Time:2019.05.13, 14:00-16:00 PM
Location:Room 615, Main Building
KeynoteSpeaker:Dr.Wang Yulan
Abstract:Motivated bythe recent development of“women only”ride-hailing platforms that aimto address the safety concerns raised by female riders and drivers, we examinewhether a platform such as Didi should offer gender-specific services (i.e., a“dedicated”system in which riders are matchedwith drivers of the same gender) instead of the current gender-neutral services(i.e., a“pooling”system inwhich riders are matched with drivers randomly without taking their gender intoconsideration). We make an initial attempt to examine if and when gender-specificservices can enable the platform to address female safety concerns and improveits profitability. We find that gender-specific dedicated systems can be aprofitable way for the ride-hailing platform to address safety concerns raisedby female riders and drivers. We pinpoint that a key obstacle for the platformto move to the dedicated system is the limited female labor size, which reducesthe system’s economies of scale. The“equal policy” underwhich the platform has to impose the same price and wage on both the femalesubsystem and the male subsystem further burdens the platform.
Bio:Dr. Wang Yulan is currently anassociate professor in the Department of the Logistics and Maritime Studies atthe Faculty of Business of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. She receivedher Ph.D. degree in Business Administration from Duke University. She obtainedboth her BS and MS degrees from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Her researchwork has been published in leading academic journals such asManagementScience,Operations Research,Manufacturing & ServiceOperations Management,Production and Operations Management, among others.Her research interests include supply chain management, sustainability operations,and the behavioral issues in operations management. She serves as the senioreditor forProduction and Operations Managementand the associate editorforOmega. She is the editorial review board member ofProduction andOperations Managementand the editorial advisory board member ofTransportationResearch-Part E.
