Author: fbaadm

Date: 17 December 2025, Wednesday Time: 10.30 – 11.30 Place: MA-330 "Modeling and Analysis of On-demand Service Systems " by Ke Sun McGill University Abstract  On-demand services, ranging from ride-hailing to mobile ordering, rely on real-time matching between customers and service providers. These systems increasingly allow customers to engage remotely before arriving at the service facility, creating new operational challenges around congestion, information, and incentives.In this talk, we focus on the order-ahead setting in quick-service restaurants, where remote customers place orders before traveling and their orders begin advancing in the preparation queue. Although order-ahead is widely believed to reduce delay and increase throughput, we show that adopting the order-ahead technology can sometimes make the system unintentionally yield lower throughput than an onsite-only system, even when the provider optimally chooses whether to share queue-length…

Date: 12 December 2025, Friday Time: 13.30 – 14.30 Place: MA-330 "Contracting Telemedicine: A game-theoretic consideration for NHS Advice & Guidance" by Feryal Erhun Cambridge Judge Business School Abstract  The UK's National Health Service (NHS) relies on general practitioners (GPs) as the first point of contact for patients for initial assessment and treatment. However, this gatekeeping in the referral process may be susceptible to diagnostic and referral errors, causing both over- and under-referrals. These inefficiencies, compounded by long outpatient waiting lists, strain traditional care models. To address such inefficiencies, the NHS introduced Advice & Guidance (A&G), a telemedicine service allowing GPs to consult hospital specialists electronically before making referral decisions. This optional pre-referral step aims to improve referral appropriateness and reduce unnecessary hospital visits. We investigate optimal incentive mechanisms to…

Date: 5 December 2025, Friday Time: 13.30 – 14.30 Place: MA-330 " Distrust Spillovers: Exploring the Role of the Socio-Cultural Context" by S. Arzu Wasti Sabancı University Abstract  Despite its importance, trust violation has remained relatively understudied in organizational research (Ferrin & Gillespie, 2010; Lewicki & Brinsfield, 2017; Schilke et al., 2023). This presentation focuses on trust violation in the context of coworker relationships. Specifically, it explores whether trust violations lead to distrust spillovers in the form of higher generalized distrust and whether this is moderated by relational mobility, a socio-ecological construct defined as the opportunity to form new relationships and the freedom to leave undesired relationships or groups in a given social context (Yuki, 2007). In Study 1, critical incidents of trust violation collected from working adults in two…

Date: 03 December 2025, Wednesday Time: 10.30 – 11.30 Place: MA-330 " Switching Gradient: Learning to Compete with Price Match Guarantee " by Sichen Guo Shanghai University Abstract  Price Match Guarantee (PMG) has become a widespread strategy among retailers to attract and retain customers by promising to match lower prices. However, how sellers should dynamically set prices under PMG, especially without full knowledge of price competition remains unclear. We model an online price competition in a duopoly market with asymmetric PMG adoption. Customers request a refund when the price difference exceeds their hassle threshold, thereby distorting both sellers' revenue functions. Each seller observes only their own realized demand and must learn to optimize on the fly without knowing the demand model or the other's information. The setting poses unique challenges,…

Date: 28 November 2025, Friday Time: 13.30 – 14.30 "Consumers Are Less Satisfied When Service Providers Use Passive Voice” by Todd Pezzuti Universidad Adolfo Ibanez Abstract  Service providers strive to satisfy customers, yet many determinants of satisfaction lie outside their control. One factor they can control is language—specifically, the grammatical voice they use when communicating with customers. Across two field studies and six experiments, we demonstrate that consumers are more satisfied when service providers use active rather than passive voice (e.g., "I will check your order right away" vs. "Your order will be checked right away"). This effect emerges because the active voice conveys greater responsibility-taking and uses more typical, expected language, both of which enhance perceived service quality. However, the advantage of active voice disappears when agents cannot or…

Date: 26 November 2025, Wednesday Time: 10.30 – 11.30 Place: MA-330 "Relative Performance Evaluation and Contagion in Financial Reporting Quality" by Çelim Yıldızhan University of Nevada – Koç University Abstract  We examine how relative performance evaluation (RPE) contracts shape financial reporting behavior by inducing strategic interactions between firms. Using mandated disclosures of actual peer groups in executive compensation contracts, we identify significant contagion in financial reporting quality: firms increase earnings management when their RPE-designated peers do the same. This effect is strongest when target and peer firms experience similar performance shocks and share incentives, consistent with strategic complementarity. In contrast, contagion weakens or reverses when performance diverges or manipulation costs differ substantially consistent with strategic substitution. While RPE is often viewed as a tool to improve contracting efficiency by filtering…

Date: 20 November 2025, Thursday Time:17.30 – 18.30 Place: MA-330 " Reconceptualizing The Nature of Signals: Moving Beyond Signaling Cost" by Eric Tsang University of Texas at Dallas Abstract  Signaling theory is a well-established theory in organizational research and studies based on the theory have proliferated in recent years. However, the theory is increasingly evolving beyond Spence’s (1973) original focus on costly signals. For example, some studies focus on understanding how costless signals affect organizational outcomes. Despite this recent evolution of signals in some of the emerging signaling literature, there is little conceptual development beyond costly signals, resulting in a mismatch between the theory and its applications. Accordingly, this seminar calls for conceptualizing signaling theory in a way that extends beyond costly signals. It provides a conceptual basis for costless…