Supply Chain and Inventory Management

Supply chain and inventory management research examines how goods, information, and decisions flow across networks of suppliers, manufacturers, retailers, and customers, with a particular focus on keeping those flows synchronized when each party acts in its own interest. A central challenge is that misaligned incentives between channel members—say, a manufacturer and an online retailer operating their own storefront—can cause costly distortions in ordering, pricing, and stocking decisions that ripple through the entire system. Researchers study contracts, information-sharing protocols, and dynamic pricing mechanisms as tools for restoring coordination, asking, for instance, how much a supplier should know about downstream demand and under what terms it is rational for a retailer to share that data honestly. Active frontiers include designing contracts that remain robust under demand uncertainty and understanding how real-time data streams are reshaping the classic tradeoffs between holding inventory and responding flexibly to shifting customer behavior.

Works

62,229

Total citations

1,065,892

Keywords

Supply Chain CoordinationInformation SharingInventory ManagementRevenue ManagementChannel CoordinationDynamic Pricing