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Description
The spread of invasive species may be greatly affected by human responses to prior species spread, but models and estimation methods seldom explicitly consider human responses. I investigate the effects of management responses on estimates of invasive species spread rates. To do this, I create an agent-based simulation model of an insect invasion across a county-level citrus landscape. My model provides an approximation of a complex spatial environment while allowing the "truth" to be known. The modeled environment consists of citrus orchards with insect pests dispersing among them. Insects move across the simulation environment infesting orchards, while orchard managers respond by administering insecticide according to analyst-selected behavior profiles and management responses may depend on prior invasion states. Dispersal data is generated in each simulation and used to calculate spread rate via a set of estimators selected for their predominance in the empirical literature. Spread rate is a mechanistic, emergent phenomenon measured at the population level caused by a suite of latent biological, environmental, and anthropogenic. I test the effectiveness of orchard behavior profiles on invasion suppression and evaluate the robustness of the estimators given orchard responses. I find that allowing growers to use future expectations of spread in management decisions leads to reduced spread rates. Acting in a preventative manner by applying insecticide before insects are actually present, orchards are able to lower spread rates more than by reactive behavior alone. Spread rates are highly sensitive to spatial configuration. Spatial configuration is hardly a random process, consisting of many latent factors often not accounted for in spread rate estimation. Not considering these factors may lead to an omitted variables bias and skew estimation results. The ability of spread rate estimators to predict future spread varies considerably between estimators, and with spatial configuration, invader biological parameters, and orchard behavior profile. The model suggests that understanding the latent factors inherent to dispersal is important for selecting phenomenological models of spread and interpreting estimation results. This indicates a need for caution when evaluating spread. Although standard practice, current empirical estimators may both over- and underestimate spread rate in the simulation.
ContributorsShanafelt, David William (Author) / Fenichel, Eli P (Thesis advisor) / Richards, Timothy (Committee member) / Janssen, Marco (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
This dissertation offers three essays that investigate consumers’ health-related food choices and behaviors from three different, yet complementary, angles. The first essay uses an eye-tracking experiment to examine consumers’ visual attention to the Nutrition Facts Panels for healthy and unhealthy products. In this essay, I focus on how involvement and familiarity affect consumers’ attention toward the Nutrition Facts panel and how these two psychological factors interact with new label format changes in attracting consumers’ attention. In the second essay, I demonstrate using individual-level scanner data that nutritional attributes interact with marketing mix elements to affect consumers’ nutrition intake profiles and their intra-category substitution patterns. My findings suggest that marketing-mix sensitivities are correlated with consumers’ preferences for nutrient attributes in ways that depend on the “healthiness” of the nutrient. For instance, featuring promotes is positively correlated with “healthy” nutritional characteristics such as high-protein, low-fat, or low-carbohydrates, whereas promotion and display are positively correlated with preferences for “unhealthy” characteristics such as high-fat, or high-carbohydrates. I use model simulations to show that some marketing-mix elements are able to induce consumers to purchase items with higher maximum-content levels than others. The fourth chapter shows that dieters are not all the same. I develop and validate a new scale that measures lay theories about abstinence vs. moderation. My findings from a series of experiments indicate that dieters’ recovery from recalled vs. actual indulgences depend on whether they favor abstinence or moderation. However, compensatory coping strategies provide paths for people with both lay theories to recover after an indulgence, in their own ways. The three essays provide insights into individual differences that determine approaches of purchase behaviors, and consumption patterns, and life style that people choose, and these insights have potential policy implications to aid in designing the food-related interventions and policies to improve the healthiness of consumers’ consumption profiles and more general food well-being.
