What Are the Best Business Schools?
You are looking for a business school and you do not know where to enroll? A ranking might help. One of these rankings is from Bloomberg Businessweek. As part of their 2013 Best Undergraduate Business Schools ranking, they have now published the top 10 business schools in the area of operations management, an area that focuses on “the processes involved in production and everyday business operations, whether on an assembly line, a supply chain, or even something as common as a movie theater queue”. And these are the top 10 undergraduate business schools for operations management in the U.S.: (1) Pennsylvania (Wharton), (2) Washington (Olin), (3) Carnegie Mellon (Tepper), (4) Worcester Polytechnic, (5) Michigan (Ross), (6) North Carolina State (Poole), (7) North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler), (8) Boston U., (9) Georgia Tech (Scheller), (10) Buffalo. As I have discussed for the case of journal rankings some weeks ago, rankings always have advantages and disadvantages and should, therefore, be handled with care. However, Bloomberg Businessweek’s ranking can, at least, provide some indications.
Global Manufacturing Outlook 2013
The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Manufacturing Outlook 2013, written on behalf of KPMG, is out now. It is based on an international survey of more than 300 senior executives from five industries. The report demonstrates that competitive advantage can be secured by enhancing supply chain networks for efficiency and innovation. Particularly, it is demonstrated that (1) many manufacturers are planning mergers or acquisitions to seize opportunities in global markets, and they plan to exit non-profitable, non-core business units and product lines; (2) many manufacturers are building network relationships with suppliers to become more responsive to market changes; (3) supply chain visibility beyond tier-1 partners can have a positive impact on agility, resilience, and performance; (4) supply chain partnerships, rather than in-house efforts, are increasingly seen as an important source of innovation; and (5) manufacturers are investing in both breakthrough and incremental innovation to ensure competitiveness. In sum, the report highlights the importance of supply chain management for manufacturers.
Laboratory Experiments in Supply Chain Research
Nobel laureates rarely publish articles in journals within the supply chain arena. Vernon L. Smith was awarded the 2002 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences “for having established laboratory experiments as a tool in empirical economic analysis, especially in the study of alternative market mechanisms”. In its recent issue, the Journal of Business Logistics had the great privilege to publish an article by Cary Deck and him, in which these ideas were applied to our field: Using Laboratory Experiments in Logistics and Supply Chain Research. It goes without saying that this article is certainly a must-read for SCM researchers, particularly, as the use of laboratory experiments has attracted some attention in our field. In their article, Deck and Smith highlight “several examples where experiments have been used to study issues relevant to logistics and supply chain management” and identify “several additional areas where laboratory experiments could be informative”.
Deck, C. & Smith, V. (2013). Using Laboratory Experiments in Logistics and Supply Chain Research. Journal of Business Logistics, 34 (1), 6-14. https://doi.org/10.1111/jbl.12006
