Go Wide or Go Deep? Assortment Strategy and Order Fulfillment in Online Retail

Authors: Sanjith Gopalakrishnan, Moksh Matta, Mona Imanpoor Yourdshahy and Vivek Choudhary

Publication: Manufacturing & Service Operations Management Volume 25, Issue 3, May-June 2023, Pages 846-861

Prof Gopalakrishnan awarded FRQSC New Academics Grant

Congratulations to Sanjith Gopalakrishnan, Assistant Professor in Operations Management, who has been awarded the 2023-2024 FRQSC New Academics Grant (Soutien à la recherche pour la relève professorale):

Delve: AI-griculture, A High-Tech Approach to Decarbonizing Agricultural Food Supply Chains

One of the largest contributors to climate change worldwide, the agricultural food supply chain crosses international borders and reaches across industries and sectors. Reducing its environmental impact requires complex, high-tech solutions like artificial intelligence—and the people to implement them at the right time, in the right places.

Professor Nasiry awarded SSHRC Insight Development Grant

Congratulations to Javad Nasiry, Professor in Operations Management who was awarded a 2022-2023 SSHRC Insight Development Grant

“Analytical Models for Electronics Waste Management”

McGill-led MiXR platform will connect Canada’s food and beverage sector

Thousands of restaurants and retailers across Canada sell food and beverages, and the logistics of getting these products where they need to be are complex. A new platform is using data to make it all more efficient.

SAQ to reduce refrigeration to lower emissions, but other operations emit more

Quebecers who want to buy cold beer and wine may soon need to head to their local dépanneurs. The Societé des alcools du Québec (SAQ) plans to reduce the number of fridges in their stores from 2700 to 918, saying it’s part of their plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. According Desautels assistant professor of operations management Sanjith Gopalakrishnan, this a good first step but there are bigger pieces to consider.

New challenge drives awareness of the environmental impact of clothing

We all need to wear clothing, but the environmental impact of purchasing clothing is significant, and a new initiative asks people to reflect on their own consumption. Participants in the New Clothing Detox Challenge refrain from clothing purchases during the month of March.

Companies must decarbonize supply chains to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and this can create risk for investors

As part of their effort to reduce emissions, large companies like McDonald’s have announced cuts to emissions from their own operations and power supply. These are known as Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions, respectively. But large firms often do less to address emissions generated by the products they sell, which are known as Scope 3 emissions. McDonald’s is planning to install LED lights and power its restaurants with renewable energy.

Maxime Cohen and Saibal Ray named Top Retail Influencers for 2023 

Two faculty members of the Bensadoun School of Retail Management were named to Rethink Retail’s Top Retail Influencers list for 2023.  Professors Maxime Cohen and Saibal Ray were both recognized with this distinction, alongside some of the world’s t

Managing Airfares Under Competition: Insights from a Field Experiment

Authors: Maxime C. Cohen, Alexandre Jacquillat, Juan Camilo Serpa and Michael Benborhoum

Publication: Management Science, Forthcoming

Clothing repairs and thrifting can help reduce the environmental footprint of the clothing you wear

Clothing companies used to offer just a few collections each year. Today, fast fashion companies like H&M or Zara offer dozens. One way they accomplish this is by reducing the quality of their clothing, but this increases the resources needed to make what we wear, and increases their environmental footprint as a result, said Javad Nasiry in an interview with BNN Bloomberg.

Excess inventory encourages steeper discounts in Black Friday sales

2021 was an anti-climactic year for Black Friday sales. Global supply chains had been disrupted, inventory was very low, and demand was very high. So, retailers had little incentive to sell items at discounted prices. 2022 has been a little different, said Prof Maxime Cohen in an interview with CTV News.

Circular economy can help mitigate environmental impact of frenzied Black Friday shopping

Black Friday offers cut-rate deals, but low prices can come with a high environmental cost. If shoppers don’t make choices wisely, their purchases could end up in the landfill.

Constrained optimization of objective functions determined from random forests

Authors: Max Biggs, Rim Hariss and Georgia Perakis

Publication: Production and Operations Management, Forthcoming First published online: September 2022

Abstract:

Professors Cohen, Khern-am-nuai awarded SSHRC Insight Grant

Congratulations to Maxime Cohen, Professor in Retail and Operations Management and Warut Khern-am-nuai, Associate Professor in Information Systems who were awarded a 2022 SSHRC Insight Grant.

“Understanding Fairness in Fair Machine Learning”