About

Welcome to my professional profile! I am an Assistant Professor of Operations Management at the Fisher College of Business, The Ohio State University (OSU). I earned my Ph.D. in Operations Management from the University of Texas at Austin. My research focuses on the design and analysis of operations and supply chain systems, with a particular interest in the role of information technology in improving operational performance.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Business
• Economics
• Computer Science
• Marketing
• Finance
• Public relations
• Operations management
• Advertising
• Environmental economics
• Law

Selected publications

• Environmental Performance, Strategic Partner Support, and Performance Backsliding in Supply Chains

  Journal of Business Logistics · 2025-09-04

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  ABSTRACT Supply chains are clearly instrumental to firm‐level environmental performance. Yet in research examining these effects, distinctions between arms‐length relationships (largely transactional buyers and suppliers) and other influencers, such as strategic research partners (i.e., entities who jointly maintain legal commitments to shared knowledge and resources, with common service or product development interests) are often ambiguous. In our work, we aim to investigate this distinction. Combining arguments that reflect institutional theory, stakeholder theory, and expectancy disconfirmation theory, we anticipate positive associations between the environmental performance of strategic partners and the future performance of related focal firms. We posit these associations to be more easily observable than those between a firm and its arms‐length relations. We further suggest that, due to the level of integration and codependency with strategic research partners, losses in environmental performance (backsliding) will be associated with dampened links between strategic partner performance and subsequent firm performance. By weaving together evidence from thousands of firm‐year observations, merging representative fields from FactSet, CSRHub, and Compustat sources, we find support for these associations. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Role of Information, Rewards, and Convenience in Take-Back Programs for Clothing

  Manufacturing & Service Operations Management · 2025-10-23

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Problem definition: Fashion retailers are increasingly implementing take-back programs to reduce textile waste and prevent used clothing from being landfilled. To increase participation, retailers must decide how much and what type of information to provide to consumers, how to collect the used clothing, and how much of a financial reward to offer. However, the effectiveness of different types of information, convenience, and reward levels on consumer participation is not well understood, and participation rates in take-back programs remain low. Methodology/results: We examine the effect of different information levels (i.e., none, generic, and different types of specific information) and convenience levels on the reward required by consumers to return their used clothing through four experiments involving over 5,200 subjects. Across all experiments, we find that providing generic information that collected items will be diverted from the landfill significantly decreases the reward required by consumers to return their used clothing. However, we find that providing information about a specific circular economy strategy does not necessarily help. When the collected clothing will be recycled (either as open-loop or as closed-loop), consumers’ required reward is not significantly different from when the clothing will just be diverted from the landfill. Moreover, we find that when collected clothing will be resold, consumers’ required reward is significantly higher. We show that the negative response to resale is due to the consumers’ aversion to the retailer explicitly profiting from the returned clothing. We also find that making the return process more convenient lowers the reward required by consumers. Managerial implications: Our results offer several managerial insights. We find that information can be an effective lever to increase consumers’ participation in take-back programs, but only if used judiciously. If a retailer intends to resell collected clothing, it may consider offering a higher reward or making the return process more convenient. Even though a more convenient return process may be more costly for the retailer, those additional costs may be offset by the lower reward required by the consumers. Funding: A. Sáez de Tejada Cuenca’s research was partially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation [ref. SFJC1900I042215XV0]. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2023.0561 .

  PublisherDOI

• How Do Curbside Feedback Tactics Impact Households’ Recycling Performance? Evidence From Community Programs

  Production and Operations Management · 2024 · 9 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Business
  • Operations management
  • Environmental economics

