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Robert N. Boute

KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB)

Naamsestraat 69

Leuven, B-3000

Belgium

Vlerick Business School - Operations & Technology Management Center

Belgium

SCHOLARLY PAPERS

36

DOWNLOADS
Rank 4,259

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Top 4,259

in Total Papers Downloads

21,058

TOTAL CITATIONS
Rank 13,934

SSRN RANKINGS

Top 13,934

in Total Papers Citations

193

Scholarly Papers (36)

1.

AI in Logistics and Supply Chain Management

Number of pages: 18 Posted: 13 Jun 2021
Robert N. Boute and Maximiliano Udenio
KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB) and KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB)
Downloads 4,774 (5,008)
Citation 9

Abstract:

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Supply Chain Management, Logistics, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence

2.

Can Deep Reinforcement Learning Improve Inventory Management? Performance on Dual Sourcing, Lost Sales and Multi-Echelon Problems

Manufacturing & Service Operations Management
Number of pages: 35 Posted: 03 Jan 2019 Last Revised: 16 Nov 2021
ESADE Business School, KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB), Northwestern University - Kellogg School of Management and Washington University in St. Louis - John M. Olin Business School
Downloads 4,654 (5,194)
Citation 10

Abstract:

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artificial intelligence, deep reinforcement learning, inventory control, dual sourcing, lost sales, multi-echelon

3.

Supply Chain Management in the AI Era: A Vision Statement from the Operations Management Community

Stanford University Graduate School of Business Research Paper Forthcoming, The Wharton School Research Paper
Number of pages: 35 Posted: 05 Dec 2025 Last Revised: 18 Mar 2026
Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University, Johns Hopkins University - Carey Business School, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Sloan School of Management, Santa Clara University - Leavey School of Business, University of Pennsylvania - The Wharton School, KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB), The Wharton School - Operations, Information and Decisions Department, JD.com Smart Supply Chain Y, University of Pennsylvania - The Wharton School, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Operations Research Center, Students, University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill - Operations Area, ESMT European School of Management and Technology, Tilburg University - Tilburg University School of Economics and Management, ESADE Business School, IBM Research, University of Toronto - Rotman School of Management, Georgia Institute of Technology - H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Texas at Austin - Department of Information, Risk and Operations Management, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Rotman School of Management, Microsoft Research, Microsoft Research, Michigan State University, The Eli Broad College of Business and The Eli Broad Graduate School of Management, Students, University of Pennsylvania - The Wharton School, University of Melbourne - Melbourne Business School, Microsoft Corporation, affiliation not provided to SSRN, JD.com Smart Supply Chain Y, Harvard University - Technology & Operations Management Unit, affiliation not provided to SSRN, The University of Hong Kong - University of Hong Kong, University of Washington, Michael G. Foster School of Business, Students, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - School of Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Duke University - Fuqua School of Business, University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill - Operations Area, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) - Anderson School of Management, Carnegie Mellon University - David A. Tepper School of Business, KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB), Northwestern University - Kellogg School of Management, University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill - Kenan-Flagler Business School and Washington University in St. Louis - John M. Olin Business School
Downloads 2,501 (14,198)

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Supply Chain Management, Operations Management, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Optimization, Resilience, Human–AI Collaboration

Digital Operations: Autonomous Automation and the Smart Execution of Work

Management and Business Review, Vol 1, Issue 1, Winter 2021
Number of pages: 11 Posted: 17 Jun 2019 Last Revised: 10 Apr 2021
Robert N. Boute and Jan A. Van Mieghem
KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB) and Northwestern University - Kellogg School of Management
Downloads 1,777 (23,893)
Citation 1

Abstract:

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digital, automation, autonomous, smart, machine learning, artificial intelligence, operations

Digital Operations: Autonomous Automation and the Smart Execution of Work

Management and Business Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, Winter 2021
Number of pages: 10 Posted: 02 Sep 2021
Robert N. Boute and Jan A. Van Mieghem
KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB) and Northwestern University - Kellogg School of Management
Downloads 156 (477,098)
Citation 2

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5.

