Rachel Chen
Associate Professor of Management
Research Expertise: Operations and supply chain management, service operations, dynamic pricing
Associate Professor Rachel Chen is an expert in operations research and supply chain management. Her work has been published in leading journals, including IIE Transactions, Management Science, Marketing Science, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Operations Research Letters, and Production and Operations Management.
Chen has presented her research widely in the U.S. and internationally, most recently at the 4th International Annual Overseas Chinese Scholars Association in Management Science and Engineering (OCSAMSE) Conference (Tianjin, China); Shanghai University of Finance and Economics; Shanghai JiaoTong University; the Production and Operations Management Society (POMS) Conference; Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University; the Manufacturing and Service Operations Management Society (MSOM) Conference (Haifa, Israel); the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science (INFORMS) Conference; the Michael H. Rothkopf Memorial Conference, Smeal College of Business, Penn State University; and many more. She is an associate editor of Decision Science Journal and IIE Transactions and serves on the editorial reviewer board of Production and Operations Management. She is a former associate editor of the Decision Science Journal.
Chen grew up in central China and moved to Shanghai to attend Tongji University and pursue a bachelor’s degree in computer science. Three years later, she obtained her master’s in management information systems from Fudan University. She received her M.S. from Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management in 2002 and her Ph.D. in operations management a year later. She taught for three years at the management school at UC Riverside before joining the faculty at the UC Davis Graduate School of Management.
Room 3208
Selling Mechanisms & Savvy Consumers
Lessons from the Travel Industry
Associate Professor of Management Rachel Chen studies operations and supply chain management, service operations, and dynamic pricing. In this blog, she teases out key takeaways from her most recent research on travel industry selling mechanisms.
282 Supply Chain Management
Matching supply with demand is a primary challenge for a firm: excess supply is too costly, inadequate supply irritates customers. Matching supply to demand is easiest when a firm has a flexible supply process, but flexibility is generally expensive. In this course we will learn(1) how to assess the appropriate level of supply flexibility for a given industry and (2) explore strategies for economically increasing a firm’s supply flexibility. Lastly we will study coordination and incentives across multiple firms in a supply chain.
The Benefit of Information Asymmetry: When to Sell to Informed Customers?
Decision Support Systems, 2012
Buyers are often uncertain about product valuations before they commit to purchase. In such situations, firms have an opportunity to influence the accuracy with which buyers can estimate their valuations. When buyers are uncertain about the product’s fit with their personal preferences, firms can help resolve this uncertainty by offering product previews, sampling, trials or return guarantees.
Optimal Multiple-breakpoint Quantity Discount Schedules for Customers with Heterogeneous Demands: All-unit or Incremental?
IIE Transactions, 2012
The supplier’s problem of designing a quantity discount schedule is much more complicated when she faces customers who vary in size. This article by Associate Professor Rachel Chen and co-author Lawrence W. Robinson from Cornell University considers both all-unit and incremental discount schedules with multiple breakpoints that maximize the supplier’s net savings.
Give Air Passengers an “Out” during Delays
Marketing Science, 2012
Instead of holding customers captive in an idled plane on a tarmac during unforeseen delays, airlines should give passengers the choice to leave or stay—and compensate them either way.
UC Davis Researchers: Give Airline Passengers Options
A study conducted by UC Davis researchers concludes airlines should give passengers options if flights are delayed on the tarmac. In addition to enhancing convenience, researchers said offering passengers the option to deplane and reboard or cancel or change tickets could stave off costly government regulation and increase customer loyalty, ultimately improving airline profits.
Click Here to View the Video
Airlines Can Improve Bottom Line by Compensating Captive Passengers
(Davis, CA) — Instead of holding customers captive on a tarmac during unforeseen delays, airlines should give passengers the choice to leave or stay — and compensate them appropriately.
Rachel Chen Awards
206 Decision Making and Management Science
Considers management science for decision makers. Topics include an introduction to modeling and decision analysis, an introduction to optimization and linear programming, modeling and solving linear programming problems in a spread sheet, sensitivity analysis and the simplex method, networks, integer linear programming, project management and decision analysis.
Estimating the Implied Value of the Customer’s Waiting Time
Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 2011
Almost all research in appointment scheduling has focused on the trade-off between customer waiting times and server idle times. In this paper, Associate Professor Rachel Chen and co-author Lawrence W. Robinson of Cornell University present an observation-based method for estimating the relative cost of the customer waiting time, which is a critical parameter for finding the optimal appointment schedule.
Not All Retailers Are Sold on Group Buying
Production & Operations Management, 2011
To group, or not to group: That’s the question for retailers considering the strategy of cooperative buying. Despite lower wholesale prices, retailers may not always benefit from pooling their purchasing power, especially when they are competing with each other, according to Assistant Professor Rachel Chen.
Stick It Out or Walk Out: Customers as Captive Sardines
Marketing Science, 2009
High demand for a service means more revenue and more profits for the service provider. However, when peak demand is unpredictable and it occurs in a confined space (e.g., restaurants, resorts, trains, and airplanes), the service quality tends to decline. Customers are likely to have a bad experience because of longer wait times, overcrowded spaces and inattentive employees. That result: lost revenue because of customer dissatisfaction and defection. Whether the customer chooses to stick it out or walk out, future profits are in jeopardy.