ContributorsXie, Yi (Author) / Richards, Timothy (Thesis advisor) / Mandel, Naomi (Committee member) / Grebitus, Carola (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Social enterprises strive to tackle social problems, improve the lives of the people around them and help create a sustainable environment. Three specific enterprises will be analyzed to illustrate the differences between management styles, mission, financials and overall successes. There are numerous social enterprises in the southwest of the United States of America, some show more success than others, but what separates them? What commonalities do some of these enterprises share that allow them to be more successful than the rest? Is there a common denominator for enterprises to follow that will allow them to have success financially as well as accomplish their goals to better the community around them? Free Arts for Abused Children or Arizona, Seed Spot and Goodmans, we are able to better distinguish what factors allow enterprises to succeed. Due to the nature of social enterprises being able to be qualified as different types of organizations, i.e., company with shareholders, nonprofit organizations, etc. it is difficult to pin point a concrete model social enterprises should follow today. However, a finding that made all three of these social enterprises successful were their governance and ownership structures. Each enterprise consisted of a board that helped the enterprise stay on track with their given mission. Boards are also responsible for making major decisions that can impact the organization as well as being responsible for fundraising and making various financial decisions. After analyzing their structures, it was evident that all three enterprises consisted of strong governance structures. Although enterprises may not be able to follow a distinct model in order to be successful, they are able to place a board in control that aligns with the social enterprises mission and has a variety of knowledge that allows the board to make sound decisions. Keywords: social enterprise, management, governance, success, mission, financials
ContributorsButzbach, Jennifer Lauren (Author) / Shockley, Gordon (Thesis director) / Foroughi-Mobarakeh, Behrang (Committee member) / School of Community Resources and Development (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
While scan-based trading (SBT) is a growing trend in the retail industry, evidence suggests that many SBT initiatives have contributed only to the retailers’ bottom line at the suppliers’ expense. This research attempts to disclose some of the causes of SBT failure as a collaborative inventory management initiative and identify SBT’s integrative potential using both positivistic and normative research methodologies.
In the first chapter, SBT contracts are analyzed through the lens of Agency Theory. By focusing on unique inventory ownership and risks considerations resulting from retailers managing supplier-owned inventory without bearing the cost of inventory shrinkage, the effect of SBT on inventory shrinkage is examined empirically using a data set from a packaged bakery manufacturer. The results show that inventory shrinkage tends to be higher under SBT contracts compared to traditional vendor-managed inventory (VMI) contracts. The study highlights a potential loss in efficiency in food supply chains reflected in higher shrinkage under SBT contracts.
The second chapter aims to identify conditions under which SBT contracts could be mutually beneficial for retailers and suppliers. Using stylized game theoretic models involving a retailer and a supplier of a product with limited shelf life, the study finds that, while inventory shrinkage may be amplified under SBT contracts compared to VMI contracts due to the decreased retailer’s incentive to manage inventory at the store, SBT could help suppliers minimize inventory overage and underage under high demand uncertainty. The integrative potential for SBT contracts, thus, lies in the trade-off between inventory shrinkage and forecasting accuracy.
In the third paper, the role of bargaining power on the performance of SBT contracts is examined. Based on the bargaining literature, it is hypothesized that perceptions of bargaining power can be reshaped in the bargaining process through concession tactics. The results of a negotiation experiment show that, while powerful retailers do tend to have the upper hand in negotiating SBT contracts, weak suppliers could ameliorate or even overcome retailer power by offering services as a concession in a way that the product-service bundle improves the value of their offerings in the eyes of the retailers.
In the first chapter, SBT contracts are analyzed through the lens of Agency Theory. By focusing on unique inventory ownership and risks considerations resulting from retailers managing supplier-owned inventory without bearing the cost of inventory shrinkage, the effect of SBT on inventory shrinkage is examined empirically using a data set from a packaged bakery manufacturer. The results show that inventory shrinkage tends to be higher under SBT contracts compared to traditional vendor-managed inventory (VMI) contracts. The study highlights a potential loss in efficiency in food supply chains reflected in higher shrinkage under SBT contracts.