  Much of the responsibility for advancing the circular economy has been directed towards firms, yet many reuse opportunities can only be achieved through environmentally compliant, household-level recycling behaviors. In response, policymakers and recycling organizations are using a range of feedback mechanisms to promote household recycling that meets local quality standards. However, the effectiveness of these tactics remains unclear, and stakeholders are divided on the appropriateness of their use. In this research, we examine the role of two popular feedback mechanisms—information-only and information-plus-penalty—in correcting households’ curbside recycling behaviors. With information-only feedback, households are provided with best practices for recycling and are not penalized for their errors. With information-plus-penalty feedback, households also receive information, but temporarily forfeit their recycling services. While previous studies have explored the use of information and penalties as feedback mechanisms to guide behavioral changes, there is mixed evidence of their effectiveness, particularly in the recycling context. We address this research gap by analyzing unique data collected from a 2019 curbside auditing effort that occurred in a large, Mid-Western city. Our analysis leverages econometric methods, and recycling feedback and performance data from 25,359 audits across 11,899 households and 15 recycling routes. We find that information-only feedback mechanisms, while preferred by some stakeholders, are not associated with improvements in recycling quality (measured using household contamination rates). By contrast, our results indicate that punitive mechanisms (i.e., information-plus-penalty) involving cart refusals are associated with significant reductions in contamination rates: that is, households that receive punitive feedback reduce their contamination rate severity by 59%, and are 75% less likely to commit a violation in the future. More importantly, we do not find evidence that punitive feedback mechanisms generally discourage households’ participation in recycling programs (measured using future set out rates). Our study informs sustainable operations management literature by investigating how curbside feedback mechanisms, with differing levels of severity, influence critical dimensions of households’ recycling performance (i.e., recycling quality and participation). We also inform policymakers on how curbside feedback mechanisms can be more effectively leveraged to enhance opportunities for material reuse.

  PublisherDOI

• Does Less Result in More? The Role of Information and Rewards in Take-Back Programs for Clothing

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2023 · 7 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Business
  • Marketing
  PublisherDOI

• Enhancing the Reach of Socially Missioned Nonprofits: Insights from a TOC-LP Application

  INFORMS Journal on Applied Analytics · 2023 · 1 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Political Science
  • Business

  Socially missioned nonprofit organizations exist to connect at-risk populations to critical healthcare, food, and financial services. However, these organizations face several internal (resource infrastructure, management capability) and external (multiple stakeholders, client demographics and capabilities) constraints within which they must work to attain their goal of helping people in need. The extant academic literature offers a variety of solutions to such allocation problems for use in for-profit organizations. Yet noted differences in the operational systems of for-profit and nonprofit operations limit practitioners’ capabilities to readily leverage these tools. Thus, in this paper, we extend the applicability of classic resource allocation principles to the context of nonprofit operations’ outreach efforts. We describe a detailed case study analysis at one nonprofit organization (SC Thrive) wherein we implemented the theory of constraints–linear programming framework to help maximize the effectiveness of outreach initiatives carried out by the organization. Based on the results from our stepwise, nonlinear yield model, SC Thrive is now capable of doubling the annual number of applications submitted by potential beneficiaries for assistance services. History: This paper was refereed.

  PublisherDOI

• Using transactions data to improve consumer returns forecasting

  Journal of Operations Management · 2019-12-01 · 47 citations

  article

  Abstract Although generous return policies have been shown to have marketing benefits, such as a higher willingness to pay and a higher purchase frequency, counterbalancing these benefits is an increased volume of consumer returns, which presents significant operational challenges for both retailers and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Since accurate return forecasts are inputs into strategic and tactic decision support tools for operations managers, advancements in better forecast accuracy can yield significant savings from the returns management practice. We propose a forecasting approach that incorporates transaction‐level data, such as purchase and return timestamps, and predicts future return quantities using a two‐step “predict‐aggregate” process. To enhance the generalizability of our framework, we test it on two distinct datasets provided by a bricks‐and‐mortar electronics retailer and an online jewelry retailer. We find that our approach demonstrates significant forecasting error reduction, in the range of 10–20%, over benchmark models constructed from common industry practices and the existing literature. As our approach leverages the same data inputs as existing models, it can be easily adapted by practitioners. We also consider a number of extensions to generalize our approach into contexts such as restricted return time windows, new product returns, and inflated same‐day returns. Last, we discuss broad implications of return forecast accuracy improvements in the areas such as inventory management, staffing level, reverse logistics, and return recovery decisions.

