Showing papers by "Jan A. Van Mieghem published in 2000"

Price and Service Discrimination in Queuing Systems: Incentive Compatibility of Gcµ Scheduling

Abstract: This article studies the optimal prices and service quality grades that a queuing system--the "firm"--provides to heterogeneous, utility-maximizing customers who measure quality by their experienced delay distributions. Results are threefold: First, delay costcurves are introduced that allow for a flexible description of a customer's quality sensitivity. Second, a comprehensiveexecutable approach is proposed that analytically specifies scheduling, delay distributions and prices for arbitrary delay sensitivity curves. The tractability of this approach derives from porting heavy-traffic Brownian results into the economic analysis. The generalizedcµ (G cµ) scheduling rule that emerges is dynamic so that, in general, service grades need not correspond to a static priority ranking. A benchmarking example investigates the value of differentiated service. Third, the notions ofgrade andrate incentive compatibility (IC) are introduced to study this system under asymmetric information and are established for G cµ scheduling when service times are homogeneous and customers atomistic. Grade IC induces correct grade choice resulting in perfect service discrimination; rate IC additionally induces centralized-optimal rates. Dynamic G cµ scheduling exhibits negative feedback that, together with time-dependent pricing, can also yield rate incentive compatibility with heterogeneous service times. Finally,multiplan pricing, which offers all customers amenu with a choice of multiple rate plans, is analyzed.

Which e-business is right for your supply chain?

Abstract: The internet is revolutionizing the way companies conduct business. Or is it? A survey of companies with an online presence shows wide disparities in performance. Although Dell has used the Internet to boost revenues and earnings successfully, Amazon lost $585 million on revenues of $1.6 billion in 1999. We argue that the value of the Internet for a company strongly depends on the company’s industry and on the strategy it pursues. The big winners will likely be those that fully exploit the revenue enhancements and cost-reduction opportunities offered by the Internet and optimally integrate e-business with existing channels. Toward this end, we propose a simple framework that managers can use to select the best e-business model to enhance their supply chain’s performance.

Coordination in Turnout Games

Abstract: We present a stochastic model of coordination in turnout games. In each period a randomly selected voter receives information about current play through noisy polls and then, based on this information, forms expectations about the current conÞguration of play and chooses a best response. We prove the existence of a unique limiting distribution for the process and show that even in large electorates substantial expected turnout is possible if voting factions are similar in size. A key requirement for substantial turnout is that polls never provide precise feedback on the current state of the electorate. The effect of noise, however, is non-monotonic: no noise or too much noise results in vanishing turnout, while moderate noise may result in substantial turnout. The model’s predictions are also consistent with the usual empirical regularities about turnout. We then derive continuum approximation results for large electorates using a partial differential formulation and apply the results to the case of perfectly informative polls. We show that under (perturbed) best response voters are able to spontaneously coordinate their actions on a single state.