The second chapter aims to identify conditions under which SBT contracts could be mutually beneficial for retailers and suppliers. Using stylized game theoretic models involving a retailer and a supplier of a product with limited shelf life, the study finds that, while inventory shrinkage may be amplified under SBT contracts compared to VMI contracts due to the decreased retailer’s incentive to manage inventory at the store, SBT could help suppliers minimize inventory overage and underage under high demand uncertainty. The integrative potential for SBT contracts, thus, lies in the trade-off between inventory shrinkage and forecasting accuracy.
In the third paper, the role of bargaining power on the performance of SBT contracts is examined. Based on the bargaining literature, it is hypothesized that perceptions of bargaining power can be reshaped in the bargaining process through concession tactics. The results of a negotiation experiment show that, while powerful retailers do tend to have the upper hand in negotiating SBT contracts, weak suppliers could ameliorate or even overcome retailer power by offering services as a concession in a way that the product-service bundle improves the value of their offerings in the eyes of the retailers.
ContributorsChoi, Min (Author) / Rabinovich, Elliot (Thesis advisor) / Richards, Timothy (Committee member) / Grebitus, Carola (Committee member) / Dooley, Kevin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
Celiac Disease (CD) is now widespread as one in 133 people are currently diagnosed, while there were only one in 150 in 2006. Much of the research concerning CD is still in the early stages, as formal epidemiological studies are relatively recent. CD is aggravated by the consumption of gluten, which is found mainly in wheat, rye, oats, and barley. Not surprisingly, the rising prevalence of CD has created a significant business opportunity for food manufacturers in developing products that are tailored to CD sufferers. While the entire Gluten-Free (GF) industry has been experiencing double digit growth rates, the expansion in available snack foods has outstripped all others. Observation of GF snack food prices suggests that food manufacturers are responding to high retail prices associated with GF foods. However, GF foods are often also advertised with other attributes that generally sell for a premium over conventional foods. Therefore, whether the high retail price for GF snack foods can be attributed specifically to the GF attribute is an empirical question. The objective of this research is to determine whether there is a retail-price premium for GF snack foods and, if there is, to estimate its magnitude. A hedonic pricing model is used to answer this question. Specifically, a hedonic pricing model was applied to a unique dataset of snack food products in order to estimate the marginal value for the GF attribute, while controlling for a number of other important attributes. Results show that the GF attribute is both economically and statistically significant, implying a premium of nearly $1.86 above gluten-containing products. Production costs for smaller manufacturers can be two to three times higher for GF foods relative to non-GF foods, but this still implies an excess premium of over $0.50 (assuming 40% margins). However, high premiums may not last as large retailers are utilizing their influence over suppliers to keep retail margins low. Therefore, the primary implication of the research is that the rapid growth in recent years can easily be explained on economic grounds for large agribusinesses, as this implies a major profit opportunity.
ContributorsSampson, Jed Philip (Author) / Richards, Timothy (Thesis advisor) / Manfredo, Mark (Committee member) / Pofahl, Geoffrey (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2010
Description
This research project dives deep into the current aluminum can shortage in the craft beer industry. More specifically, this paper will explore how aluminum cans became the dominant beer package compared to glass bottles, give a brief comparison of the environmental and taste benefits of aluminum cans and glass bottles, determine what caused the current excess in demand for aluminum cans, and show how this shortage is currently affecting the brewing industry. Due to the unprecedented increase in demand for packaged beer and supply chain issues caused by the coronavirus pandemic, projections indicate that can manufacturers will not be able to meet industry demand for another three to four years. Although it may seem like an easy option for breweries to switch to packaging their beer in glass bottles until aluminum cans become more readily available, many breweries do not have this ability because they do not own a bottling machine. Cans are better for the environment and the taste of the beer than glass bottles, so most breweries bought only a canning machine to package their products. Because of this, however, many small breweries recently have been unable to package their products due to their inability to purchase cans from large can manufacturers. Considering this, this paper will also investigate potential beer packaging substitutes for aluminum and glass that could be implemented both now and in the coming years so breweries can still produce products during the current shortage and any that may occur in the future. However, a shortage caused by a worldwide pandemic, and the policy response that led to an excess in consumer demand that cannot be met by the current supply chain infrastructure, is not unique to the brewing industry. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to understand how supply chain induced shortages created by the coronavirus pandemic can affect an industry and how firms can work creatively to analyze options and overcome these obstacles.
