Title: Research Frontiers of Empirical Methodology in Management Science

Speaker: Prof. Yuliang Yao, George N. Beckwith ’32 professor and chair of the Department of Management at College of Business & Economics of Lehigh University

Time: 9:00 -10:30, am. , Jun. 15, 2016.

Venue: Room 1922, Tongji Building A. 

Abstract:

What is the trend of empirical studies in management science? How to write a quality, empirical paper for top journal publication? I address these questions through discussing a recently finished paper. In the paper, using a large-scale, product-level dataset collected from one of the largest Chinese supermarket chains, we develop econometric models to evaluate operations performance of cross docking (CD). We find that CD is, but not always, beneficial in improving operations performance. CD improves operations performance by increasing order fill rate and reducing inventory at both the distribution center and stores, but harm operations performance by increasing order leadtime. Furthermore, there exists learning spillover that the products managed by traditional warehousing (TW) but alongside with CD practice have better operations performance, in terms of lower order leadtime and inventory levels, than the products managed by TW alone. By doing CD, stores directly increase their CD products’ order fill rate by 679.31%, reduce their inventory by 74.58%, and increase their order leadtime by 142.59%; and, indirectly reduce their TW products’ inventory by 68.77% and their order leadtime by 20.56% through learning spillover.

Short Bio:

Yuliang Yao is the George N. Beckwith ’32 professor and chair of the Department of Management at College of Business & Economics of Lehigh University, and a visiting professor at the School of Economics and Management of Tongji University. His research interests are at the inter-disciplinary fields of information systems and supply chain management, including business value of IT-enabled supply chains, economics of electronic commerce, social networks, and VMI, CPFR and CRM. His publications have appeared in Management Science, Marketing Science, Information Systems Research, Journal of Operations Management, Production and Operations Management, Decision Sciences, Supply Chain Management Review, etc. He received the E. Grovesnor Plowman Award from CSCMP in 2007, a prestigious award in the SCM field, and received the 2009 and 2015 Carl R. and IngeborgBeidleman Research Award which highlights quality research and refereed scholarship in business and applied economic disciplines at Lehigh.