June 18, 2018. Shanghai – The 1^st CEIBS Decision Sciences Symposium was hosted at CEIBS Shanghai Campus today, bringing together around 60 scholars from the US and Asia to present research on topics ranging from supply chain and operations management, data applications in the retail industry, digital technologies and big data in logistic, along with health care operations management.

Organised by CEIBS’ Department of Economics and Decision Sciences, the symposium aims to build a platform through which economics and decision sciences scholars from around the globe can share their latest research findings and exchange ideas. It also provides an opportunity to showcase CEIBS to the academic community worldwide. Fourteen speakers and discussants from renowned business schools in the US and Asia participated throughout the day.

As CEIBS Vice President and Dean Professor Ding Yuan explained in his opening address, the full-day symposium is the latest in a series of seminars hosted by the school’s five academic departments. He also noted how the symposium is in line with the school’s expertise in providing knowledge grounded in “China Depth, Global Breadth” by having distinguished scholars from around the globe discuss challenging research issues that are of global importance and also relevant to China.

The day-long symposium was divided into two main parts, including a keynote speech with five outstanding speakers and three sessions with specific themes.

Here are excerpts from the keynote speeches given during the full day of presentations:

• Research Programs at CEIBS-GLP Center for Innovation in Supply Chain and Services

Presenter: Zhao Xiande, Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Management, JD.COM Chair in Operations and Supply Chain Management, and Director of CEIBS-GLP Centre of Innovations in Supply Chains and Services at China Europe International Business School

The presenter set out to introduce the CEIBS-GLP Centre of Innovations in Supply Chain and Service (CISCS) and explained its research directions. A multi-method investigation of buyer power and supplier motivation to share knowledge was included and the result showed that suppliers are more motivated to share knowledge with a buyer who uses more expert power, but buyer use of coercive power will reduce this motivation.

• Supply Chain Expedience: Unraveling the Double Helix of Delivery Delays

    Presenter: Barbara B. Flynn, Co-Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Supply Chain Management, Richard M. and Myra Louise Buskirk Professor of Manufacturing Management at Indiana University

    This paper uses two sets of big data to investigate the causes of delivery delays in supply chains that rely on trucks to transport cargo. This study helps guide supply chain managers in their choices, as well as motivating further academic study of supply chain delays whenever and wherever they occur.

• The Intersection of Hospitality and Health: New Opportunities for Research in Service Operations Management

Presenter: Rohit Verma, Dean of External Relations at Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, Executive Director of Cornell Institute for Healthy Futures, and Singapore Tourism Board Distinguished Professor in Asian Hospitality Management at Cornell University

Starting from the intersection of hospitality industry and healthcare system, this speech provides many opportunities for research in service operations management to address several of the issues, for example, how to control operating costs, how to improve employee retention, and how to satisfy customers.

• Supply Chain Risk and Resilience 2.0: New Development and Research Opportunities

    Presenter: Steven A. Melnyk, Professor of Supply Chain and Operations Management at Michigan State University

    This paper mainly explores recent developments that have taken place in both research and practice that have expanded our views on risk and resilience, including developments such as the Internet of Things, complexity, social responsibility, and cybersecurity.

• Publishing in the Journal of Operations Management

Presenter: Tyson R. Browning, Co-Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Operations Management and Professor of Operations Management at Texas Christian University

The presenter makes the point that the Journal of Operations Management is an academic OM journal that combines both academic and practical relevance, adding that contributions on interesting, impactful OM topics are welcomed.

Here are a few highlights from the various sessions:

“The Effects of Product Attributes, Promotions, and Sales Anomaly on Product Returns and Order Cancellation Behavior: A Study of Home Shopping Industry” analyses the data from a leading TV home shopping company and finds that customers’ product return and order cancellation behaviour differ dramatically by product clusters and product attributes.   

“Operational Impacts of Healthcare Merger and Acquisition: The Case of the U.S. Hospitals” finds that hospital acquisitions result in lower readmission rates and lower operating expenses for the target hospitals. Further, the degree of geographic proximity is positively related to a target hospital’s post-acquisition quality performance. Moreover, the positive relationship between the degree of service similarity and a target hospital’s post-acquisition quality performance diminishes as the degree of geographic proximity increases.

“Big Data Applications in Driving Behavior Evaluation” provides an easy-to-use implementable driving grading system, which generates comprehensive evaluation gradings on driving behaviours and road smoothness.

Today’s event was hosted by the Department of Economics and Decision Sciences at CEIBS, which is chaired by Professor Wu Ho-Mou