Inauguration of a Professor -- The Swedes Do It with Style

Typically, in the US, when we think of an "inauguration" we have in mind the inauguration of the President.

In Sweden (and I suspect in other European countries, as well), an inauguration also takes place in academia to recognize a new Full Professor.

Since, for the past year, I have been a Visiting Professor at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, as part of my sabbatical (this is actually my 4th trip back in the past 12 months), I am learning more and more about the academic culture in this great country.

Today, I had the distinct pleasure of attending  a lecture of the Professor who was being inaugurated.

The official invitation is below.

The lecture focused on the challenges of interorganizational value creation and discussed recent research in retail and buyer-supplier relationships. Issues of trust, transparency, and the importance of problem domains were emphasized. I was excited to hear quality and supply chains noted. Different relationships offer different potential to create value together.

Many words of wisdom were stated including: that trust is a building process but distrust can be caused by a single action.

Given how challenging it is for an organization (including a School of Business) to have its individuals incentivized and rewarded in a way that also moves the organization forward, interorganizational challenges and issues of control and management are even more complex.

In terms of intraorganizational performance,  Professor Agndal emphasized the importance of feeling that you belong, inclusiveness, and creating an atmosphere of support (even more important than monetary rewards).

 Afterwards, we were invited to a delicious lunch in celebration of our new Professor!

 I congratulate Professor Henrik Agndal on his new appointment and on a great event today!

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.

A Business Education for the Game of Life, Which Should Include Operations Research

Professor Greg Mankiw, a well-known economics professor at Harvard, who is sending off his oldest child to college, wrote a thoughtful article on the courses that he would recommend for a college student to take.

The subjects that he recommends that students take in order to gain knowledge on how to play "the Game of Life" include: economics (clearly, since that is his area), probability and statistics, finance, and psychology.

Frankly, such courses are among the required courses in a business administration undergraduate degree (with organizational behavior (OB) typically being the psychology-type of course in a business school)!

However, to his list, I would definitely add at least one and, preferably, two or more courses in operations research / management science. In such courses students will learn how to optimize the utilization of scarce resources under constraints and how to make sense of the volumes of data that both individuals as well as organizations from companies to hospitals to educational institutions to even governments are faced with on a daily basis!

One should care not only about the analysis of data but also about the optimization of business (and other) processes in order to gain competitive advantages. Plus, the greater one's portfolio of skill sets, the greater the employment opportunities.

Luckily, in many business schools, including my own, the Isenberg School at UMass Amherst, various business majors, such as Operations Management majors, are required to take a management science course.

Was it Only a Year Ago -- My "Second" Fulbright

Today is March 1, 2009, and it feels that March is coming in as a lion with a lot of snowfall expected in New England!

In my last post I wrote about my first Fulbright, which took place in Innsbruck, Austria, and began in March, 2002. In 2005, I was awarded a Distinguished Chaired Fulbright in Canada but could not accept that and a Science Fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard so I declined the Fulbright in Canada. Wanting to experience another Fulbright adventure, I applied for a Senior Fulbright Specialist Award in Business Administration and was informed last year by the Italian Fulbright Commission that I was granted the award. My "second" Fulbright took place last March at the University of Catania in Italy. Catania is located at the base of the volcano Mt. Etna, which periodically still erupts, and is on the island of Sicily. My host was Professor Patrizia Daniele of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science who is also a Center Associate of the Virtual Center for Supernetworks.

As part of this Fulbright, Professor Daniele and I organized a workshop on "Complex Networks -- Equilibrium and Vulnerability Analysis with Applications," which brought together scientists from different disciplines -- mathematics, physics, computer science, and operations research/management science. It was a terrific event and we were especially pleased that so many female scientists spoke and participated. In addition, I had the wonderful experience of teaching a class at the University of Catania and in interacting with colleagues in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science.

Evenings we would spend promenading down the main avenue, Via Etnea, in Catania which was filled with families walking, shopping, and having treats such as gelato and wonderful Italian pastries. Catania has cobblestone streets, magnificent architecture, shops with beautiful Italian made crafts, and is located on the Mediterranean Sea. Photos that were taken capture, in part, the beauty of Catania and the warmth of its people. The hospitality of Professor Patrizia Daniele and Professor Antonino Maugeri was tremendously appreciated.