Reward Shaping to Improve the Performance of Deep Reinforcement Learning in Perishable Inventory Management

European Journal of Operational Research, volume 301, issue 2, 2022[10.1016/j.ejor.2021.10.045]
Number of pages: 27 Posted: 02 Apr 2021 Last Revised: 08 Nov 2024
Bram J. De Moor, Joren Gijsbrechts and Robert N. Boute
Eindhoven University of Technology (TUE) - Department of Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences, ESADE Business School and KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB)
Downloads 908 (65,042)
Citation 80

Abstract:

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Inventory, Perishable inventory management, Deep reinforcement learning, Reward shaping, Transfer learning

6.

Dual Sourcing and Smoothing Under Non-Stationary Demand Time Series: Re-Shoring with Speedfactories

Management Science
Number of pages: 45 Posted: 17 Mar 2018 Last Revised: 15 Dec 2020
KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB), Centre for Simulation, Analytics, and Modelling, The University of Exeter Business School, ESADE Business School and Northwestern University - Kellogg School of Management
Downloads 679 (95,267)
Citation 6

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Inventory Management, Order Smoothing, Order-Up-To Policy, Auto-Regressive Demand, Integrated Moving Average Demand, Global Outsourcing, Dual Sourcing, Z−transform

7.

Digital Lean Operations: Smart Automation and Artificial Intelligence in Financial Services

Babich V, Birge J, Hilary G (eds) Innovative Technology at the interface of Finance and Operations. Springer Series in Supply Chain Management, Springer Nature, Forthcoming.
Number of pages: 14 Posted: 08 Jan 2021 Last Revised: 10 Mar 2021
Robert N. Boute, Joren Gijsbrechts and Jan A. Van Mieghem
KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB), ESADE Business School and Northwestern University - Kellogg School of Management
Downloads 520 (134,007)
Citation 1

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Digital, Lean, Industry 4.0, autonomous, automation, financial, artificial intelligence

8.

AI in Inventory Management: The Disruptive Era of DRL and Beyond*

Number of pages: 13 Posted: 02 May 2025 Last Revised: 12 Jun 2025
ESADE Business School, KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB), Northwestern University - Kellogg School of Management and Washington University in St. Louis - John M. Olin Business School
Downloads 450 (160,805)
Citation 1

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9.

Forecasting Spare Part Demand with Installed Base Information: A Review

Number of pages: 35 Posted: 25 Jan 2018
Sarah Van der Auweraer, Robert N. Boute and A. A. Syntetos
KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB), KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB) and Cardiff University - Cardiff Business School
Downloads 448 (160,353)
Citation 6

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spare parts, demand forecasting, literature review, maintenance, installed base

10.

Supervised Learning for Integrated Forecasting and Inventory Control

European Journal of Operational Research, 2024 [10.1016/j.ejor.2024.07.004]
Number of pages: 29 Posted: 14 Apr 2023 Last Revised: 15 Jul 2024
KU Leuven - Faculty of Economics and Business, KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB), KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB) and Eindhoven University of Technology (TUE)
Downloads 401 (183,570)
Citation 2

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Inventory, Forecasting, Supervised Learning, Custom Loss Function, Feature Information

11.

Deep Reinforcement Learning for Inventory Control: A Roadmap

European Journal of Operational Research
Number of pages: 28 Posted: 08 Jun 2021 Last Revised: 24 Nov 2021
KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB), ESADE Business School, Eindhoven University of Technology (TUE) and KU Leuven
Downloads 398 (184,665)
Citation 37

Abstract:

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inventory management, machine learning, reinforcement learning, neural networks

12.

Simplifying Tree-based Methods for Retail Sales Forecasting with Explanatory Variables

European Journal of Operational Research
Number of pages: 40 Posted: 23 Sep 2022 Last Revised: 10 Nov 2023
Arnoud P. Wellens, Robert N. Boute and Maximiliano Udenio
KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB), KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB) and KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB)
Downloads 321 (235,151)

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Forecasting, Global forecasting methods, Tree-based methods, Shapley values, Inventory simulation

13.

