Seminar

Abstract: Supply chain management has entered the big data era. In this paper, we theoretically explore the value of big data in newsvendor supply chain systems. To be specific, we first analytically study the newsvendor model with perfect information, and derive the respective expected profit with perfect information (EPPI) and the expected value of perfect information (EVPI). Then, by constructing a Bayesian information updating model, we investigate the effect of using big-data for information updating to reduce demand uncertainty. We establish the relationship between the expected value of big data (EVBD) and EVPI. We then explore the whole supply chain system, and define a novel concept called “perfect coordination”. We prove that to achieve perfect coordination, the blockchain supported information sharing (BSIS) scheme is critically useful. We further discover that to enhance supply chain performance, the use of big data information may outperform the use of incentive alignment contracts. We extend the analysis to study the case when the newsvendor is risk averse, and prove that the respective EVPI is even higher than that of the case when the newsvendor is risk neutral. Finally, to highlight the importance of blockchain technologies in newsvendor supply chains with big data considerations, we analytically examine the applications of blockchain technologies for product information disclosure as well as smart contracting. We believe that this paper provides important insights which not only contribute to the operations management literature, but also advance our knowledge regarding the role played by big data and blockchain technologies in stochastic supply chain systems.

Short bio: Tsan-Ming Choi (Jason) is currently a full professor at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU). He is a systems engineer, management scientist and operations researcher. Over the past decade, he has actively participated in a variety of research projects on supply chain management and applied optimization. He has authored/edited 16 research handbooks, guest-edited over 30 special issues for many well-established journals, and published over 160 papers in Web of Science listed citation journals (including over 40 papers in IEEE Transactions). Since 1^st October 2018, he has started his service as the Co-Editor-in-Chief of Transportation Research – Part E. He is now serving as a senior editor of Production and Operations Management, and Decision Support Systems, an associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics - Systems, and Information Sciences, and an editorial board member of INFORMS Service Science, and International Journal of Production Research, etc. In the past, he was an executive committee member/officer of professional organizations such as IEEE-SMC(HK) and POMS(HK). He received The President's Award for Excellent Achievements of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 2008, and the Best Associate Editor Award of IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society in two consecutive years (2013 and 2014). In 2016, he and his collaborators received a Natural Science Award of Scientific Research Excellence (Science and Technology) in Colleges and Universities, by Ministry of Education of China, for his research contribution to game-theoretic analyses in operations management. In 2017, he was selected to receive the Distinguished Alumni Award of the Faculty of Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, during the Faculty's 25th Anniversary.