews) and a quantitative assessment (i.e. survey-based design), our findings show that students’ learning experience can be leveraged in the pre-activity stage (i.e. initial instructions, creative idea generation), and during and after the crowdsourcing activity (i.e. feedback from the company and from the instructor). We show that the learning experience is not only predicted by the informational value, but also by the social and enjoyment value, which can be enhanced through specific crowdsourcing activities. Further, our findings question the role of competitive settings in such learningconditions

Inventory management for stockout-based substitutable products under centralised and competitive settings

Inventory planning in fashion markets is highly challenging, owing to uncertain demand; yet, in making inventory decisions, retailers may be able to capitalise on high substitutability between products. This research develops single-period inventory-management models describing a market with two substitutable products, under stockout-based substitution; i.e. when a customer’s preferred product is out-of-stock, s/he may choose to purchase the substitute. Two settings are considered: centralised (a single retailer who sells both products) and competitive (two retailers, each selling one product). For each setting, we derive closed-form analytical solutions for the inventory levels that maximise expected profit. The model is further enriched with sales data from an online apparel retailer offering substitutable products (a sneaker in different colours), and we analyse the sensitivity of the optimal inventory levels and profits to parameter values. Key findings include the following: (i) Under competitive conditions, both retailers always order positive inventory so as not to lose customers. However, in a single-retailer setting, there are situations in which the retailer orders inventory for only one product. (ii) The optimal inventory levels and corresponding profits are highly sensitive to consumers’ willingness to substitute between products. These findings provide concrete insights that can guide fashion brands’ inventory-management decisions.

Pricing and inventory decision in a two-layer supply chain under the Weibull distribution product deterioration: an application of NSGA-II

Academicians and practitioners have focused a lot of attention on the separate issues of pricing and inventory control in a competitive setting. However, integrating these choices in a competitive environment has received scant attention for deteriorating inventory systems from academics despite being crucial to practitioners. From this perspective, our research focuses on designing a supply chain model with inventory coordination to reflect time systems with improved accuracy and optimal control systems. In this research, we develop a two-layer supply chain model consisting of one manufacturer and one retailer incorporating the inventory classification of the retailer. Price-sensitive market demand and two-parameter time-varying Weibull distribution deterioration have been assumed to develop the mathematical model. First, a collective decision on price and inventory control of a deteriorating product has been evaluated in a duopoly environment. Secondly, to explore the decentralized scenario, we have proposed the NSGA-II algorithm to solve the bi-objective programming problem of the two-layer supply chain. The paper aims to explore product collaborative pricing policies and the inventory decision of the deteriorating item in two-layer supply chain coordination. Finally, numerical research is conducted to execute the centralized supply chain and NSGA-II application in a decentralized supply chain. The research findings can provide valuable insights for members of the two-layer supply chain to make optimal product pricing and inventory scheduling decisions.

Flock size increases with the diversity and abundance of local predators in an avian family.

Group living has long been viewed as an adaptation to reduce predation risk. Earlier comparative analyses provided support for the hypothesis but typically ignored variation in group size at the local scale and included proxies of predation risk rather than more direct estimates. Here, we related variation in group size at the scale of a study site in various species with the diversity and abundance of local predators. If larger groups provide protection against predators, we expected larger groups to evolve in species facing locally more diverse and abundant predators. We examined this hypothesis in one avian family, the Paridae, which are small arboreal birds that include some of the better studied species in ecology. From the literature, we gathered 275 flock size estimates from 34 species. In a phylogenetic framework and controlling for the potential confounding effect of latitude, we found that flock size increased with predation risk but only in flocks that included more than one species. We suggest that competition sets an upper limit to the size of flocks including conspecifics only. Joining flocks with other species, thus, allows individuals to increase flock size in response to higher predation risk without a substantial increase in competition. Overall, our results based on more direct estimates of predation risk provide further comparative evidence for an association between predation and the evolution of flocking in birds.