ContributorsEbel, Teegan (Author) / Davis, Stephen (Thesis director) / Richards, Timothy (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Finance (Contributor)
Created2022-05
Description
Platform business models have become pervasive in many aspects of the economy,particularly in the areas experiencing rapid growth such as retailing (e.g., Amazon and
eBay) and last-mile transportation (e.g., Instacart and Amazon Flex). The popularity
of platform business models is, in part, due to the asset-light prospect which allows
businesses to maintain flexibility while scaling up their operations. Yet, this ease of
growth may not necessarily be conducive to viable outcomes. Because scalability in a
platform depends on the intermediary’s role it plays in facilitating matching between
users on each side of the platform, the efficiency of matching could be eroded as growth
increases search frictions and matching costs. This phenomenon is demonstrated in
recent studies on platform growth (e.g. Fradkin, 2017; Lian and Van Ryzin, 2021; Li
and Netessine, 2020). To sustain scalability during growth, platforms must rely on effective platformdesign to mitigate challenges arising in facilitating efficient matching. Market design
differs in its focus between retail and last-mile transportation platforms. In retail
platforms, platform design’s emphasis is on helping consumers navigate through
a variety of product offerings to match their needs while connecting vendors to a
large consumer base (Dinerstein et al., 2018; Bimpikis et al., 2020). Because these
platforms exist to manage two-sided demand, scalability depends on the realization of
indirect network economies where benefits for users to participate on the platforms
are commensurate with the size of users on the other side (Parker and Van Alstyne,
2005; Armstrong, 2006; Rysman, 2009). Thus, platform design plays a critical role in
the realization of indirect network economies on retail platforms. Last-mile transportation platforms manage independent drivers on one side andretailers on the other, both parties holding flexibility in switching between platforms.
High demand for independent drivers along with their flexibility in work participation induces platforms to use subsidies to incentivize retention. This leads to short-term
improvements in retention at the expense of significant increases in platforms’
compensation costs. Acute challenges to driver retention call for effective compensation
strategies to better coordinate labor participation from these drivers (Nikzad, 2017;
Liu et al., 2019; Guda and Subramanian, 2019). In addition to driver turnover,
retailers’ withdrawal can undermine the operating efficiency of last-mile transportation
platforms (Borsenberger et al., 2018). This dissertation studies platforms’ scalability
and operational challenges faced by platforms in the growth.
ContributorsWang, Lina (Author) / Rabinovich, Elliot (Thesis advisor) / Richards, Timothy (Committee member) / Webster, Scott (Committee member) / Guda, Harish (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
The goal of this project is to improve the efficiency of operations for Quincea Social Enterprise. I aim to achieve this goal by interviewing market participants to make recommendations for how Quincea Social Enterprise can best utilize resources to deliver vegetables, fruits and herbs to their key institutional customers (schools, churches, hospitals, group homes and corporate cafeterias). This thesis views Quincea through the lens of the Social Enterprise Business Model and compares its organization to serve underemployed groups including veterans and adults with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (IDD Adults) 1. Throughout my research, I use supply chain theory and network structure to inform supply chain strategy, optimize logistics, and integrate the supply chain organization, processes and technology. My insights are grounded in the supply chain literature, and a comparison with other non-profit operations. This thesis identifies the resources, capabilities, and partnerships needed for a successful social enterprise. The key findings include: a) Quincea’s unique business model exhibits promising potential for cost-effectively creations of jobs for adults with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities; b) an important strength is the depth of its public and private sector strategic partnerships; c) another important organizational advantage is its emphasis on operational efficiencies and being price competitive, rather than having its social mission drive sales d) its efforts to document its strategies and operating plans, along with securing many partnerships with national corporations, should facilitate program geographic expansion; e) the emphasis on social impact metrics should make it easier to measure program effectiveness and to attract additional strategic partners; and f) the economic self-sustaining business model exhibits promising potential to expand operations, while having reduced dependency on government, foundation and individual donor subsidies to scale operations.
