Operations and Supply Chain Management Commons^™

Supply Chain Insights From Social Media Users’ Responses To Panic Buying During Covid-19: The Herd Mentality, Violetta Wilk, Saiyidi Mat Roni, Ferry Jie

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Purpose:

This study applied the herd mentality theory to explore local and global social media users’ responses to panic buying across the USA, UK and Australia during the COVID-19 crisis to understand the implications on operations and supply chains.

Design/methodology/approach:

A total of 208,806 social media user-generated content (UGC) pieces were collected from Twitter in three countries – the USA, UK and Australia. The analysis of this big qualitative data was performed using machine learning–based software – Leximancer.

Findings:

Positive and negative sentiment towards panic buying during the COVID-19 crisis was observed in the UGC. No significant differences in social …

Disaster Relief And Humanitarian Logistics: Three Essays, Peter H. Imbriale

2023

The increased frequency and impact of natural disasters and other humanitarian crises—including events such as the COVID-19 pandemic—makes studying disaster relief and recovery particularly important. One relevant area of research in this space is humanitarian logistics. This dissertation provides insights into disaster relief logistics by exploring the government’s role in humanitarian logistics, examining the government’s efforts to address COVID-19 medical supply chain challenges, and determining how to lessen the impact of supply chain bottlenecks from unwanted post-disaster donations. Chapter one (sole-authored) is a literature review of the role of governments in humanitarian logistics. Although governments are vital stakeholders in nearly …

Logistics Planning: Putting Math To Work In A Business Setting, Michael C. Hannan

Senior Projects Spring 2023

The optimization of business procedures benefits all aspects of the product. Maximizing efficiency can lead to more profits for the business, cheaper products for the consumer, and less fuel consumption for the environment. Tracing the history of optimization, we can see that people have always strived for the most efficient way to allocate scarce resources. However, the field of optimization did not blossom until innovations in mathematics allowed us to solve a majority of real world problems. The discovery of linear and nonlinear programming in the 1940s allowed us to optimize problems that were unsolvable before. This paper introduces how …

Lagrange Multipliers And Neutrosophic Nonlinear Programming Problems Constrained By Equality Constraints, Maissam Jdid, Florentin Smarandache

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

Operations research science is defined as the science that is concerned with applying scientific methods to complex problems in managing and directing large systems of people, including resources and tools in various fields, private and governmental work, peace and war, politics, administration, economics, planning and implementation in various domains. It uses scientific methods that take the language of mathematics as a basis for it and uses computer, without which it would not have been possible to achieve numerical solutions to the raised problems, those that need correct solutions, when the solutions abound and the options are multiple, so we need …

Establishing A Market Capacity And Economic Baseline For Forest Biomass Utilization In The Southern Cascade And Northern Sierra Nevada Mountain Range, California, Clarke Stevenson

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Attempts to address wildfire risk and forest resilience have increased substantially over the last 20 years with specific interest in removing excess vegetation from stands, commonly referred to as “forest biomass”. However, the market capacity for and the economics of biomass utilization have been a limiting factor to achieving statewide goals for forest health and fire resilience. This thesis looks at the Southern Cascade and Northern Sierra Nevada biomass supply chain to benchmark current market capacity for biomass utilization through mapping and harvest record analysis. It also calculates the net revenue of biomass mobilization based on costs developed from a …

Blockchain In The Food Industry: Integrating Machine Learning In A Systematic Literature Review, Juan M. Gómez, Omar H. Fares, Myuri Mohan, Seung Hwan Lee

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

This study provides a systematic literature review of blockchain technology in the food industry with a supply chain lens. We identify primary and sub-themes, discuss implications and applications in terms of delivering value and propose literature-informed future research directions. This review uncovered three primary themes: a) Value Creation; b) Supply Chain Digitization; and c) Transformation. It demonstrates that digitalizing food networks with blockchain technology may benefit from increased stakeholder involvement and data visibility to gain competitive advantage. Beyond the theoretical contributions, this research provides a methodological contribution by demonstrating the uses of machine learning techniques to perform systematic literature reviews.

