Incorporating Sales and Arrivals Information in Demand Estimation


Book Description

We propose a demand estimation method that allows for a large number of zero sale observations, rich unobserved heterogeneity, and endogenous prices. We do so by modeling small market sizes through Poisson arrivals. Each of these arriving consumers solves a standard discrete choice problem. We present a Bayesian IV estimation approach that addresses sampling error in product shares and scales well to rich data environments. The data requirements are traditional market-level data as well as a measure of market sizes or consumer arrivals. After presenting simulation studies, we demonstrate the method in an empirical application of air travel demand.




Incorporating Search and Sales Information in Demand Estimation


Book Description

We propose an approach to modeling and estimating discrete choice demand that allows for a large number of zero sale observations, rich unobserved heterogeneity, and endogenous prices. We do so by modeling small market sizes through Poisson arrivals. Each of these arriving consumers then solves a standard discrete choice problem. We present a Bayesian IV estimation approach that addresses sampling error in product shares and scales well to rich data environments. The data requirements are traditional market-level data and measures of consumer search intensity. After presenting simulation studies, we consider an empirical application of air travel demand where product-level sales are sparse. We find considerable variation in demand over time. Periods of peak demand feature both larger market sizes and consumers with higher willingness to pay. This amplifies cyclicality. However, observed frequent price and capacity adjustments offset some of this compounding effect.




Sales Forecasting Management


Book Description

Incorporating 25 years of sales forecasting management research with more than 400 companies, Sales Forecasting Management, Second Edition is the first text to truly integrate the theory and practice of sales forecasting management. This research includes the personal experiences of John T. Mentzer and Mark A. Moon in advising companies how to improve their sales forecasting management practices. Their program of research includes two major surveys of companies′ sales forecasting practices, a two-year, in-depth study of sales forecasting management practices of 20 major companies, and an ongoing study of how to apply the findings from the two-year study to conducting sales forecasting audits of additional companies. The book provides comprehensive coverage of the techniques and applications of sales forecasting analysis, combined with a managerial focus to give managers and users of the sales forecasting function a clear understanding of the forecasting needs of all business functions. New to This Edition: The author′s well-regarded Multicaster software system demo, previously available on cassette, has been updated and is now available for download from the authors′ Web site New insights on the critical area of qualitative forecasting are presented The results of additional surveys done since the publication of the first edition have been added The discussion of the four dimensions of forecasting management has been significantly enhanced Significant reorganization and updating has been done to strengthen and improve the material for the second edition. Sales Forecasting Management is an ideal text for graduate courses in sales forecasting management. Practitioners in marketing, sales, finance/accounting, production/purchasing, and logistics will also find this easy-to-understand volume essential.




Demand Estimation with Infrequent Purchases and Small Market Sizes


Book Description

We propose a demand estimation method that allows for a large number of zero sale observations, rich unobserved heterogeneity, and endogenous prices. We do so by modeling small market sizes through Poisson arrivals. Each of these arriving consumers solves a standard discrete choice problem. We present a Bayesian IV estimation approach that addresses sampling error in product shares and scales well to rich data environments. The data requirements are traditional market-level data as well as a measure of market sizes or consumer arrivals. After presenting simulation studies, we demonstrate the method in an empirical application of air travel demand.







Choice-set Demand in Revenue Management: Unconstraining, Forecasting and Optimization


Book Description

Focus on Profit! Maximize your revenue and profit by understanding and considering your customers’ buying behavior. How price sensitive are your customers? What are their preferences? How strong are the competitor influences or cannibalization effects in your own product portfolio? These questions must be answered analytically, in order to obtain a quantitative understanding of the customers’ choice process and hence a clear picture of the demand in the market. We propose the notion of choice-sets as our model for the customers’ preferences and buying decisions. The unconstraining is the related process which extracts demand information with choice behavior from product sales data. Once, we obtained the information of current and past demand data, the immediate next step is the demand forecasting. Finally, with an accurate estimate of the future demand, we continue with the optimization process, to derive optimal sales controls and pricing actions which maximize the overall revenue or profit.




Big Data Driven Supply Chain Management


Book Description

Master a complete, five-step roadmap for leveraging Big Data and analytics to gain unprecedented competitive advantage from your supply chain. Using Big Data, pioneers such as Amazon, UPS, and Wal-Mart are gaining unprecedented mastery over their supply chains. They are achieving greater visibility into inventory levels, order fulfillment rates, material and product delivery… using predictive data analytics to match supply with demand; leveraging new planning strengths to optimize their sales channel strategies; optimizing supply chain strategy and competitive priorities; even launching powerful new ventures. Despite these opportunities, many supply chain operations are gaining limited or no value from Big Data. In Big Data Driven Supply Chain Management, Nada Sanders presents a systematic five-step framework for using Big Data in supply chains. You'll learn best practices for segmenting and analyzing customers, defining competitive priorities for each segment, aligning functions behind strategy, dissolving organizational boundaries to sense demand and make better decisions, and choose the right metrics to support all of this. Using these techniques, you can overcome the widespread obstacles to making the most of Big Data in your supply chain — and earn big profits from the data you're already generating. For all executives, managers, and analysts interested in using Big Data technologies to improve supply chain performance.




Demand Estimation with Text and Image Data


Book Description

We propose a demand estimation method that allows researchers to estimate substitution patterns from unstructured image and text data. We first employ a series of machine learning models to measure product similarity from products' images and textual descriptions. We then estimate a nested logit model with product-pair specific nesting parameters that depend on the image and text similarities between products. Our framework does not require collecting product attributes for each category and can capture product similarity along dimensions that are hard to account for with observed attributes. We apply our method to a dataset describing the behavior of Amazon shoppers across several categories and show that incorporating texts and images in demand estimation helps us recover a flexible cross-price elasticity matrix.




Bayesian Non- and Semi-parametric Methods and Applications


Book Description

This book reviews and develops Bayesian non-parametric and semi-parametric methods for applications in microeconometrics and quantitative marketing. Most econometric models used in microeconomics and marketing applications involve arbitrary distributional assumptions. As more data becomes available, a natural desire to provide methods that relax these assumptions arises. Peter Rossi advocates a Bayesian approach in which specific distributional assumptions are replaced with more flexible distributions based on mixtures of normals. The Bayesian approach can use either a large but fixed number of normal components in the mixture or an infinite number bounded only by the sample size. By using flexible distributional approximations instead of fixed parametric models, the Bayesian approach can reap the advantages of an efficient method that models all of the structure in the data while retaining desirable smoothing properties. Non-Bayesian non-parametric methods often require additional ad hoc rules to avoid "overfitting," in which resulting density approximates are nonsmooth. With proper priors, the Bayesian approach largely avoids overfitting, while retaining flexibility. This book provides methods for assessing informative priors that require only simple data normalizations. The book also applies the mixture of the normals approximation method to a number of important models in microeconometrics and marketing, including the non-parametric and semi-parametric regression models, instrumental variables problems, and models of heterogeneity. In addition, the author has written a free online software package in R, "bayesm," which implements all of the non-parametric models discussed in the book.




Econometric Models For Industrial Organization


Book Description

Economic Models for Industrial Organization focuses on the specification and estimation of econometric models for research in industrial organization. In recent decades, empirical work in industrial organization has moved towards dynamic and equilibrium models, involving econometric methods which have features distinct from those used in other areas of applied economics. These lecture notes, aimed for a first or second-year PhD course, motivate and explain these econometric methods, starting from simple models and building to models with the complexity observed in typical research papers. The covered topics include discrete-choice demand analysis, models of dynamic behavior and dynamic games, multiple equilibria in entry games and partial identification, and auction models.