2013 M&SOM Best Paper Award

Each year, all papers published in the journal during the past three years (2010–2012) are eligible for the award, and judging is done through a two-stage process. First, M&SOM Editor Steve Graves and a group of M&SOM associate editors select a small set of finalists from the nominations received. Second, an ad hoc committee, organized by the immediate past president of the MSOM Society, selects the best paper from among the finalists.

This year the ad hoc committee consisted of Laurens Debo, Ramandeep Randhawa, Terry Taylor, and MSOM past-president Stephen Gilbert. They selected the winning paper from a set of six outstanding finalists.

The winning paper develops statistical methods for testing the ability of a statistical model to make a good decision rather than simply fit the underlying data. This is an appealing intuitive concept, but it has been overlooked by traditional tests of goodness of fit. As evidenced by the following reviewer comment, the paper makes a nice theoretical contribution, and also has important practical implications:

The paper develops a nonparametric performance-based test based on a nice theoretical analysis. It also applies this method to real auto-loan data in a customized pricing application, a specific revenue management context, and finds support for the proposed approach. The paper thus contributes both to OM theory and practice.

Another reviewer makes the following comment about the potential of the paper to have a lasting impact:

I find the question in this paper to be both novel and natural. The approach is interesting, and I think that it can spark interesting work in OM, where a significant part of the recent literature focuses on model estimation, learning, and their effect on decision making. Typically, one makes almost arbitrary parametric assumptions on the model structure. Are they good assumptions? What is their impact on decision making? The ideas presented above are relevant in such problems, and the techniques could prove useful to identify what type of parametric models are suitable. This is interesting theoretically, and also relevant in practice, since the underlying question is really a practical one.

On behalf of the Award Committee, the M&SOM journal, and the MSOM Society, I would like to congratulate the authors of the winning paper:

2013 M&SOM Best Paper Award

Besbes O, Phillips R, Zeevi A (2010) Testing the validity of a demand model: An operations perspective. Manufacturing Service Oper. Management 12(1):162–183.

I would also like to recognize the other outstanding papers that were finalists this year, all of which are in their final year of eligibility:

2013 M&SOM Best Paper Award Finalists

Hasija S, Pinker E, Shumsky RA (2010) Work expands to fill the time available: Capacity estimation and staffing under Parkinson’s law. Manufacturing Service Oper. Management 12(1):1–18.

Cho S-H (2010) The optimal composition of influenza vaccines subject to random production yields. Manufacturing Service Oper. Management 12(2):256–277.

Caro F, Martínez-de-Albéniz V (2010) The impact of quick response in inventory-based competition. Manufacturing Service Oper. Management 12(3):409–429.

Vulcano G, van Ryzin G, Chaar W (2010) Choice-based revenue management: An empirical study of estimation and optimization. Manufacturing Service Oper. Management 12(3):371–392.

Wang Y, Gilland W, Tomlin B (2010) Mitigating supply risk: Dual sourcing or process improvement? Manufacturing Service Oper. Management 12(3):489–510.