Presenter: Jeanette Song

Personal website

Title: Innovator's Edge in Supply Chain Transparency and Food Waste Reduction

Abstract and bio:

New digital technologies allow retailers to track product freshness in real time and, in some cases, disclose that information directly to consumers. In the fresh produce retail industry, these tools can improve inventory decisions, reduce food waste, and influence consumer demand. Yet adoption is costly, and early movers often face higher implementation costs than later adopters. This raises a central question: when does moving first actually pay off? To address this question, we develop a dynamic model of competing retailers facing uncertain supply freshness and heterogeneous consumers. In our setting, transparency creates value both operationally, by improving inventory decisions, and strategically, by reducing consumers’ information frictions. We show that the value of transparency depends not only on the technology itself but also on how retailers deploy it, including whether they use it solely for internal decision-making, disclose it to consumers, or combine it with pricing actions. Our analysis yields new insights into when early adoption is advantageous, how transparency reshapes competition, and how digital adoption affects both profitability and food waste. (Joint work with Bora Keskin and Chenghuai Li.)

Short bio:
Jeannette Song is the R. David Thomas Professor of Business Administration and a Professor of Operations Management at the Fuqua School of Business of Duke University. She studies supply chain management and operations strategy. Her recent research covers supply chain digitization, data-driven operational decision-making, resilient supply chain strategies, and responsible operations. She has published extensively in leading academic journals and has edited the “Research Handbook on Inventory Management” (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2023). Professor Song is an INFORMS Fellow, an MSOM Fellow, and a former President of MSOM; she is also a Department Editor for Management Science.

Host: Jenny Li Hongyan

Organisers: Surabhi Verma and Hartanto Wong