Industrializing Deep Reinforcement Learning for Operational Spare Parts Inventory Management

European Journal of Operational Research, 2026[10.1016/j.ejor.2026.04.006]
Number of pages: 34 Posted: 04 Nov 2024 Last Revised: 15 Apr 2026
KU Leuven - Faculty of Economics and Business, Eindhoven University of Technology (TUE), Eindhoven University of Technology (TUE) and KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB)
Downloads 297 (259,533)
Citation 1

Abstract:

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Deep Reinforcement Learning, Inventory Management, Service Logistics, Reward Smoothing, Action Space Decomposition, Global Learning

14.

Global Dual Sourcing and Order Smoothing: The Impact of Capacity and Leadtimes

Robert N. Boute, Jan A. Van Mieghem (2015) Global Dual Sourcing and Order Smoothing: The Impact of Capacity and Lead Times. Management Science 61(9):2080-2099. DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2014.1992
Number of pages: 34 Posted: 28 Nov 2012 Last Revised: 07 Oct 2015
Robert N. Boute and Jan A. Van Mieghem
KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB) and Northwestern University - Kellogg School of Management
Downloads 289 (262,373)
Citation 20

Abstract:

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sourcing, inventory, stochastic, smoothing, Lagrange's inversion series

15.

Adaptive Multi-Armed Bandits for Non-Stationary Inventory Control

Number of pages: 31 Posted: 08 Dec 2023
Nele H. Amiri, Maximiliano Udenio and Robert N. Boute
KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB), KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB) and KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB)
Downloads 278 (274,231)

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Reinforcement Learning, Multi-Armed Bandits, inventory control, non-stationary demand

16.

Platform Flexibility Strategies: R&D Investment versus Production Customization Tradeoff

European Journal of Operational Research, Forthcoming
Number of pages: 34 Posted: 27 May 2017 Last Revised: 30 Mar 2018
Catholic University of Lille - IESEG School of Management, KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB) and Northwestern University - Kellogg School of Management
Downloads 201 (378,726)
Citation 2

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Product Development, Platform, Flexibility, Newsvendor Networks, Customization

17.

Optimal Policies for Feature-Based Maintenance Optimization

Number of pages: 50 Posted: 06 May 2025 Last Revised: 24 Oct 2025
Joost F. van der Haar, Collin Drent and Robert N. Boute
KU Leuven - Faculty of Economics and Business, Eindhoven University of Technology (TUE) - Department of Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences and KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB)
Downloads 200 (382,358)

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Maintenance Optimization, Supervised Learning, Cost-Sensitive Learning, Feature Information, Predict-and-Optimize, Statistical Learning Theory

18.

Volume Flexibility at Responsive Suppliers in Reshoring Decisions: Analysis of a Dual Sourcing Inventory Model

Production and Operations Management, volume 34, issue 5, 2025[10.1111/poms.13719]
Number of pages: 30 Posted: 11 Jun 2021 Last Revised: 16 May 2025
ESADE Business School, KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB), Centre for Simulation, Analytics, and Modelling, The University of Exeter Business School and Northwestern University - Kellogg School of Management
Downloads 200 (380,469)
Citation 1

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Dual Sourcing, Flexibility, Reshoring, Optimal Policy, Modified Dual Base-Stock

19.

Coordinating Lead-Time and Safety Stock Decisions in a Two-Echelon Supply Chain with Autocorrelated Consumer Demand

Katholieke Universiteit Department of Decision Sciences and Information Management Working Paper No. 1009
Number of pages: 31 Posted: 05 Jun 2010
KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB), Centre for Simulation, Analytics, and Modelling, The University of Exeter Business School, KU Leuven, Research Center for Operations Management, Faculty of Economics and Business and University of Antwerp
Downloads 198 (384,172)
Citation 2

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Production/Inventory System, Supply Chain Coordination, Lead-Time/Safety Stock Interaction, Operations/Marketing Interface

20.