ContributorsStephens, Natalie (Author) / Richards, Timothy (Thesis director) / Hall, Jonathan (Committee member) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
As one of the root causes of chronic hunger, it is well-established that food insecurity adversely affects health and economic outcomes of those afflicted (Carmichael et al. 2007; Seligman et al. 2009; Huang, Matta Oshima, and Kim, 2010; Pan et al. 2012; Martinez et al. 2018). More than eleven percent of Americans, uncertain about where their next meal will come from, experienced some degree of food insecurity in 2018 (Coleman-Jensen, 2019). Programs like SNAP and WIC have not only proven to be effective in providing food for households, but they can serve as an example for other countries that struggle to help citizens meet their dietary needs (Gundersen, 2019). non-government entities like food banks and food pantries have played an increasingly important role in addressing food insecurity. While there is a perception that food banks and pantries are only emergency resources, evidence suggests that many individuals regularly rely on private hunger relief organizations for food (Paynter et al., 2011; Kicinski, 2012). Food banks play a crucially important role in distributing food and are uniquely positioned to alleviate hunger. However, these private organizations have been shown, compared to public food assistance programs, to be less effective at specifically addressing the issue of food insecurity (Bazerghi et al., 2016; Loopstra & Tarasuk, 2012; Ratcliffe & McKernan, 2010; Metallinos-Katsaras et al., 2010). Existing research has largely focused on the characteristics of food pantry clients generally, without exploring the socio-economic and experiential variation within this group (Towers, 2009; Kicinski, 2012; Gundersen el al., 2017). This study fills a gap in the literature by examining the characteristics of food pantry users, and how they compare to those not using food pantries but still face food insecurity, using nationally representative survey data. Additionally, I explore whether food pantries and public food assistance programs might be “bundled” together. I focus on gradients of economic vulnerability by examining households who participate in public food assistance programs, are SNAP-eligible but not participating, as well as households who bundle both private and public food assistance to meet their food needs. With this thesis, I hope to contribute this research by providing behavioral insights into understanding the role that food banks play in mitigating challenges associated with food insecurity among US households.
ContributorsLongo, John David (Author) / Chenarides, Lauren (Thesis director) / Richards, Timothy (Committee member) / Economics Program in CLAS (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
Four Peaks Brewing Company, a business case study written by Megan Hahn, is a case study thematic to supply chain management. Framed as supplement learning material, this case study gives students the chance to understand real-life business scenarios. This case enables its readers to analyze business issues from a variety of perspectives and apply critical thinking and problem solving skills providing invaluable understanding of different supply chain management concepts and strategies.
This case tells the tale of Four Peaks Brewing Co, an Arizona brewery recently acquired by Anheuser-Busch, facing an aluminum shortage and an influx of demand brought on by shifting consumer habits during the COVID-19 pandemic. This case provides an opportunity to explore the important role of sourcing and procurement in a low-margin, high demand, complex beverage production system. Differing from supply chain cases about technology or car manufacturing firms, the food/beverage industry introduces new levels of supply chain risk and complexity. Requiring the use of supply chain strategy, understanding supply constraints in multi-echelon supply systems, and inventory concepts, Four Peaks Brewing Co. allows students to apply conceptual material learned in class to an interesting and relevant real-life example.
Central to this case is Denise’s decision on which can supplier to choose for the new product, the Sun Day seltzer. With differing lead times, costs, and time pressures, students are provided the opportunity to evaluate the important tradeoffs supply chain professionals face.
ContributorsHahn, Megan (Author) / Richards, Timothy (Thesis director) / Meyer, Christopher (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Morrison School of Agribusiness (Contributor) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor)
Created2022-05