Insights

In today’s prevailing “fingertip economy,” on-demand meal delivery platforms have become the “second canteen” in urban life. However, as the market competition intensifies, users can switch platforms with just a flick of their fingers. How to retain users with “delivery efficiency”? Faster Deliveries and Smarter Order Assignments for an On-Demand Meal Delivery Platform, a research paper co-authored by Ming Liu from the School of Management and Economics (SME), The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen (CUHK-Shenzhen); Mao Wenzheng from Tongji University; Rong Ying and Zheng Huan, both from Shanghai Jiao Tong University; and Christopher S. Tang from the University of California, Los Angeles, based on massive data from a leading meal delivery platform in China, reveals for the first time the profound relationship between delivery efficiency and customer repurchasing behaviors. It shows that users’ “punishment” against late delivery is far beyond imagination, and the key to algorithm optimization does not lie in blind pursuit of “speed.” Days ago, the study was published online in the Journal of Operations Management, an authoritative international journal in management.

About the Author

Ming Liu

Associate Professor, SME, CUHK-Shenzhen

Research

Empirical Operations Management, Economics of Operations Management

Co-authors

Mao Wenzheng

Tongji University

Rong Ying

Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Zheng Huan

Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Christopher S. Tang

University of California, Los Angeles