Decision Science Digest: August 9, 2022

BALTIMORE, MD, August 9, 2022 –

EDITOR’S NOTE: Decision Science Digest is a periodic communique highlighting recent peer-reviewed research published by INFORMS, the largest association for the decision and data sciences, across its 17 journals. This issue highlights four press releases based on the findings of new peer-reviewed articles.

• Are Online Consultation Services the Answer? What it Means for Healthcare Providers (INFORMS journal Information Systems Research)
• Analyzing the Craft Beer Industry: The Future of the Market and Who is Drinking What? (INFORMS journal Marketing Science)
• Too Much Time at the Polls: The Preferences by Voters Slowing Things Down (INFORMS journal Management Science)
• New Research Delivers Recommendations for Successful Email Engagement (INFORMS journal Management Science)

New Research Identifies the Impact of Online Consultation Services on Healthcare Provider Appointments

New research in the INFORMS journal Information Systems Research showcases the benefit of doctors opening online consultation services because it increases the number of offline appointments. The study, “Should Doctors Open Online Consultation Services? An Empirical Investigation of Their Impact on Offline Appointments,” looks at two parts of online healthcare portals: online consultations and healthcare service appointments. The researchers find that the behaviors of the users (including patients and doctors) on these two types of websites are related to each other. The results show that the number of offline appointments for doctors increases after opening an online consultation service. Link to full article.

The Impact of Millennials on the Craft Beer Industry: Who is Drinking What?

Analyzing the beer industry. Millennials and their love for craft beer is hampering the market. New research in the INFORMS journal Marketing Science finds varied beer consumption revenue accounts for 86% of the generational share gap between millennials and baby boomers. The study, “Millennials and the Takeoff of Craft Brands: Preference Formation in the U.S. Beer Industry,” looks at the disruptive effects of locally manufactured craft brands on market structure, which is attributed to the emerging generation of adult millennial consumers. The researchers identify a generational share gap: millennials buy more craft beer than earlier generations. They predict the beer market structure will continue to fragment over the next decade, overturning a nearly century-old structure dominated by a small number of national brands. Link to full article.

Research Identifies the Reason Behind Long Lines at the Polls

Long lines to vote are not a new problem, especially for voters in Florida. New research in the INFORMS journal Management Science looks at why long lines are happening. The results of the paper, “Serving Democracy: Evidence of Voting Resource Disparity in Florida,” include the reasoning may be voters’ political party. A 1% increase in the percentage of voters registered as Democrat in a county increases the number of registered voters per poll worker by 3.5%. This effect results in a 5% increase in voters registered as Democrat and could increase the average wait time to vote from 40 minutes to about 115 minutes. Link to full article.

Making the Most of Email Engagement: The Keys to Success

Email engagement is a double-edged sword. New research in the INFORMS journal Management Science finds it increases both customer retention and service consumption, and may decrease profitability when the increased operating cost to serve retained customers outweighs the benefit of customer retention. The paper, “Does Customer Email Engagement Improve Profitability? Evidence from a Field Experiment in Subscription Service Retailing,” looks at a large U.S. car wash chain that offers tiered subscription services to consumers and employs a radiofrequency identification-based technology to track subscriber service events. The researchers find that a one-month engagement with two emails separated by a half-month interval increased the likelihood of subscriber retention by 7.4% five months after the experiment started and decreased the subscriber churn odds by 26.3% for the entire five-month duration. Meanwhile, that same engagement increased a subscriber’s per-period service consumption by 7.0%. Link to full article.

About INFORMS 

INFORMS advances and promotes the science and technology of decision-making to save lives, save money and solve problems. As the largest association for the decision and data sciences, INFORMS members support organizations and governments at all levels as they work to transform data into information, and information into insights that lead to more efficient, effective, equitable and impactful results. INFORMS’ 10,000+ members are comprised of a diverse and robust international community of practitioners, researchers, educators and students from a variety of fields.  

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Contact:

Ashley Smith

443-757-3578

[email protected]

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