Optimal Robust Inventory Management with Volume Flexibility: Matching Capacity and Demand with the Lookahead Peak-Shaving Policy

Number of pages: 37 Posted: 11 Dec 2022 Last Revised: 27 Jul 2023
ESADE Business School, Eindhoven University of Technology, KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB) and Northwestern University - Kellogg School of Management
Downloads 169 (444,808)

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Robust Optimization, Inventory, Peak Shaving, Flexibility

21.

The Use of Continuous Action Representations to Scale Deep Reinforcement Learning for Inventory Control

IMA Journal of Management Mathematics, 2024[10.1093/imaman/dpae031]
Number of pages: 18 Posted: 20 Oct 2022 Last Revised: 15 Nov 2024
Nathalie Vanvuchelen, Bram J. De Moor and Robert N. Boute
affiliation not provided to SSRN, Eindhoven University of Technology (TUE) - Department of Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences and KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB)
Downloads 160 (467,092)
Citation 2

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Deep Reinforcement Learning, Inventory Management, Neural Networks

22.

Increased Bullwhip in Retail: A Side Effect of Improving Forecast Accuracy with More Data?

Number of pages: 7 Posted: 10 Jan 2023
Arnoud P. Wellens, Robert N. Boute and Maximiliano Udenio
KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB), KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB) and KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB)
Downloads 136 (537,489)

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Retail Forecasting, Inventory Simulation, Bullwhip effect

23.

Breaking Truck Dominance in Supply Chains: Proactive Freight Consolidation and Modal Split Transport

International Journal of Production Economics, volume 257, 2023[10.1016/j.ijpe.2022.108764]
Number of pages: 27 Posted: 03 May 2022 Last Revised: 08 Nov 2024
Bram J. De Moor, Stefan Creemers and Robert N. Boute
Eindhoven University of Technology (TUE) - Department of Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences, UCLouvain and KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB)
Downloads 126 (572,948)
Citation 1

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Horizontal collaboration, Multi-modal transportation, Joint replenishment, Dual sourcing, Sustainable supply chains

24.

A Data-Driven Component Risk Matrix to Assess Supply Chain Disruption Risk

Number of pages: 33 Posted: 17 Jan 2025
Thomas De Backker, Anouk Vercammen and Robert N. Boute
KU Leuven, Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB), Students, KU Leuven and KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB)
Downloads 122 (588,531)

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Supply Chain Resilience, Disruption Risk, Component Criticality, Risk Matrix

25.

Inventory Management Under Various Maintenance Policies. A Numerical Study in Close Collaboration with an OEM

KU Leuven Faculty of Economics and Business, KBI_1628
Number of pages: 22 Posted: 23 Nov 2016
KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB), Eindhoven University of Technology (TUE), KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB) and KU Leuven, Research Center for Operations Management, Faculty of Economics and Business
Downloads 100 (689,572)
Citation 2

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servitisation, advance demand information, maintenance, condition-based maintenance, spare parts inventory management

26.

Transfer Learning for Hierarchical Forecasting: Reducing Computational Efforts of M5 Winning Methods

International Journal of Forecasting, Forthcoming
Number of pages: 16 Posted: 29 Sep 2022
Arnoud P. Wellens, Maximiliano Udenio and Robert N. Boute
KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB), KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB) and KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB)
Downloads 94 (736,406)

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M5 Accuracy Competition, Computational Requirements, Transfer Learning, LightGBM, Hierarchical Forecasting

27.

Characterizing Order Processes of (s,S) and (r,nQ) Policies

KU Leuven - Faculty of Economics and Business Working Paper No. KBI_1309
Number of pages: 32 Posted: 05 Jun 2013
KU Leuven, KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB), KU Leuven, Research Center for Operations Management, Faculty of Economics and Business and University of Antwerp
Downloads 93 (725,554)
Citation 1

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Inventory policy, Batching, Bullwhip effect, Stochastic processes

28.