Circular Economy Research In The Covid-19 Era: A Review And The Road Ahead, Abderahman Rejeb, Karim Rejeb, Andrea Appolloni, Horst Treiblmaier, Mohammad Iranmanesh

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The onset of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted in a major crisis that has severely impacted numerous economic, environmental, and social aspects of human life. During the pandemic, the potential of the circular economy (CE) has gained increasing attention as a prospective remedy for numerous sustainability problems. This systematic literature review charts CE research in the COVID-19 era. To this end, 160 journal articles were selected from the Scopus database. The performance indicators of the literature were determined and described through a bibliometric analysis. Moreover, the conceptual structure of CE research was identified via a keyword co-occurrence …

Impact Of Supply Chain Robustness And Resilience On Firm Performance: A Perspective Of Pakistan Textile Industry, Aalyan Munir, Aamer Hanif, Nimra Afzal

Business Review

This study investigates the impact of supply chain resilience and robustness on firm performance and also examines the significance of supply chain risk management (SCRM) in minimizing the consequences of disruptions on supply chain performance in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Data was gathered using convenience sampling technique through a survey from management staff (n=409) working in textile companies operating in Pakistan. Using SPSS software for data analysis, this study proposes a mediation model where risk management practices are proposed as a mediator between supply chain resilience, robustness and firm performance. The findings highlight that supply chain resilience and …

Trustworthy Decentralized Last Mile Delivery Framework Using Blockchain, Ala' Alqaisi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The fierce competition and rapidly growing eCommerce market are painful headaches for logistics companies. In 2021, Canada Post’s parcel volume peaked at 361 million units with a minimum charge of $10 per each. The Last-Mile Delivery (LMD) is the final leg of the supply chain that ends with the package at the customer’s doorstep. LMD involves moving small shipments to geographically dispersed locations with high expectations on service levels and precise time windows. Therefore, it is the most complex and costly logistics process, accounting for more than 50% of the overall supply chain cost. Innovations like Crowdshipping, such as Uber …

Which Businesses Enroll In Innovation Training? Evidence From A Field Experiment, Pascale Crama, Reddi Kotha, Cintia Kulzer Sacilotto, Vish Krishnan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We report results from a field experiment testing hypotheses that examine what drives firms to seek new learning opportunities. Specifically, we draw on behavioral theory of the firm to predict how prior performance affects the likelihood a firm enrolls in business training. We also evaluate cognitive mechanisms connecting recruitment messaging and CEO growth orientation to firm participation. Our study randomly allocates over 10,000 firms to one of three experimental conditions—prevention, promotion, and neutral messaging—that vary the framing of a recruitment message for an innovation program for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore. We leverage pre-treatment heterogeneity in firm performance …

Impacts Of Covid-19 On Industrial Growth In The United States, Emily G. Warthman, Charles J. Landis

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

COVID-19 has caused massive ramifications on all parts of life in the world and industry growth/decline is not immune to it. This report will analyze nine different industries’ profit and revenue from quarterly data during the years 2009-2022. Forecast models will be generated using various methods and different techniques of validating to predict the values from Q2 2020- Q4 2022 based on historical data. After which, a comparison will be conducted between those predicted values to the actual average revenue and profit generated by order of greatest error percentage made. Thorough research will then be completed to determine if there …

Uncovering The Green Procurement Knowledge Structure: A Systematic Citation Network Analysis, Abderahman Rejeb, Karim Rejeb, Andrea Appolloni, John G. Keogh, Mohammad Iranmanesh

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Recently, academics and practitioners have devoted considerable attention to studying green procurement. Due to the growing number of articles in this fast-evolving domain, it is critical to examine the current body of knowledge thoroughly. The knowledge structure and dissemination channels in this field have been systematically examined for the first time. Four hundred fifty-two Scopus journal articles were analysed using keyword co-occurrence network and main path analysis (MPA) to identify the important research topics and historical evolution of green procurement research. The findings indicate that the literature focuses on multiple topics, including green supply chain management, sustainable public procurement, sustainability, …

