YU, Man
Source: https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/faculty/yu-man Parent: https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/biztalks
YU, Man
Professor, Academic Director of MSc in Global Operations
Department of Information Systems, Business Statistics & Operations Management
Recent Activities
YANG, Luyi
Too Good To Go: Combating Food Waste with Surprise Clearance
This paper studies surprise clearance as an innovative business model to increase store profit and reduce food waste. A store holding surprise clearance sells “surprise bags” composed of surplus food that would otherwise go to waste. At the time of ordering, consumers are uncertain about the quantity of food items included in a surprise bag. We model ... Read More
[ Global Trade, Supply Chains and Business Sustainability ]
Too Good to Go: Combating Food Waste with Surprise Clearance
Too Good to Go (TGTG) is a food waste app that aims to connect consumers to stores and restaurants with surplus food that would otherwise be sent to landfills. Launched in Denmark in 2015, TGTG has expanded to 19 countries, amassing over 100 million users worldwide. A key ingenuity of TGTG is that it allows stores to sell ``surprise bags" composed of ... Read More
[ BizTalks ]
ZHANG, Chong
CHEN, Jian
Insuring the Cost of Online Sales Returns: Benefits to Buyer, Seller, and Insurer
In e-commerce, consumers’ return of unwanted goods is a growing logistical problem for retailers. Research by HKUST’s Man Yu and collaborators shows how third-party insurance for the cost of product return promises to make the process more sustainable as the volume of online sales continues to increase. Products bought online are returned more often than ... Read More
[ BizStudies ]
Signaling Quality with Return Insurance
Return insurance is an innovative return policy recently emerging on major Chinese shopping platforms, such as Taobao.com and JD.com. It is underwritten by an insurer and can be purchased by either a retailer or a consumer. Under such insurance, the insurer partially compensates consumers for their hassle costs associated with product return. We analyze the ... Read More
[ BizTalks ]
YI, Zelong
A Counterintuitive Effect of Counterfeiting
Counterfeiting costs companies as much as US$600 billion a year, and the situation is rapidly becoming worse. How does counterfeiting affect global supply chains, and how can it best be combated? These were the questions explored by Man Yu and Ki Ling Cheung of HKUST and their colleague—with rather surprising results. They found that the threat of ... Read More
[ BizStudies ]
HU, Peng
SHUM, Stephen
“Bang bang”: an optimal sales strategy for perishable goods
Shopkeepers and store managers should base decisions on whether to discount or destroy leftover perishable goods on consumer behavior, an innovative new study has found. While marking down prices can provide welcome revenue for foodstuffs that would otherwise go to waste, this can also result in “intertemporal cannibalization”—a reduction in full-price sales ... Read More
[ BizStudies ]
KAPUSCINSKI, Roman
DEBO, Laurens
The Impact of Product Reviews on Consumers and Firms
Before deciding to purchase a product, a consumer can access information via consumer reviews by customers who have already purchased the product. Consumer reviews are a form of customer feedback, but this information can also benefit firms. However, consumer-generated quality information (consumer reviews) relies on the volume of consumers who share their ... Read More
[ BizStudies ]
KAPUSCINSKI, Roman
AHN, Hyun-Soo
The Broadway Show vs The Disneyland Meal: Different Scenarios for Selling in Advance
Selling a product before a consumer will actually use it can benefit both sellers and consumers. It helps sellers to plan ahead and reduce demand variability. And for consumers, they can ensure they will get the product, possibly at a lower price. Selling in advance also gives sellers an opportunity to exploit consumer uncertainties about their valuations ... Read More
[ BizStudies ]
KAPUSCINSKI, Roman
AHN, Hyun-Soo
How Advance Sales Can Signal Product Quality
French wine and video games may seem to have little in common, but they are both subject to advance sales – that is, being offered for sale to customers before the quality of the product is widely known. This can benefit the customer by giving them guaranteed availability at a discounted price, and it is good for the seller, too, because they can increase ... Read More
[ BizStudies ]