Optimization of materials supply and inbound logistic operations has become increasingly important as firms have continued to pursue outsourcing options. Further, the proliferation of products and advances in information technology have greatly impacted retailers’ marketing strategies in the past decade. In this dissertation, we address how to optimally develop integrated sourcing and delivery planning, and how to optimally offer vertically differentiated products and bundles. In the first essay, we address a combined sourcing and delivery planning optimization problem, which is motivated by a practical problem facing materials and supply planners for construction projects in a leading corporation. We develop a decision support model and an effective solution approach for integrated sourcing and delivery planning for bulk materials. This approach, implemented and currently in use at the company to support material delivery planning for track maintenance projects, has yielded significant savings of millions of dollars annually. In the second essay, we study the problem of a retailer managing a category of vertically differentiated products. We consider two settings: the exogenous prices case and the endogenous prices case. In the former case, the selling prices are exogenously determined and the retailer’s only decision is to determine the set of products to offer. In the latter case, the retailer also determines the selling prices. We develop efficient methods to identify the optimal solutions for both cases and provide valuable insights and guidelines for practitioners. In the third essay, we study how to choose the optimal bundling strategy for a retailer offering vertically differentiated information goods. We characterize conditions under which pure bundling and mixed bundling strategies are optimal respectively. We provide efficient methods to identify which individual components to offer, whether or not to offer a bundle containing all the components and how to price the offered individual components and the bundle in order to maximize the retailer’s profit. / text

This research describes an analysis, using event-study methodology, of the reaction of the stock returns of a sample, drawn from the one-hundred largest bank holding companies, to certain actions of regulatory agencies. The first part of the analysis examines the reaction of the bank stocks to the closure of the Bank of New England, using cross-sectional variables not previously examined by other investigators. The second event considers the invalidation of interest-rate swap contracts by the British Law Lords, the highest court in Britain. The third case is an examination of the effects of actions taken to enforce the Community Reinvestment Act. All three events have significant abnormal returns in at least one sub-sample and event window. The results of the cross-sectional analysis and the lack of response to later events are consistent with market efficiency in the semi-strong form. The results are also consistent with the hypothesis that regulatory policies that emphasize consistency and banking system safety are desirable.

by Kan Yat Cho Joe. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 82). / abstracts --- p.ii / table of contents --- p.iii / LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS --- p.v / LIST OF TABLES --- p.vi / ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS --- p.viii / Chapter / Chapter 1 --- introduction --- p.1 / Objective of Financial Statements --- p.1 / Users of Financial Statements --- p.2 / Chapter 2 --- METHODOLOGY OF STUDY --- p.5 / Selection Criteria --- p.5 / Analysis Approach --- p.7 / Results of Search for Target Company --- p.8 / Chapter 3 --- COMPANY BACKGROUND --- p.10 / Company History --- p.10 / Production Process --- p.12 / Company Structure --- p.14 / Operational Structure --- p.15 / Principal Products --- p.16 / Market Geography --- p.18 / Chapter 4 --- MARCO-ANALYSIS / The PRC Economy --- p.20 / The Steel Industry --- p.23 / Chapter 5 --- MICHAEL PORTER'S FIVE FORCES --- p.26 / Present Competition --- p.26 / Threat of New Entrants --- p.27 / Substitute Products --- p.28 / Bargaining Power of Suppliers --- p.28 / Bargaining Power of Customers --- p.29 / Chapter 6 --- RISK FACTORS / Risk Associated with the PRC --- p.30 / Risk Associated with the Steel Industry --- p.31 / Risk Associated with Magang --- p.32 / Chapter 7 --- FINANCIAL ANALYSIS / Evaluation of Accounting Policies --- p.34 / Adjustments to Financial Statements --- p.35 / Financial Ratio Analysis --- p.44 / Chapter 8 --- VALUATION / Calculation of Discount Rate --- p.58 / Asset and Liability Based Value --- p.61 / Price Earning Multiple --- p.64 / Dividend Growth Model --- p.66 / Discount Cashflow Model --- p.68 / Summary --- p.68 / Chapter 9 --- LIMITATION TO STUDY --- p.70 / Lack of Comprehensive and Accurate Data --- p.70 / Lack of Peer Data --- p.71 / Limited Listing Period --- p.71 / APPENDIX --- p.73 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.82