News Releases

CATONSVILLE, MD, December 15, 2017 - As American consumers turn to online search engines for cheaper prescription drugs from foreign pharmacies, safety and quality concerns arise. In 2010, under compulsion from the Department of Justice, Google agreed to forfeit $500 million and ban sponsored search advertising by pharmacies that are not certified by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP). The ban covered all foreign pharmacies and a few domestics. Within the year, other major search engines followed. But a forthcoming study in the INFORMS journal, Marketing Science, a leading scholarly marketing publication, finds that the ad ban had limited success in reducing access; motivated consumers still gained access to foreign pharmacies through organic search links. 

CATONSVILLE, MD, December 14, 2017 – While free or low cost music streaming sources like Spotify decrease the use of paid music platforms, such as iTunes, a new study in the INFORMS journal Marketing Science, shows they significantly increase exposure for and access to lesser known or indie artists that fall outside the top 100 or even top 500 listings.

CATONSVILLE, MD, December 12, 2017 – With revenue from college football at an unprecedented $3.4 billion annually, universities across the country invest tens of millions each year in recruitment efforts to attract high school athletes to play for their football teams. But with talented players typically receiving scholarship offers from multiple universities, team rosters are in limbo until student athletes commit to a university. However, a new study in the INFORMS journal Decision Analysis shares how social media can provide universities with valuable insight into the decision-making process of their recruits.

CATONSVILLE, MD, December 4, 2017 – The term ‘tortured artists’ has been used to describe some of history’s greatest painters, from Vincent Van Gogh and Henri de Tolousse-Lautrec to Pablo Picasso and Jackson Pollock. They are credited with creating some of the world’s most recognized works of art despite lives that were often characterized by great emotional unrest and personal unhappiness. But does misery really beget valuable works of art?  According to a new study in the INFORMS journal Management Science, personal unhappiness, particularly that experienced in times of mourning or bereavement, can actually cause a significant decrease in the value of an artist’s work. 

CATONSVILLE, MD, November 13, 2017 – “Mobile money,” a checking account attached to a mobile phone number, has revolutionized the financial lives of millions of people in many developing countries without access to a banking infrastructure. Using text messages or apps on consumer phones and in partnership with mom-and-pop retailers, who serve as cash-in and cash-out points, telecom companies have created an accessible and cost-effective virtual banking infrastructure in many developing countries. 

CATONSVILLE, MD, October 30, 2017 – From reporting traffic jams using the Waze app to a colony of ants working together to achieve extraordinary feats, examples of crowdsourcing and collective intelligence are all around us. As the problems that we face grow in complexity, the speed and reach of communications and data flow are vastly improving now that just about anyone can act as a consultant on a problem by providing their own individual expertise and information. Analytics can be used to refine this insight from groups to improve solutions to problems in a variety of areas including economics, computer science, biology, communications, political science, and organizational behavior. 

HOUSTON, TX, October 24, 2017 – For the homeless men, women, and children of Houston still struggling in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, a helping hand came from an unexpected source –1,000 comfort kits with essential toiletries and hygiene items assembled by the attendees of the INFORMS 2017 Annual Meeting, held in Houston, October 22-25. 

CATONSVILLE, MD, October 18, 2017 – More than 5,600 operations research and analytics professionals and students from around the world will arrive in Houston later this week for the 2017 INFORMS Annual Meeting, doing their part to not only learn and network within their profession, but to help with Houston’s ongoing recovery from Hurricane Harvey. 

CATONSVILLE, MD, October 13, 2017 - INFORMS, the leading international association for operations research and analytics professionals, announced today that Ramayya Krishnan, Ph.D., Dean of Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy, has been elected as the 25th President of the INFORMS Board of Directors.

CATONSVILLE, MD, October 12, 2017 - INFORMS congratulates Richard H. Thaler, renowned behavioral economist and researcher, who was awarded the 2017 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his outstanding contributions to the field of economics. Among the citations prominently featured by the Nobel Prize committee in Professor Thaler’s award was his seminal 1985 paper on his now famous theory of mental accounting, which was published in the INFORMS journal Marketing Science.