Causality Of Circular Supply Chain Management In Small And Medium-Sized Enterprises Using Qualitative Information: A Waste Management Practices Approach In Indonesia, Ming-Lang Tseng, Shu-Xian Li, Ming K. Lim, Tat-Dat Bui, Muhamat R. Yuliyanto, Mohammad Iranmanesh

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Circular supply chain management (CSCM) is a promising way to achieve economic and environmental sustainability and address the waste problem. However, developing a fully circular supply chain system is costly and time-consuming, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). SMEs need to achieve better CSCM by implementing waste management practices. This study aims to (1) critically validate the hierarchical structure of CSCM for SMEs; (2) identify the causal interrelationships among the attributes; and (3) determine the practical attributes for SME improvement in Indonesia. An approach consisting of the fuzzy Delphi method (FDM), best worse method (BWM), and fuzzy decision-making trial …

Blockchain And Sustainability Disclosure: A Scenario-Based Application For Supply Chains, Laura Corazza, Junru Zhang, Dilhani Kapu Arachchilage, Simone Domenico Scagnelli

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This paper presents the implications of blockchain technologies on sustainability reporting and disclosure, and specifically proposes blockchain use-cases as a possible solution for problems experienced in the field of supply chain carbon information. This study addresses how the reliability of supply chains’ carbon-related information can become more transparent and reliable through a decentralized approach based on blockchain thinking (BT), issues that have been identified as a gap in the literature and in the practice. Scenario analysis and design science research (DSR) are used as a methodological driver to conceptualize over the nature of practical solutions using unified modeling language (UML) …

Industry 4.0 Digital Transformation And Opportunities For Supply Chain Resilience: A Comprehensive Review And A Strategic Roadmap, Morteza Ghobakhloo, Mohammad Iranmanesh, Behzad Foroughi, Ming Lang Tseng, Davoud Nikbin, Ahmad A.A. Khanfar

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Despite interest in opportunities that Industry 4.0 offers for Supply Chain Resilience (SCR), little is known about the underlying mechanisms for such contributions. The study develops a roadmap that explains how supply chains can capitalize on Industry 4.0 SCR functions. The study conducted a content-centric literature review and identified 16 functions through which Industry 4.0 enhances SCR. Results reveal that the Industry 4.0 SCR functions identified are highly interrelated, and supply chain members should align their digitalization strategies with the sequence in which Industry 4.0 delivers these functions. Industry 4.0 contribution to SCR first involves delivering data-centric functions such as …

Putting Manufacturing On The Offensive, Arnoud De Meyer, Kasra Ferdows, Ann Vereecke

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The path for elevating the role of manufacturing in the company strategy in the last few decades has been rather clear: Improve the basic production capabilities-typically quality, reliability, lead times, and cost efficiency of production processes. Leading Japanese companies, like Toyota, showed the way. But as many have heeded the advice and followed suit, this approach has become essentially a defensive strategy; you must do it not to fall behind. Has manufacturing lost its potential to create capabilities on which a company's strategy can rest? Our answer is absolutely not. In fact, unlike before, manufacturing has multiple paths for creating …

Exploration And Implementation Of Seaport Manatee To Relieve The Supply Chain Congestion At California Ports, Diane Wells Maclennan

Theses and Dissertations

For the global economy to thrive, a stable supply chain network is imperative to provide control of the seamless flow of goods. What is detrimental to supply chain performance due to inconsistency can be costly and consequently cause out-of-stock items, deficient use of container storage capacity and faulty logistics planning. This feasibility study examined leadership decisions in the face of supply chain turbulence. The analysis introduces the congestion free SeaPort Manatee in Palmetto, Florida. It establishes how this seaport could offer an alternative sea trade path to alleviate the supply chain strain since the U.S. will most likely continue to …

R&D Consortia In Competitive Supply Chains, Pascale Crama, Gaoyan Lu, Yi Xu

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

R&D consortia, which coordinate R&D activities of their member firms, have been successful in many industries. We study a model with two competing supply chains each consisting of a manufacturer and a supplier. The manufacturers compete in the final product market, and can conduct R&D to reduce unit product costs of their final products. The R&D can be done in three different ways: by the two manufacturers independently, by them jointly in a horizontal R&D consortium, or by the supplier and the manufacturer jointly in each supply chain in two vertical R&D consortia. We find that as compared to independent …

