Director, Center for Retail Transformation and Associate Professor, Information Systems and Operations Management
Additional Roles: Academic Director, Master's in Business Analytics
Contact Information
Email: maltug@gmu.edu
Office Location: Enterprise Hall 104
Office Hours: By appointment
Biography
Mehmet Altug is an Associate Professor of Operations Management at the Costello College of Business at George Mason University. Prior to joining George Mason, he was a faculty member of the Decision Sciences department at the George Washington University School of Business. He has a PhD in Decision, Risk and Operations from Columbia Business School.
His research interests are in the area of pricing and revenue management, retail operations and supply chain management. His recent work studies how consumer return policies affect retail operations including retailer’s inventory and pricing decisions and how retailers decide on their return policies in the context of opportunistic and strategic consumer behavior. He also studied the impact of gray markets and parallel imports on supply chain, pricing and product launch decisions. He is a member of the Editorial Board for the journal of Production and Operations Management and Decision Sciences. He has published in Management Science, Manufacturing and Service Operations Management, Production and Operations Management, California Management Review, IISE Transactions, Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management and International Journal of Production Economics.
Before starting his PhD, he worked at the high-tech business unit of i2 Technologies as a supply chain consultant, solution architect and a project lead. During this period, he worked on several large-scale supply chain projects at high-profile companies around the world. He taught core operations management courses at the undergraduate, MBA and PhD levels and an elective graduate course on supply chain management and pricing and revenue management in the business analytics and MBA programs. He also taught various executive education classes on operations management, supply chain management and service operations both at private and public institutions across the nation.
He is an affiliated faculty with Center for Government Contracting and Institute for Digital InnovAtion (IDIA). He is also a member of the faculty advisory board for the Center for Retail Transformation.
Research Interests
- Pricing and Revenue Management
- Retail Operations
- Supply Chain Management
- Innovative Retail Business Models
- Consumer Return Policies
Education
- PhD - Decision, Risk and Operations, Columbia University
- M - Phil, Decision, Risk and Operations, Columbia University
- MS - Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Florida
- BS - Industrial Engineering, Bogazici University
Research
- Altug, M.S. “Flexible Consumer Return Policies and Rising Clearance Sales in Retailing: Can This Dual Trend Co-Exist?”, forthcoming at IISE Transactions.
- Altug, M.S., O. Ceryan. “Optimal Dynamic Allocation of Sales and Rental Inventory for Fashion Apparel Products”, IISE Transactions, 2022, Vol. 54(6), p. 603-617. Featured article in May 2022 issue of ISE Magazine
- Altug, M.S., T. Aydinliyim, A. Jain. “Managing Opportunistic Consumer Returns in Retail Operations”, Management Science, 2021, Vol. 67(9), p. 5660-5678.
- Altug, M.S., O. Sahin. “Impact of Parallel Imports on Product Launch and Pricing Decisions in the Pharmaceutical Industry”, Production and Operations Management, 2019, Vol 28(2), 258-275.
- Altug, M.S. “The Dynamics of Domestic Gray Markets and Its Impact on Supply Chains”, Production and Operations Management, 2017, Vol. 26(3), p. 525-541.
- Altug, M.S., T. Aydinliyim. “Counteracting Strategic Purchase Deferrals: The Impact of Online Retailers’ Return Policy Decisions”, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Summer 2016 Vol. 18(3), p. 376-392.
- Altug, M.S. “Supply Chain Contracting for Vertically Differentiated Products”, International Journal of Production Economics, 2016, Vol. 171(1), p. 34-45.
- Altug, M.S., G. van Ryzin. “Is Revenue Sharing Right for Your Supply Chain?”, California Management Review, Summer 2014 Vol. 56(4), p. 53-81.
- Altug, M.S., G. van Ryzin. “Product Quality Selection: Contractual Agreements and Supplier Competition in an Assemble-To-Order Environment”, International Journal of Production Economics, 2013, Vol. 141(2), p. 626–638.
- Altug, M.S. “Optimal Dynamic Return Management of Fixed Inventories”, Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, 2012, Vol. 11, p. 569-595.
- Altug, M.S., A. Muharremoglu. “Inventory Management with Advance Supply Information”, International Journal of Production Economics, 2011, Vol. 129(2), p. 302-313.
Media Clippings
- September 7, 2024 - Axios
Presidential election chaos drives early holiday shopping - June 9, 2024 - The Seattle Times
Amazon is tinkering with grocery business. Some are unsure it’s working - December 18, 2023 - ModernRetail
Same-day delivery apps are leaning into holiday promotions - December 14, 2023 - CX Dive
Returns are the last, but not least, component of a holiday CX strategy - March 28, 2023 - Retail TouchPoints
Devising an Optimal Returns Policy for Your Business - January 27, 2023 - Modern Retail
Fashion and beauty brands turn to ‘we made too much’ sales to offload inventory - June 8, 2022 - Retail Dive
Zara Now Charges for Some Returns. Will Other Retailers Follow? - January 25, 2022 - CNBC
A More Than $761 Billion Dilemma: Retailers’ Returns Jump as Online Sales Grow - October 20, 2021 - Northern Virginia Magazine
The Return Of Grocery Woes, Explained: Supply Shortages, Plastic Bag Taxes, And Limited Hours