Supply Chain Network Theory and Operations Management

When I received an invitation to contribute to a PhD course being offered this term at the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, I was intrigued.

The title of the course is: Theoretical Perspectives in Contemporary Business Administration Research.

Of course, I accepted, and look forward to being back soon as a Visiting Professor of Operations Management at the University of Gothenburg in the gorgeous city that has become my second home.

For the past three weeks or so, I have been reading a lot of material on theory in operations management and in supply chain management and selected the title: "Operations Management and Supply Chain Network Theory," for my contribution to the course.

I was also asked to prepare a reading list for the doctoral students, which I have done and which includes both a recent invited handbook chapter that I wrote on "Supply Chains and Transportation Networks" and a tutorial that I co-authored with Dr.  Qiang "Patrick" Qiang  that was published in the International Transactions in Operational Research, which has been been available for download for free.

In addition, in order to emphasize how the theory can be applied in practice, I will be using the article, A. Nagurney and M. Yu (2012),  ``Sustainable Fashion Supply Chain Management Under Oligopolistic Competition and Brand Differentiation," International Journal of Production Economics 135, Special Issue on  Green Manufacturing and Distribution in the Fashion and Apparel Industries, pp 532-540.

The syllabus for the course is now available.

What a wonderful way in which to begin my sabbatical -- by teaching on a topic that I care deeply about in a country that I love -- Sweden.

In my intensive lectures I will be giving the students an introduction to operations management, since they come with different backgrounds and represent different specialties.  I will overview networks of relevance to supply chains and will discuss supply chain network theory and applications, with our case study on sustainability and fashion, which is quite appropriate since I will be teaching in the land of H&M! I also plan on covering  other issues that have been explored using supply chain network theory from mergers and acquisitions to supply chain network performance and vulnerability analysis and even the role of supply chains in disaster relief.