Competitive peer influence on knowledge contribution behaviors in online Q&A communities: a social comparison perspective

PurposeUsers' knowledge contribution behaviors are critical for online Q&A communities to thrive. Well-organized question threads in online Q&A communities enable users to clearly read existing answers and their evaluations before contributing. Based on the social comparison and peer influence literature, the authors examine peer influence on the informativeness of knowledge contributions in competitive settings. The authors also consider three levels of moderating factors concerning individuals' perception of competitiveness: question level, thread level and contributor level.Design/methodology/approachThe authors collected data from one of the largest online Q&A communities in China. The hypotheses were validated using hierarchical linear models with cross-classified random effects. The generalized propensity score weighting method was employed for the robustness check.FindingsThe authors demonstrate the peer influence due to social comparison concerns among knowledge contribution behaviors in the same question thread. If more prior knowledge contributors choose to contribute long answers in the question thread, the subsequent contributions are more informative. This peer influence is stronger for factual questions and questions with higher popularity of answering but weaker in recommendation-type and well-answered questions and for contributors with higher social status.Originality/valueThis research provides a new cue of peer influence on online UGC contributions in competitive settings initiated by social comparison concerns. Additionally, the authors identify three levels of moderating factors (question level, thread level and contributor level) that are specific to online Q&A settings and are related to a contributor's perception of competitiveness, which affect the direct effect of peer influence on knowledge contributions. Rather than focus on motivation and quality evaluation, the authors concentrate on the specific content of online knowledge contributions. Peer influence here is not based on an actual acquaintance or a following relationship but on answering the same question. The authors also illustrate the competitive peer influence in subjective and personalized behaviors in online UGC communities.

Behavior-Based pricing under asymmetric channel competition with strategic consumers

With behavior-based pricing (BBP), retailers use customers’ purchase records to price discriminate between new and past customers. In this paper, we investigate BBP in a setting where sales channels have different purchasing conveniences, indicating that channels are asymmetric. We examine how the adoption of BBP affects retailers’ profits, and how purchasing convenience, measured by the hassle cost in our model, affects retailers’ pricing decisions. To address these questions, we build up a three-period model in which two competing retailers with different hassle costs independently decide whether to adopt BBP, and sell repeatedly purchased products to strategic customers. By comparing retailers’ profits in different cases with different retailers adopting BBP, we find the conditions under which BBP can be profitable for retailers. In particular, the retailer with the higher hassle cost is more likely to benefit from the adoption of BBP. Therefore, contrary to intuition, retailers with high hassle costs do not always need to work on improving convenience when adopting BBP. Also, we find that retailers tend to make the same decision on whether or not to adopt BBP, and their decision depends on the hassle-cost gap between the two channels. Our findings provide guidance for retailers with different channel convenience on how to use BBP and respond to consumers’ strategic behavior in a competitive setting.

Value creation and value capture from patents: Theory and implications for patent strategies

This study uses biform game models to examine firms’ patent deployment strategies that involve a choice between appropriating a patented technology to gain a unique competitive advantage or licensing the technology to a competitor in the product market. It addresses the question of under what circumstances firms use a patent appropriation strategy over a licensing strategy, or vice versa. By incorporating competitive and cooperative settings, this study develops theory and propositions to illustrate the mechanisms by which patent deployment strategies are chosen by an innovator or follower in a product market as a function of the characteristics of innovation, transaction costs, bargaining power, strategic interactions, and other market conditions. This study contributes to the literature by distinguishing between patent appropriability and value appropriation in a transactional network under rivalry. The model and its extensions provide new insights into appropriation strategies for patent portfolios, which are important intellectual assets in a knowledge-based economy.

Professional athlete responses to new product development: A dialectic

ABSTRACT Research Question Although scholarship focussed upon professional athletes has grown considerably, their perspective remains underrepresented within the sport management literature. Accordingly, this study gives voice to such athletes by exploring their perspectives with regard to the demands, opportunities, and tensions arising from a new sport product innovation that has significantly impacted their profession. Research Methods Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 25 professional male cricketers competing in two of the world’s most prominent professional T20 cricket leagues. Interviews were thematically coded to reveal central athlete perspectives, and representative quotes were used to support the analysis. Results and Findings Two central insights emerged. First, professional athletes internalised a consumer demand for entertainment arising from the advent of T20 cricket, resulting in modifications to their individual frontstage self-presentation. Whilst not a conscious branding exercise, these modifications demonstrated a tension between pursuing athletic performance on the one hand and entertainment on the other. Second, despite the significant financial opportunities that T20 cricket affords, athletes emphasised the intrinsic interpersonal benefits of the product innovation. This included experiential elements around cultural immersion and personal development as well as newfound opportunities to form relationships within an otherwise fiercely competitive work setting. Implications This study contributes to a small body of work exploring professional athlete perspectives, revealing candid backstage insights surrounding lived experiences within the profession. The findings are particularly significant to athlete branding work in that they illustrate how professional athlete self-presentation can be influenced by performative pressures emerging from consumer-driven product innovation.

