| Rapid changes in the business world are reshaping companies in many ways. This dissertation has two parts, each addressing an emerging issue. One is related to Business-Process Outsourcing (BPO) and the other is the production planning for short-life-cycle products. These two problems have gained wide popularity because of the strategic roles they play in helping companies maintain a competitive edge, or even survive, in their businesses.; The first part of the dissertation is concerned with BPO in a competitive environment. In a typical BPO system, there are three self-interested parties: a client, an agent, and a set of service providers. The agent dispatches service requests from the client to the service providers; it also sets the service price and service compensation. We formulate two game-theoretic models to study this problem. The first is a static model in which all players make their decisions simultaneously. The second is a sequential model in which the agent moves first, the service providers next, and the client last. For both models, we characterize the Nash equilibria. We also compare the two models numerically. The comparison offers useful managerial insights.; In the second part of the dissertation, we consider a common problem faced by manufacturing firms who produce short-life-cycle products. For such products, it is important for manufacturers to balance demand with the production rate and capacity within the life span of the product. We develop an optimization model that could help manufacturers make better decisions. We show that capacity expansions should occur only when inventory drops to zero and the demand rate is increasing. We also study several model variants that allow imports, backlogging, or preproduction. Our results extend previous work by allowing a nonlinear demand function. |