Designing Payment Models For The Poor, Bhavani Shanker Uppari, Sasa Zorc

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Several basic services, such as energy, clean water and cooking gas, are currently out of reach for millions of people living in poverty. There has been an emergence of private firms that offer these services by, for example, selling solar home systems or clean cooking packages with remote lockout capabilities. These firms deploy a pay-as-you-go (PAYGo) model in which consumers are given the flexibility to manage the amount and frequency of their payments based on their own erratic cash flows. However, because a firm under this model cannot observe how much money the consumers have, they can pay less to …

Honors Capstone- Analysis Of Service Quality Index (Sqi) Programs In The Rental Car Industry, Brandon Nally

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

This analysis explores a specific program utilized in the rental car industry known as the Service Quality Index (SQI). The SQI is a program for gathering customer feedback about their satisfaction with the rental car services and likelihood of utilizing the services again in the future. By employing this method, a rental car company can obtain valuable and reliable customer data. This paper focuses on the implementation of the SQI program within Enterprise Rent-A-Car (a division of Enterprise Holdings). The analysis examines both the benefits and drawbacks associated with SQI programs in the rental car industry by drawing on research …

Fedex Ground Strategic Audit, Samantha Gates

Honors Theses

FedEx Ground is an operating segment of the parcel carrier giant FedEx Inc. The company, known for shipping products via delivery truck, has remained one of the largest parcel carriers in the country, despite drastic changes in its environment. This report seeks to understand the changing operating environment of FedEx Ground, its competitive advantages, and the future challenges it may face. The analysis uses PESTEL and Porter's Five Forces analyses to evaluate the changing external environment and industry FedEx Ground operates in. Additionally, challenges and recommendations are offered to navigate the future of this company.

Brides And Bridal Stores: Online Or Brick-And-Mortar, Libby C. Jones, Ismet Anitsal, Melek Meral Anitsal

Atlantic Marketing Journal

This paper explores the growing global bridal industry and the different trends, traditions, and aspects of specific countries' bridal industries. It outlines western and eastern traditions and how globalization contributes to their spread. A deeper focus is dedicated to the United States' bridal industry and the issues brick-and-mortar bridal boutiques face as more brides have started shopping at online bridal stores. The relationship between brick-and-mortar and online bridal stores is explored based on various propositions about the bridal industry's emerging challenges. These propositions include trust issues in the retail environment, convenience, selection of bridal gowns in different retail formats, incorporating …

Renewed Relevance For The United States Postal Service: A Return To Supply Chain Values, Sydney Skrivanos Oliver

Supply Chain Management Undergraduate Honors Theses

Despite acknowledging crisis, the United States Postal Service (USPS) can remain relevant in the United States by relying on foundational logistical values to guide the implementation of their current supply chain strategies.

The idea of intentional focus dedicated to the advancement of the postal service’s supply chain is an underlying reason why USPS was able to be so successful at its formation. From its founding, the national postal service focused on many logistical values, as the success of executing these values was necessary to the nation's establishment and survival. Three of the most prominent logistical values from creating the national …

Pickup And Multi-Delivery Problem With Time Windows, Pham Tuan Anh, Aldy Gunawan, Vincent F. Yu, Tuan C. Chau

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper addresses a new variant of Pickup and Delivery Problem with Time Windows (PDPTW) for enhancing customer satisfaction. In particular, a huge number of requests is served in the system, where each request includes a pickup node and several delivery nodes instead of a pair of pickup and delivery nodes. It is named Pickup and Multi-Delivery Problem with Time Windows (PMDPTW). A mixed-integer programming model is formulated with the objective of minimizing total travel costs. Computational experiments are conducted to test the correctness of the model with a newly generated benchmark based on the PDPTW benchmark instances. Results show …

Optimal Channel Strategy Of Luxury Brands In The Presence Of Online Marketplace And Copycats, Sarah Yini Gao, Wei Shi Lim, Ziqiu Ye