Exercise Intensity and Activity Energy Expenditure of Professional Golf Players in Official Competitive Setting.

Research regarding the physical needs of professional golf players is lacking. With advances in wearable technology, it has become easier to analyze physiological responses such as heart rate (HR) to determine activity energy expenditure (AEE). The purpose of the study was to evaluate exercise intensity (EI) and AEE during 4 consecutive tournament's golf rounds using a popular wrist-based HR monitoring. Wearable systems for HR monitoring can be used to provide an accurate estimate of energy expenditure. Cross-sectional study. Level 3. A total of 20 male professional golfers participated in the study. Each player was monitored during an official tournament consisting of 4 rounds of 18 holes. EI and AEE were determined using HR wrist monitoring (Whoop Strap 2.0). We calculated the percentage of HRmax (%HRmax) and the percentage of HRres (%HRres) and the AEE in kcal/min using Keytel's formula. The calculated mean %HRmax and %HRres for the study population were 56.4% ± 1.8% and 40.5% ± 2.6%, respectively. Considering American College of Sports Medicine guidelines, these average percentages correspond to a moderate EI. The average caloric expenditure was 5.4 ± 0.4 kcal/min and 1555.8 ± 157.8 kcal per round considering an average golf round duration of 288.3 ± 19.5 minutes. A professional player's golf round is moderate physical activity. The AEE of this activity was equal to 5.4 cal/min, which is moderate energy consumption. These data could help golf coaches and conditioning coaches to have a better understanding of the load placed on golfers during tournaments.

The Dos and Donuts of Love by Adiba Jaigirdar

Reviewed by: The Dos and Donuts of Love by Adiba Jaigirdar Aaren Tucker Jaigirdar, Adiba The Dos and Donuts of Love. Feiwel, 2023 [336p] Trade ed. ISBN 9781250842114 $19.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9781250842107 $11.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R Gr. 7-12 Reeling from a break-up, Shireen is prepared to spend her summer moping while bingeing old episodes of The Great British Bake Off and eating donuts from her parents’ struggling donut shop. That quickly changes when she’s selected as a contestant for the first season of The Junior Irish Baking Show. Competing in a show like this has always been Shireen’s dream, and it would raise the profile of the donut shop. Unfortunately, she has to compete alongside her ex-girlfriend Chris, and when they get paired up for the first challenge, it’s clear they have unfinished business. Shireen, however, is determined to put all that aside and focus on the competition; she’s lucky, then, that fellow competitor and new maybe-more-than-friend Niamh is around to help provide a distraction. The charming baking competition setting provides most of the fun and excitement in the story, and adorably punny chapter titles like “Cruller Intentions” and “All Good Things Crumb to an End” bring added humor, but the text injects enough realism to keep the comedic elements this side of twee. In typical teen fashion, Shireen struggles to see things from others’ perspectives, so her growing insight throughout the novel provides a satisfying character arc. Fans of love triangles will be kept guessing about which girl Shireen will choose, though in the end there is no doubt about whom she belongs with in this pleasant, contemplative romance. Copyright © 2023 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Premature depolarisations in horses competing in United States Eventing Association and Fédération Equestre Internationale-sanctioned 3-day events.

Injuries and sudden death during the cross-country (XC) phase of eventing have raised interest in the frequency and types of cardiac arrhythmias occurring in these equine athletes. To characterise the frequency and types of rhythm disturbances and examine possible risk factors for premature depolarisations (PDs) occurring during the XC phase of United States Eventing Association (USEA) and Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI)-sanctioned events. Prospective, cross-sectional study. Continuous electrocardiographic (ECG) recordings were obtained from horses prior to, during and immediately following the XC competition. Physiological rhythms pre-XC were included in the arrhythmia group for analysis. The frequency of PDs was calculated for all horses, as well as by division. PDs were categorised by complexity (singles, couplets, triplets, complex) and variably grouped for statistical analysis. Multiple logistic regression was used to identify risk factors for the presence of specific cardiac arrhythmia groupings during XC. PDs were identified in 42/75 horses (56% [45, 67]) during XC. Horses competing in the upper divisions of eventing had higher odds for having any PD during XC compared to the lower divisions (OR = 17.5 [4.3, 72.01], p = 0.006). The amount of time the heart rate (HR) was greater than 199 beats per minute (BPM) was associated with more complex arrhythmias (triplets, salvos and tachyarrhythmias) (OR = 1.01 [1.0, 1.02], p = 0.005). An arrhythmia at rest (physiological or PD) was associated with arrhythmia in the early recovery period (OR = 3.5 [1.1, 10.8], p = 0.03). Convenience sampling and technical challenges of continuous ECG recordings under competition settings limited the number of enrollments. PDs were seen in a high percentage of horses during the XC competition. Upper levels and time the HR was greater than 199 BPM were related to PD presence and complexity.

