Technology & Operations Management
A doctoral program in Technology and Operations Management concerns itself with a broad range of issues in manufacturing and service operations, including:
- management of new product and process development and technological innovation
- operations management and strategy
- logistics and supply chain management
Faculty in this specialization come from diverse disciplinary backgrounds, such as economics, operations research, engineering, materials science, physics, psychology, and sociology. Faculty and doctoral student research integrates discipline-based approaches with a strong field-based, problem-oriented, and managerial perspective. Research themes in this area are diverse in perspective and problem focus, yet are integrated and define the intellectual synthesis the faculty seek to develop. These themes include:
- the power of learning and improvement
- the role of capabilities in creating competitive advantage
- the importance of process understanding and control
- the leverage achieved through integration in high-performance operating systems
Examples of recent and current doctoral thesis research are:
1) multi-method examination of how employee non-compete agreements impact job mobility, career continuity, and entrepreneurship
2) improving sales forecasting for retailers by incorporating endogeneity among cost-of-sales, inventory, and gross margin in time series models.
3) how organizational capabilities become embedded in teams through the mechanism of team familiarity
4) operations management from the perspective of an investor, rather than the perspective of a manager
5) the interaction between the institutional environment, entrepreneurial activity, and industry evolution.
Through a combination of discipline- and field-based methods, the curriculum enables students to master concepts and research skills directly relevant to business problems. Candidates must come to understand the point of view of practicing managers and be able to bring theory and careful research to bear in illuminating important business problems.