  PublisherDOI

• Using Transactions Data to Improve Consumer Returns Forecasting

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2019-01-01 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• How do Consumers Choose Between Multiple Product Generations and Conditions? An Empirical Study of iPad Sales on eBay

  2018-01-09

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Many companies are reluctant to enter the remanufacturing market because of concern with cannibalization of new sales, competition from current remanufacturers, and the willingness of consumers to purchase remanufactured products. What is often missing, however, is an in-depth understanding of how consumers make complex purchase decisions involving remanufactured items among numerous other options. This paper examines how consumers evaluate remanufactured products when there are multiple conditions and generations of the item available, and evaluates the risk that remanufactured products pose to new product sales. We leverage transaction data of iPad sales from eBay and structural estimation techniques developed in the industrial organization literature to conduct our analysis. We find that product generation, condition, and seller attributes are all highly influential in shaping consumers' purchasing decisions and that the relationship between new and remanufactured products is much more nuanced and context-specific than previously shown. Counter to industry intuition, we find that remanufactured products pose the same amount of threat to new-condition goods as do used goods. Through these and other findings, we provide insights on how CLSC participants and those exploring entry into the remanufacturing business may achieve more profitable remanufacturing strategies.

• How Do Consumers Choose between Multiple Product Generations and Conditions? An Empirical Study of iPad Sales on eBay

  Production and Operations Management · 2018-04-27 · 41 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Many companies are reluctant to enter the remanufacturing market because of concern with cannibalization of new sales, competition from current remanufacturers, and the willingness of consumers to purchase remanufactured products. What is often missing, however, is an in‐depth understanding of how consumers make complex purchase decisions involving remanufactured items among numerous other options. This study examines how consumers evaluate remanufactured products when there are multiple conditions and generations of the item available, and evaluates the risk that remanufactured products pose to new product sales. We leverage transaction data of iPad sales from eBay and structural estimation techniques developed in the industrial organization literature to conduct our analysis. We find that product generation, condition, and seller attributes are all highly influential in shaping consumers’ purchasing decisions and that the relationship between new and remanufactured products is much more nuanced and context‐specific than previously shown. Counter to industry intuition, we find that remanufactured products pose the same amount of threat to new‐condition goods as do used goods. Through these and other findings, we provide insights on how CLSC participants and those exploring entry into the remanufacturing business may achieve more profitable remanufacturing strategies.

  PublisherDOI

• Sustainable, Operations-enabled Solutions for Reducing Product Waste

  Scholar Commons (University of South Carolina) · 2017-01-01 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  The traditional linear production system where products are created, used, and then disposed of is no longer a viable business model for many firms. A combination of growing populations, increases in consumerism, and urbanization are placing unprecedented pressures on our world’s natural resources. In addition to these motivations, strong demands from consumers and governments are requiring companies to reevaluate and prioritize their environmental strategies. Fortunately, there are several opportunities for firms to engage in more sustainable business practices throughout their entire supply chain, particularly at the end of their products’ useful lives. However, moving from a linear model to a more closed-loop production system where products are recovered and reused brings a host of operational challenges, some of which remain unaddressed by the current literature. In this dissertation, we examine a series of common, operations-related issues firms and government agencies face when pursuing sustainable waste management practices. In the first essay, we evaluate noted barriers operations managers face when entering the market for refurbished products. In the second study, we analyze the effectiveness of environmental legislation and consumer education efforts in promoting product reuse and recycling. In the last essay, we develop a robust consumer returns forecasting model to aid operations managers in their inventory, reverse logistics, and return recovery decisions. In addition to academic contributions, the results from these studies offer practitioners guidance needed to facilitate the transition to more circular production models and increase the number of sustainable, operations-enabled opportunities for reducing product waste.

  Publisher

Frequent coauthors

• Michael R. Galbreth

  University of Tennessee at Knoxville

  17 shared

• Mark Ferguson

  11 shared

• Guangzhi Shang

  6 shared

• Sriram Venkataraman

  University of South Carolina

  6 shared

• Sanjay L. Ahire

  University of South Carolina

  2 shared

• Anna Sáez de Tejada Cuenca

  EAE Business School

  1 shared

• Aravind Chandrasekaran

  1 shared

• Vishal Agrawal

  1 shared