Surgical Phase Recognition in Inguinal Hernia Repair—AI-Based Confirmatory Baseline and Exploration of Competitive Models

Video-recorded robotic-assisted surgeries allow the use of automated computer vision and artificial intelligence/deep learning methods for quality assessment and workflow analysis in surgical phase recognition. We considered a dataset of 209 videos of robotic-assisted laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair (RALIHR) collected from 8 surgeons, defined rigorous ground-truth annotation rules, then pre-processed and annotated the videos. We deployed seven deep learning models to establish the baseline accuracy for surgical phase recognition and explored four advanced architectures. For rapid execution of the studies, we initially engaged three dozen MS-level engineering students in a competitive classroom setting, followed by focused research. We unified the data processing pipeline in a confirmatory study, and explored a number of scenarios which differ in how the DL networks were trained and evaluated. For the scenario with 21 validation videos of all surgeons, the Video Swin Transformer model achieved ~0.85 validation accuracy, and the Perceiver IO model achieved ~0.84. Our studies affirm the necessity of close collaborative research between medical experts and engineers for developing automated surgical phase recognition models deployable in clinical settings.

Home Advantage and its Influencing Factors in FIFA World Cup Asian Qualification

To investigate home advantage in the FIFA World Cup Asian qualification, 508 matches in the group stage of World Cup qualifying in a total of five Asian Zone World Cup qualifying tournaments from 2006–2022 were analysed. It was found that home advantage exists in the Asian Zone World Cup qualifiers as a whole (59.9%), with home advantage at the regional level ranging from high to low in South Asia, Southeast Asia, West Asia, East Asia and Central Asia; Turkmenistan is the country with the highest home advantage, reflecting its exceptional nature. At the individual match level, three factors of Country, Subregion and Year were adjusted by putting them into a multilevel model as random effects, meanwhile, a multi-level model with home points as the dependent variable and the rest as predictor variables also fit well ( R2 = .382). The results show that time zone and climate are significantly correlated with home points after controlling for team quality (both p < .05), i.e., travel and climate were key factors influencing the Asian Zone World Cup qualifiers. Altitude, referee bias, crowd and cultural dimensions were not significant influencing factors for home advantage. As cultural dimensions that significantly affect the home advantage in domestic leagues, corruption, ethnic fractionalisation and conflict did not have a significant impact on the home advantage of the Asian qualifiers, indicating that their roles may not be applicable to international competition settings, at least in the Asian qualifiers.

Forecasting realized volatility of Bitcoin: The informative role of price duration

AbstractMotivated by the relationship between trading intensity and volatility and the attractiveness of duration‐based volatility estimators, this paper investigates the ability of price duration to forecast realized volatility of Bitcoin. Using high‐frequency transaction data, trading intensity is measured by price duration and incorporated in the class of heterogeneous autoregressive (HAR) models. Results provide compelling evidence that trading intensity improves the forecasting performance of a highly competitive set of HAR models, commonly used in the literature. HAR extensions that incorporate price duration systematically deliver the lowest forecast errors and generate economically significant gains in volatility targeting exercise over multiple horizons. However, results show no evidence in favor of a unique duration‐augmented model. The predictive ability of price duration is supported by a number of robustness checks, including alternative estimation windows, bull and bear market states, and alternative thresholds that define price events.

