The paper tackles a ranking and selection problem where a company learns from choice-based feedback presented in dynamic assortments. It introduces two efficient algorithms—Nested Elimination for best-item identification and Nested Partition for full-ranking identification—each with instance-specific, non-asymptotic sample-complexity guarantees that are asymptotically worst-case optimal. The authors analyze the algorithms via multi-dimensional random walks, extend the framework to capacity-constrained displays, and validate their results with synthetic and real data experiments.
arXiv:2608. 11419v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Assortment optimization is a fundamental problem in revenue management, typically addressed using parametric choice models such as the multinomial logit (MNL) and its variants.
The paper presents a computationally efficient optimal design framework for multinomial logit (MNL) bandits, addressing the combinatorial action space that makes traditional methods infeasible. It introduces two approaches: an exact or certified-approximate mixed-integer linear program with solver‑certified early stopping, and a fully polynomial‑time lifted design using a tractable surrogate objective. Leveraging the Kiefer‑Wolfowitz equivalence theorem, the authors provide near G‑optimality guarantees and apply the framework to develop a best assortment identification algorithm with an instance‑dependent sample complexity of τO((d log N)/Δ²).
arXiv:2609.36740v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Many recommender systems such as for e-commerce and news platforms aim to provide users with rankings they are likely to interact with. Off-Policy Lear...
The paper introduces a robust framework for assortment optimization that addresses distributional shifts in customer choice behavior. It demonstrates computational tractability when the nominal choice model is known and develops statistically optimal algorithms for the data‑driven setting, providing matching upper and lower bounds on sample complexity. The authors identify "robust item‑wise coverage" as the minimal data requirement for efficient robust learning, bridging robustness and statistical efficiency in assortment planning.
arXiv:2606. 11118v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: We study a dynamic assortment problem on a two-sided service platform with incomplete information and heterogeneous customers in a discrete-time setting.
arXiv:2607. 09817v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: We propose a framework for the Markov chain (MC) choice model with panel data, including parameter estimation, personalized choice prediction, and personalized assortment optimization.
arXiv:2607. 11684v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Existing contextual multinomial logit (MNL) bandits model relevance-driven choice but ignore the potential benefits of within-assortment diversity, while submodular/combinatorial bandits encode diversity in rewards but lack structured choice probabilities.
arXiv:2607. 08979v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: We study the active learning problem of fixed-confidence top-$k$ identification from noisy pairwise comparisons.
DeGRe is a dense‑supervised generative reranking framework designed to improve multi‑stage recommender systems by addressing label bias and credit assignment issues. It uses an offline Lookahead Evaluator with beam search to generate dense supervision signals, which are distilled into a lightweight Online Generator that can perform efficient greedy decoding at inference time. Experiments show that DeGRe outperforms baselines on public benchmarks and industrial datasets, and it has been successfully deployed on Taobao Flash Shopping to enhance online recommendations.
arXiv:2506. 06989v3 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Learning-to-rank (LTR) systems commonly depend on implicit feedback, such as user clicks, because it is easy to collect and can serve as a valuable signal of user preferences.
arXiv:2209. 04942v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Problem definition: This paper studies the problem of estimating consumer preferences from bundle sales data.
arXiv:2606. 09623v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: When running marketing campaigns, retailers must decide which products to promote and which users to target.