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A new algorithm designed by a group of Lehigh University engineering students and their professors has simplified the process of assigning inmates to correctional facilities. The new system not only is expected to save the prison system nearly $3 million a year but also has landed the Lehigh team in contention for the Daniel H. Wagner Prize for Excellence in Operations Research, awarded each year by INFORMS, the leading international association for analytics and operations research professionals. 

The scenario is familiar. Your hospitality brand is under attack online from all sides it seems.  Some reviews are thoughtful but most are not, and you’re worried that your brand will suffer, and your business. According to some new research, the one thing you can do that may make all the difference is to take the time to respond.  According to a forthcoming study in the INFORMS journal Marketing Science, a leading academic marketing journal, management responses can not only lead to higher ratings for businesses, but also more substantive reviews even if they aren’t all positive. 

INFORMS member Zur Shapira leverages data from his study in the INFORMS journal Organization Science to weigh in on the politics of hurricane evacuations.

Manufacturer contributions to China’s poisonous rivers and life-threatening smog are well documented in the decade since the government started publicizing polluting events and safety violations. But whether environmental ignominy at Chinese businesses is a problem for the thousands of overseas companies that buy their products has been less clear. New research in the INFORMS journal Manufacturing and Service Operations Management by Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s Chris K.Y. Lo, UCLA Anderson’s Christopher S. Tang and Hong Kong Polytechnic’s Yi Zhou, Andy C. L. Yeung and Di Fan finds that Chinese manufacturers that violated environmental regulations drag down the share prices of their overseas customers even more than their own market values.