Neural networks vs. splines: advances in numerical extruder design

In this paper, we present a novel approach to geometry parameterization that we apply to the design of mixing elements for single-screw extruders. The approach uses neural networks of a specific architecture to automatically learn an appropriate parameterization. This stands in contrast to the so far common user-defined parameterizations. Geometry parameterization is crucial in enabling efficient shape optimization as it allows for optimizing complex shapes using only a few design variables. Recent approaches often utilize computer-aided design (CAD) data in conjunction with spline-based methods where the spline’s control points serve as design variables. Consequently, these approaches rely on the design variables specified by the human designer. This approach results in a significant amount of manual tuning to define a suitable parameterization. In addition, despite this effort, many times the optimization space is often limited to shapes in close proximity to the initial shape. In particular, topological changes are usually not feasible. In this work, we propose a method that circumvents this dilemma by providing low-dimensional, yet flexible shape parametrization using a neural network, which is independent of any computational mesh or analysis methods. Using the neural network for the geometry parameterization extends state-of-the-art methods in that the resulting design space is not restricted to user-prescribed modifications of certain basis shapes. Instead, within the same optimization space, we can interpolate between and explore seemingly unrelated designs. To show the performance of this new approach, we integrate the developed shape parameterization into our numerical design framework for dynamic mixing elements in plastics’ extrusion. Finally, we challenge the novel method in a competitive setting against current free-form deformation-based approaches and demonstrate the method’s performance even at this early stage.

Notch2 deficiency generates functionally impaired cDCs and macrophages that correlates with intestinal dysbiosis and low-grade inflammation

Abstract Myeloid cell types including conventional dendritic cells (cDCs) and macrophages are key responders to innate stimuli at epithelial barriers. They are equipped with innate receptors to sense danger signals and pathogens, becoming the first line of immune defense and thereby maintaining homeostasis. The expression of selected transcription factors was shown to be essential for the development of these myeloid subsets including Batf3, Notch2, Irf4, and Irf8 among others. We performed single-cell RNA expression analysis across eight different conditional KO lines and identified multiple defects across each line that compromised the development of unique subsets and also altered expression profiles on the remaining subsets. Within CD11c expressing cells, Notch2 deficiency in particular, seems to impair not only type 2 dendritic cells (cDC2) but also macrophage subsets across several tissues. Mice defective for Notch2 were shown to be susceptible to C. rodentium infection. We observed that the lack of Notch2 was accompanied by intestinal dysbiosis, which produced low-grade inflammation. The altered microbiome could be transferred to WT mice by co-housing, which suggests that the lack of either subset enabled the growth of an opportunistic microorganism that could prevail in competitive settings. Among the dysregulated innate pathways, we identified one that appears to correlate with this dysbiosis, and its deletion was sufficient to reproduce the phenotype in preliminary experiments. Collectively, we hypothesize that Notch2 deficiency alters the functional properties of the cDCs and intestinal macrophages ultimately leading to intestinal dysbiosis and a pre-pathologic inflammatory condition. Supported by NIH intramural funding

Monetary Policy, Market Power, and SMEs

Monetary policy aims to affect corporate borrowing by influencing the marginal costs of firms, but its potency can be conditioned by the degree of market competition. We first identify conditions under which changes in marginal costs have different effects on credit constraints and output under different competitive environments, in a simple Cournot competition setting. We then exploit a monetary policy easing shock in the euro area to examine whether policy pass-through is conditioned by market structure. We show that small firms within less concentrated sectors experienced a larger reduction in credit constraints than similar firms in more concentrated sectors.

Targeted Product Design

We propose an intuitive representation of product design in which firms locate inside a circle and consumers in its outer circumference. Designs trade off horizontal and vertical transport costs. Our setting encompasses all linear demand rotations. Firms with lower quality or higher marginal costs choose niche designs that cater to specific consumers at the expense of alienating the rest. Firms choose intermediate designs or more polarized ones, instead, depending on the convexity of the vertical transport cost. We examine such design choices in monopoly, duopoly, and monopolistic competition settings. (JEL D21, D24, D42, D43)

A New Greedy Algorithm for the Curriculum-based Course Timetabling Problem

This study describes a novel greedy algorithm for optimizing the well-known Curriculum-Based Course Timetabling (CB-CTT) problem. Greedy algorithms are a good alternative to brute-force and evolutionary algorithms, which take a long time to execute in order to find the best solution. Rather than employing a single heuristic, as many greedy algorithms do, we define and apply 120 new heuristics to the same problem instance. To assign courses to available rooms, our proposed greedy algorithm employs the Largest-First, Smallest-First, Best-Fit, Average-weight first, and Highest Unavailable course-first heuristics. Extensive experiments are carried out on 21 problem instances from the benchmark set of the Second International Timetabling Competition (ITC-2007). For 18 problems with significantly reduced soft-constraint values, the proposed greedy algorithm can report zero hard constraint violations (feasible solutions). The proposed algorithm outperforms state-of-the-art greedy heuristics in terms of performance.