TOSCA Seminar Series - When Should We Offer a Discount? Randomized Discount Timing with Strategic Customers.

As part of the Centre for Technology, Operations, and Supply Chain Analysis (TOSCA) seminar series in ATOD,

We were delighted to host Prof. Fang Liu, Professor of Operations Management at Durham University Business School, for an engaging presentation titled “When Should We Offer a Discount? Randomized Discount Timing with Strategic Customers.”

Fang’s primary research interests, humanitarian operations, mechanism design, and sustainable operations, align closely with TOSCA’s research themes.

In her presentation, she introduced a model involving high- and low-valuation customers who strategically decide when to make purchases. She compared three pricing strategies: single pricing, fixed discount timing, and randomized discount timing. The talk sparked lively discussion, followed by an engaging Q&A session.

During her visit to TOSCA and the ATOD department, she also held one-to-one meetings with several colleagues.