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The strategic interaction between authentic luxury brands and their copycats has evolved since the proliferation of online marketplaces. Using a game-theoretic framework, we examine how an authentic luxury brand, observing the strategic behavior of its competing copycats, should make its optimal entry decision to a third-party online marketplace. Our findings reveal that the authentic luxury brand does not sell on the online marketplace when either the quality or the physical resemblance of the copycat to the authentic luxury brand is high. This contributes to the related literature by offering an explanation for the increasing quality of copycats amid the e-commerce …

Investigating Supply Parts Delivery Delay From Supply Depot To King Khaled Air Base In Royal Saudi Air Force, Rashed S. Alkhathami

Theses and Dissertations

Aircraft supply parts is an important factor in preparing the aircraft to do its mission. Due to delayed delivery of parts or inefficient delivery process, time may be lost waiting for aircraft supply parts, causing mission delay or failure. By tackling the delivery delay causes we can insure improvement on delivery process. In order to gather data for this thesis two different tools were used, aircraft parts data and an interview. Data was gathered from the F15 maintenance and supply squadrons in the Royal Saudi Air Force. Results of this research showed diverting in the main duty of supply depot …

An Overview Of Risk Management Practices In Hospitality Organizations In Germany, Farzaneh Soleimani Zoghi, Hannes Antonschmidt

Journal of Hospitality Financial Management

This paper aims to identify the key risks which are considered necessary by hospitality organizations in Germany. It also seeks to evaluate the actual process of risk management practiced by hoteliers and to assess managers’ opinions on the importance of a risk management approach in hospitality organizations. Primary data has been collected by semi-structured qualitative interviews with top managers and professionals in hospitality organizations in Germany. The findings show that the implementation of risk management practices in hospitality organizations in Germany is low and that significant differences exist between the theoretical risk management models and their practical execution in hotel …

Can Big Data Cure Risk Selection In Healthcare Capitation Program? A Game Theoretical Analysis, Zhaowei She, Turgay Ayer, Daniel Montanera

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Problem definition: This paper analyzes a market design problem in Medicare Advantage (MA), the largest risk-adjusted capitation payment program in the U.S. healthcare market. Evidence exists that the current MA capitation payment program unintentionally incentivizes health plans to cherry pick profitable patient types, which is referred to as “risk selection”. However, the root causes of the risk selection are not comprehensively understood, which we study in this paper. Academic / Practical Relevance: The existing literature primarily attributes the observed risk selection in MA market to data limitations and low explanatory power (e.g. low R2) of the current risk adjustment design. …

Factors Impacting Sme Business Resilience Post-Covid-19, Kerry Brown, Ferry Jie, Thi Le, Jalleh Sharafizad, Fleur Sharafizad, Subhadarsini Parida

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The ability of an organization to respond to a crisis with agility is vital for business leaders to maintain business continuity. Our paper examined how business owners responded to the challenges caused by the pandemic. Using online surveys for data collection, we investigated a critical agility issue of supply chain risks through understanding the interrelationship of various business capability factors. Partial least squares path modeling (PLS-PM) was applied to a sample of 220 participants who were owners of micro, small, and medium businesses in Western Australia. The findings showed that the businesses’ efficiency, financial strength, and flexibility in sourcing affected …

Vertical Partnerships Between Oem And First Tier: Lessons From Automotive Component Companies In Greater Jakarta-Indonesia, Donny Oktavian Syah, Rambat Lupiyoadi, Embun Suryani

The South East Asian Journal of Management

Research Aims: This research aimed to investigate vertical partnerships between Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and first-tier automotive component firms based on the relationships between technology transfer, technical exchange, government role and supplier performance in the Greater Jakarta area.

Design/Methodology/Approach: A total of 65 respondent firms participated, comprising 6 OEMs and 59 first-tier firms. The research included site visits and interviews with companies based on questionnaires completed by representative individuals from middle management upward with responsibility for assessing product quality (purposive sampling). The questionnaire results were measured using Partial Least Squares Path Modelling (PLS-PM).

Research Findings: The results highlighted significant relationships …