Optimizing Dynamic Assemble-to-Order Inventory Systems Using Cost-Sensitive Machine Learning

Number of pages: 24 Posted: 29 Oct 2025
Joost F. van der Haar, Yves R. Sagaert and Robert N. Boute
KU Leuven - Faculty of Economics and Business, VIVES University of Applied Sciences and KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB)
Downloads 87 (759,537)

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Inventory, Forecasting, Assemble-to-Order, Component Commonality, Cost-Sensitive Learning, Predict-and-Optimize

29.

The Use of IoT Sensor Data to Dynamically Assess Maintenance Risk in Service Contracts

European Journal of Operational Research, volume 324, issue 2, 2025[10.1016/j.ejor.2025.01.041]
Number of pages: 30 Posted: 22 Aug 2024 Last Revised: 22 Apr 2025
KU Leuven, KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB) and KU LeuvenUniversity of Amsterdam
Downloads 87 (759,537)
Citation 5

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Maintenance, Service Contracts, Predictive Models, Condition Monitoring, Usage-Based Risk Assessment

Mitigating Financial Risk in Maintenance Contracts for Heterogeneous Machines

Number of pages: 32 Posted: 03 Sep 2025
KU Leuven, Tilburg University - Tilburg University School of Economics and Management, KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB), Eindhoven University of Technology (TUE) - Department of Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences and KU LeuvenUniversity of Amsterdam
Downloads 58 (996,491)

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Preventive Maintenance, Service Contracts, Bayesian Learning, Condition Monitoring Mitigating Financial Risk in Maintenance Contracts

A Transparent, Data-Driven Framework for Warranty Premium Estimation

Number of pages: 27 Posted: 13 Apr 2026
Anouck Vercammen, Robert N. Boute and Brammert Termont
KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB), KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB) and Ghent University
Downloads 27 (1,415,710)

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Warranty pricing, Surrogate modeling, Interpretable prediction models, Service Operations

32.

A Dynamic “Predict, then Optimize” Preventive Maintenance Approach Using Operational Intervention Data

European Journal of Operational Research
Number of pages: 31 Posted: 30 Jan 2022
Heletjé Van Staden, Laurens Deprez and Robert N. Boute
affiliation not provided to SSRN, affiliation not provided to SSRN and KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB)
Downloads 54 (1,020,567)
Citation 1

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maintenance, data-driven decision making, Markov decision process, data pooling

33.

Mitigating the Bullwhip Effect in Demand Forecasting

Number of pages: 23 Posted: 06 Apr 2026
KU Leuven - Faculty of Economics and Business, KU Leuven - Faculty of Economics and Business, KU Leuven and KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB)
Downloads 33 (1,318,317)

Abstract:

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Demand Forecasting, Inventory Management, Custom Loss Function, Global Models, LightGBM

34.

Discount Replenishment Opportunities with Limited Capacity: Optimal Policy and Pricing Dynamics

Number of pages: 41 Posted: 13 Feb 2026 Last Revised: 13 Apr 2026
Eindhoven University of Technology (TUE) - Department of Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences, KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB), UCLouvain and ESADE Business School
Downloads 29 (1,332,057)

Abstract:

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Inventory, Discount Opportunities, Capacity Constraints

35.

Assessing the Value of Dual Sourcing using Causal Inference

Number of pages: 38 Posted: 22 Jan 2026
KU Leuven, Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB), Students, KU Leuven - Faculty of Economics and Business and KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB)
Downloads 26 (1,372,601)

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Dual Sourcing, Supply Chain Resilience, Causal Inference, Stockouts, Production Continuity

36.

Identifying Multi-Level Failure Heterogeneity in Industrial Machine Portfolios

Number of pages: 28 Posted: 04 May 2026
KU Leuven, KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB) and KU LeuvenUniversity of Amsterdam
Downloads 7 (1,561,096)

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Failure prediction, Mixed models, Machine learning, Hierarchical random effects