News Releases

CATONSVILLE, MD, January 28, 2015 – A proper choice of business model plays a critical role in electric vehicle industry where many consumers are subject to range and resale anxieties. In particular, a combination of owning or leasing electric batteries and improving charging technology can reassure such skeptics and help increase the electric vehicle adoption, according to a new study in the Articles in Advance section of Manufacturing and Service Operations Management (M&SOM), a publication of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS).

CATONSVILLE, MD, January 5, 2015 – Retailers selling home appliances and electronics goods typically make 15-20 percent profit from these products but realize more than 200 percent profit from selling extended warranties for them. A new study that appears in the January issue of Marketing Science, a publication of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), finds that even though selling warranties through independent firms will lower extended warranty prices, the consumers may actually be worse off.

CATONSVILLE, MD, December 18, 2014 – Five trends will dominate the analytics world in 2015, according to the president of the Analytics Section of The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS^®), the largest professional society in the world for professionals in the fields of analytics. 

CATONSVILLE, MD, December 10, 2014 –Ads can communicate their main message in as little as a tenth of a second, helped by color, according to a new study published in Marketing Science, a publication of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS).

CATONSVILLE, MD, November 20, 2014 – In many firms sales people spend as much time negotiating internally for lower prices as they do interacting with customers.  A new study appearing in the November issue of Marketing Science, a publication of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) finds that firms should allow their sales people to “waste” energy on internal negotiations. In fact, it says, firms should make the process wasteful on purpose.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, November 11, 2014–According to a new INFORMS^®  survey of 230 business, government and academic representatives released today, the concept of “analytics maturity” is important or very important to their businesses (65 percent).  Yet, 82 percent of those same respondents admitted they do not have a plan, model, or any other mechanism in place for measuring the efficacy or maturity of their analytics best practices over time.  

SAN FRANCISCO, CA , November 11, 2014– The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS^®) – the largest professional society in the world for professionals in the fields of analytics, operations research (O.R.) and management science – today announced the official launch of a unique new Analytics Maturity Model that is designed to help organizations of all sizes scrutinize the way they use analytics across the business and determine how to improve their best practices over time. Whether an organization is in it’s initial stages of using analytics to improve business processes, or is at a more advanced level, the INFORMS Analytics Maturity Model approach helps assess strengths and weaknesses in three important areas of analytics: the organization itself, its analytics capabilities and its data and infrastructure.

CATONSVILLE, MD, October 15, 2014 – Coordinating product placement with advertising in the same television program can reduce audience loss over commercial breaks by 10%, according to a new study in the Articles in Advance section of Marketing Science, a journal of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS).

CATONSVILLE, MD, October 14, 2014 – The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS^®) today announced that Yale School of Management Professor Edward H. Kaplan, whose pioneering work in public health and homeland security has won him numerous INFORMS awards, was elected INFORMS president in an election that concluded on September 30. Prof. Kaplan becomes INFORMS President Elect on January 1, 2015 and starts his term as President on January 1, 2016.

CATONSVILLE, MD – October 9, 2014— INFORMS 2015 Treasurer and Professor at the University of Illinois, Sheldon H. Jacobson has taken a public stance to challenge the way airports screen for Ebola, recommending much more aggressive measures than are currently being employed worldwide.  As a longstanding expert in the field of airport security and the design of aviation security systems, Jacobson explains how his research can be applied to stem the spread of Ebola, which has become a greater threat to the U.S. and other countries over the last few weeks. Jacobson lays out his ideas in a recent opinion piece published in The Washington Post, which include airport quarantines and blood tests to prevent the virus from spreading further in the U.S. and elsewhere.