Consumer-Driven Demand and Operations Management Models

The consumer demand functions that drive traditional retail sales are the well-defined functions of price and product attributes (e.g., quality, style trends, etc.). However, these new sophisticated selling techniques examples are mixed sales channels, portals, group buying, and auctions, each of which is enabled by information technologies, the Internet, or both are changing and expanding consumer-driven demand in many ways. The underlying pattern of demand created by these evolving mechanisms will be a marked departure from traditional factors driving consumer demand. To analyze and understand rational and strategic consumer demand, the editors have divided the book into five discrete sections that first consider rational consumer behavior and the endogenous decision making mechanisms behind it. They then present sections on organizational strategies, product strategies, operational strategies, and, finally, pricing strategies for managing rational/strategic consumer behavior. Together, this handbook provides the state-of-the-art OM models that will help the reader to understand and effectively respond to increasingly rational purchasing behavior. This important book presents chapters by top scholars in supply chain management, revenue management, and e-commerce, all of which are grounded in information technologies and consumer demand research. Going beyond the demand functions that drive traditional retail sales, contributors look at such new selling techniques as mixed sales channels, portals, group buying, and auctions all enabled by information technologies, the Internet, or both and show how they ve created a new rational and strategic consumer demand. To analyze and understand this phenomenon, the editors have divided the book into five discrete sections that first consider rational consumer behavior and the endogenous decision making mechanisms behind it, and then present sections on organizational, product, operational, and pricing strategies for managing rational/strategic consumer behavior, ultimately providing the state-of-the-art OM models that will help readers understand and respond to increasingly rational purchasing behavior.